Showbits

I'd heard of a movie that starred both Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but it was not until it was almost gone from theaters that I realized The Forbidden Kingdom was that movie. I didn't get to its theater debut in April 2008 but recently caught it on DVD.

The story is a simple one: young Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is a Boston teen who lives his life vicariously through imported kung fu films. When he comes across an ancient staff he recognizes from his dreams, Jason wakes up to find himself in a foreign land. Although it is a land where Chinese is spoken and Taoism practiced, it is not any region or era of our world; its residents call it only the Forbidden Kingdom, a place where Jason is the Seeker, destined to return his staff to the imprisoned Monkey King and end the Jade Warlord's reign of terror. Only with the help of two teachers — Jackie Chan and Jet Li — can he accomplish his mission and return home.

Cliché enough for you? A prophesied hero enscripted into a strange world has been seen in such flicks as TRON and The Last Starfighter (as well as older and more diverse films, but I'm playing to my favorites here), and a neophyte trained against his will harkens to Bulletproof Monk and Remo Williams. But I didn't come to Forbidden Kingdom for these tropes; I came for the stars, and they did not disappoint.

Jackie Chan has often expressed concern over his advancing years, and given the punishment his body has taken over countless films, it's a reasonable concern to have. But paired him with Jet Li and the two work wonders. Of all the film's fight scenes (maybe a half-dozen in total), only one pits the two against each other, but this extended sequence is tons of fun, with creative use of the environment and some amusing verbal sparring from Jackie's drunken master of a character. Other battles give other characters moments to shine. It's interesting to note that, while the Seeker is the main character, the film isn't really about him — though Michael Angarano does his role well, coming across as what I imagine Shia LaBeouf would be if he weren't so damn annoying.

Overall, Forbidden Kingdom is a fun romp, and not nearly as superficial as it at first seemed to be. Near the end of the film, I was disappointed they hadn't explained a major character's motivation — and then they did. Without a single word spoken, suddenly everything made sense. It was extremely elegant and provided more depth than I expected from this otherwise simple action-adventure flick. Of course, there is a happy ending, though as with Christopher Lambert's The Hunted, it's hard to believe a gaijin could defeat a practiced warrior. And like A Kid in King Arthur's Court, we find there are some similarities between the worlds of fantasy and reality. But whatever world they're in, the fighting doesn't come fiercer than it does between Jackie Chan and Jet Li.