Cinema
The Forbidden Kingdom (12) ***
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| Someone's got flowers growing from his armpit |
Martial arts titans Jet Li and Jackie Chan share the screen for the very first time in Rob Minkoff's chop socky adventure, a lively East meets West smackdown filmed on location in China.
The Forbidden Kingdom is hugely entertaining and self-consciously daft, hung loosely on a fantastical yarn that incorporates elements from various well-known legends and novels.
After a prologue to explain the mythology of The Monkey King (Li), the film begins in Chinatown, New York, where kung fu crazy misfit Jason (Michael Angarano) often goes to rifle through DVDs at a pawn shop run by doddering Old Hop (Chan).
"You watch too much Hong Kong phooey," jokes the owner, amused by the schoolboy's passion for obscure martial arts films.
Unfortunately, weakling Jason is a prime target for a gang of bullies who use the youngster as bait to force their way into Old Hop's shop, fatally wounding the owner.
With his dying breath, Old Hop instructs Jason to return one item, a golden staff, to its rightful owner, the Monkey King.
The boy flees with the staff and in the ensuing chase across the rooftops, Jason is magically transported to ancient China where the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) seeks the talisman in the boy's possession.
Thankfully, drunken master Lu Yan (Chan again) rescues Jason from the warlord's minions and begins to tutor the schoolboy in the art of fighting so that he can fulfill a prophecy and deliver the staff to Five Elements Mountain.
The unlikely friends are joined by the enigmatic, dart-wielding Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and the Silent Monk (Li again), who also hopes to release The Monkey King from incarceration.
Meanwhile, the Jade Warlord promises an elixir of immortality to the White-Haired Demoness if she can thwart Jason and retrieve the staff.
The Forbidden Kingdom is a rollicking romp for the whole family, playing Jason's Rocky-style training under Lu Yan and the Silent Monk for laughs.
See it at the Odeon and Empire.
10:30am Friday 11th July 2008
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