A 21st Century American teenager takes a spellbinding, dangerous journey into martial arts legend in the new action/adventure epic FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. While hunting down bootleg kung-fu DVDs in a Chinatown pawnshop, Jason (Michael Angarano) makes an extraordinary discovery that sends him hurtling back in time to ancient China. There, Jason is charged with a monumental task: he must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the evil Jade Warlord. Jason is joined in his quest by wise kung fu master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and a band of misfit warriors including Silent Monk (Jet Li). But only by learning the true precepts of kung fu can Jason hope to succeed - and find a way to get back home.
Review
The feng shui for this one wasn’t really all that great from word one – bound to be a big release that at this juncture audiences in Asia see as generic, wannabe fare for Westerners, while viewers in the West consider it overly stereotypical and too late an arrival, almost a decade after the major mainstream success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And if it hasn’t occurred to you nearly eight years have passed since that classic came about –...
Directed by Rob Minkoff (STUART LITTLE, THE LION KING), the film marks the first-ever onscreen pairing of martial arts superstars Jackie Chan (RUSH HOUR, DRUNKEN MASTER) and Jet Li (FEARLESS, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA). The original screenplay by John Fusco (YOUNG GUNS, HIDALGO) is based on the traditional Chinese legend of the Monkey King. The film is produced by Casey Silver (LADDER 49, HIDALGO, the upcoming LEATHERHEADS) of Casey Silver Productions. Renowned action choreographer Yuen Woo Ping (THE MATRIX, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON) is creating the fight sequences, and the director of photography is Peter Pau (CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON).