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The Forbidden Kingdom is a film directed by Rob Minkoff starring two of the most well-known names in the martial arts film genre, Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time. Yuen Woo-ping is the action choreographer. The film was originally titled "The J & J Project", before being officially changed to The Forbidden Kingdom in April 2007.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano and Liu Yi Fei in "The Forbidden Kingdom"

In Forbidden Kingdom, American teenager Jason (Michael Angarano), who is obsessed with Chinese kung fu, always rent classic Chinese kung fu movies from an old Chinese man from a pawn shop. Inadvertent, he finds the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King (Jet Li) in the pawn shop. A group of Southie uses a gun to force Jason to bring them to the pawn shop so that they can rob the money from the shop. After the leader of the Southie shoots the old man, the lost relic falls into Jason’s hand and after narrowly escaping to the roof of the building, Jason unexpectedly finds himself transported back to ancient China.

There, he meets the drunken kung fu master, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), a resillient and skillful Silent Monk (Jet Li) and a vindictive beauty who always speak of herself as the third party, Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi Fei), who lead him on his quest to return the staff to its rightful owner, the Monkey King - imprisoned in stone by the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) for five hundred years. Along the way, Jason and gang meet the scores of Jade Warriors, Cult Killers and the deadly White Hair Demoness, Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing) as part of their journey to free the Monkey King.

While the movie has eye-popping, delightful-lighthearted and gravity-defying moments, the movie has many flaws as a result of poor editing. In the film, Li Bing Bing and Liu Yi Fei speak almost flawless English (probably through voice-editing) while Jackie Chan and Jet Li attempted to speak long sentences of English non-stop but fail nevertheless with certain words uttered from their mouth too difficult to comprehend without the subtitles. Michael Angarano meanwhile may not be the most suitable actor for the role he plays, his character seems like the biggest flaw of the film usually covers up by the silence of Jet Li’s Silent Monk and the unprecedented beauty of Liu Yi Fei’s Golden Sparrow. Sometimes, the movie looks like the adolescence of the movie Double Dragon mixed with the glumness of Mortal Kombat with little or no special effects at all. Overall, the kung fu moves of Jet Li and Jackie Chan and of Collin Chou who plays the Jade Warlord and the weak witchery of Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing) show that the movie needs more special effects, or does it? Perhaps, a lighthearted movie like this is natural unlike most Hollywood films which seem too superficial.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Forbidden Kingdom is another movie based on the tale of the Monkey King. Jet Li and Jackie Chan are the main actors in this epic movie with Jet Li playing both the Monkey King and the Monk.

Many of us know movies that are based on books and novels or computer games are usually boring unless a little twist is added to the film. Films like Hitman and Beowulf have no storyline, thus, the entire film is based on the cinematography. Therefore, in The Forbidden Kingdom, don’t expect the tale of the Monkey King to be anywhere near the actual story.

This movie reminds me of The Myth and how horrible The Myth was with different races and culture blend together in that movie, the storyline and cinematography somehow fail to entertain. Hopefully The Forbidden Kingdom prevails the only bad “Jackie Chan” movie that I have watched.

Yahoo has recently released 6 posters of The Forbidden Kingdom displaying all the main actors in the posters. One particular poster which I like very much is Li Bing Bing with her white hair almost looks like its coated with gold as the lights shine from behind.

Check out The Forbidden Kingdom trailers.

(Via Filmplosion)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jackie Chan and Jet Li in one epic movie? No way. The Forbidden Kingdom is based on the Chinese legend of the monkey king. Watch the trailers!

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Warlords, previously known as The Blood Brothers (Ci Ma) is a martial art film directed by Peter Chan and starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. The film was influenced by the late Chang Cheh’s 1973 film The Blood Brothers but it’s not a remake. The film is set in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty in China. The story tells a tale of three sworn blood brothers.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the 1860s, during the late Qing Dynasty, as one of the darkest periods of Chinese history, the country is suffering under the rule of the corrupt Manchus who invaded China from the North and established the country’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. Natural disasters are wreaking havoc in the countryside, and in the midst of this chaos, the Taiping Kingdom, one of the strongest rebel groups ever to rise up in China, is overrunning the country and staging battles with the Qing army threatening the throne.

Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro in The Warlords

In a war between the Qing army led by General Ma Xinyi (Jet Li) and the Taiping Kingdom, General Ma’s army is overpowered by the rebels as Ma’s allies back out in the last minute causing a slaughter of Ma’s army. Every army of Ma’s is dead except General Ma, himself as he has feigned death. Though he is able to escape from the masses of dead bodies, he faints in the middle of nowhere due to hunger. There, Lian (Xu Jinglei) has saved him and brought him to a deserted house. She cooks porridge for him in order to revive him. Ma gobbles the porridge before he breaks out and tells Lian about the slaughter of his army. Lian consoles him and before long, they both ends up in the bed.

Later on, while resting in a village after having his armors and weapons sold in order to buy food, the village is attacked by bandits led by Cao Erhu (Andy Lau) and his trusted Lieutenant Zhang Wenxiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Zhang quickly tests the ability of Ma after he sees Ma still wears boots that only the ranks of General wears them. Ma easily fends off Zhang’s attack and Zhang straightaway recommends Ma to join the bandits.

When Ma saves Cao in a furious battle, the three swear blood brotherhood. When Lian returns home after running away from Cao, Ma realizes that Lian is Cao’s wife but what already happened has happened.

Besides Lian, Ma’s dream is to get rid of the rebels and the corrupted Qing officials and he manages to convince both Cao and Zhang and their troop of bandits to join Qing army instead of robbing to survive. Easily fooled by the cunningness of Ma, Cao and his men join Ma and many dangerous battles are engaged. Ma’s become more and more ambitious as he wins every battle despite having less men than the enemies. Ma soon became obsessed with power.

The complication between the blood brothers and Lian have worked out in favor of Qing’s ruthless Empress and her highly ranked officials. In the end, the assassination of Ma takes place during the day he is supposed to be sworn as The Governor.

Overall, The Warlords show a more ruthless side of Jet Li as he plays his role well to his USD $13 million paycheck while Andy Lau plays a tragic hero torn between different factions. Takeshi Kaneshiro, meanwhile, plays a second fiddle to both these actors with his innocence overshadows the elements of being a bandit but his years of acting his Hong Kong movies have somewhat improved. The talented Xu Jinglei plays the beautiful Lian well to every bit, as Cao’s wife and even better as Ma’s woman.

Note: In Malaysia’s version, General Ma is known as General Pang, Cao Erhu is known as Zhao Erhu, and Zhang is known as Jiang.

My ratings: 7 out of 10, could be 8 out of 10 if only Lian shows more flesh.

Popularity: 9% [?]