The Forbidden Kingdom DVD > Reviews > Yellow Rain

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Good
Soundtrack	Average

Advantages:	Funny, great fight scenes
Disadvantages:	Childish .  Not a kung fu fan

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Forbidden Kingdom is the first film to unite martial arts superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I'm not a big fan of martial arts films myself but I'd seen almost everything else in the cinema and Jackie Chan films can be quite funny.

The story unexpectingly starts off in Boston with a teenager named Jason who loves martial arts movies so much that he dreams about them. He is friends with an old Chinese pawn shop owner and he goes there often to buy DVDs. However, Jason gets bullied by a group of older guys who force him to help them rob the old chinese guy. This leads to the leader of the gang accidently killing the old guy. Jason is given the old guy's staff and told to return it to its rightful owner. He is then chased by the gang and falls off a building only to wake up in ancient China.

Here he is hunted by the Jade Army. He meets a drunken travelling scholar called Lu Yan(Jackie Chan) along the road who saves his life via alot of very impressive Kung Fu. Lu Yan then informs him of the story of the Monkey King: an immortal who had been turned to stone by the evil Jade Warlord. The coming of Jason who will bring the staff to the Monkey King has been prophesised and Lu Yan decides to help him. They also meet Sparrow in a tea room. Sparrow is a girl whose family has been killed by the Jade Warlord and she seeks revenge and has a special Jade dart that can kill the Warlord as it is the only thing that can kill an immortal. (Jade is quite a common motif in this film) They travel through forests and through deserts all the time being chased by the Jade army and by an evil witch hired by the Jade Warlord. They also enlist the help of a mysterious monk on their journey played by Jet Li. Upon meeting Jet Li and Jackie Chan have a rather long fight scene and I think this is the moment all fans would have been probably looking forward to in the film.It is a rather impressive and long fight scene and as with all Jackie Chan fight scenes not without humour. Choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping who also choreographed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Matrix and Kill Bill fans won't be let down and I found the fight scenes very entertaining.

The story is rather typical I think and it is rather fairy tale in nature. I sort of got the impression that it is very like a children's film and I think young boys will probably enjoy it best. Evil warlords, boy on a quest, evil witch, lots of action that kind of film. The perks of the film are the action scenes and a sparse occurences of very funny scenes. In one scene Chan and Li are trying to teach Jason Kung Fu. They are competing with each other in the process and don't notice that they are beating poor Jason to a pulp.

The choreography and directing were pretty good. The film had almost the same beautiful cinematography that you had in House of Flying Daggers etc.There's not alot you can say for the acting. It was an action comedy and the acting performances were as need be and nothing more. However, the Monkey King (Jet Li as well) was cartoonish and I found him annoying The great thing about this film as a martial arts film was that it didn't take itself too seriously and make you cringe. It was a light-hearted adventure film with a kung fu setting

In total the film was very much a children's film. Rob Minkoff directed it and he's predominately a director of children's films having drected for Disney and films like Stuart Little. If you've got two young sons they may enjoy it but I'd probably recommend going to see Kung Fu Panda instead. (just reading over this I have no idea why I specified that you have to have two young sons. I presume one is enough but now I feel like my subconscious had something to say. Take less or more than two at your peril). Of the films in the cinema at present that I've seen I'd rank it third putting Wanted and then Hancock above it. It's a great kung fu film for people who like that sort of thing (but I don't really) and it's great for children but other people (real people should I say) should go see something else.

Certificate

12A. This is abit excessive, there's alot of fighting but I wouldn't consider it dangerous for a child to watch

Trailer

http://www.forbiddenkingdommovie.com/

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Posing like a freak