Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Forbidden Kingdom:

Ever since the first time I laid eyes on Jacky Chan (now spelled Jackie) in the movie "Snake in the Eagle's shadow" I made it a point to have time to watch his movies. I have lost count on how many movies he made and how many I watched also. The Forbidden Kingdom has the same plot that most Chinese martial arts movies have - Master teaches student and student defeats the evil enemy. A classic case of good triumphs over evil.

To give a certain twist to that plot, a Chinese fantasy movie is somehow quite different. The two masters, Lu Yan (JC) the drunken master and the Silent Monk (JL), together with "vengeance is mine" Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei) teach Jason (Michael Angarano) who plays "the chosen one." Jason's mission is to return a magical fighting stick to the Monkey King (also portrayed by Jet Li) who is encapsulated into stone by the evil Jade warlord. (Collin Chou)

I know that there is a big following of both Jackie and Jet here in the country. Both martial arts artists revolutionalized the Martial Arts scene and every movie they make climaxes with one of a kind fight scenes. Quite impressive was the "mano a mano" confrontation of the two stars and their fight scene is a thing of beauty.


My question is why only now? After seeing this movie I made a conclusion that the future of basketball in China will be promising if Jet Li trains these athletes to fly. Imagine a 7-6 Yao Ming flying to the basket for a dunk! Well, that is what Chinese Folklore is all about - fantastic fantasy!

Visit their website: http://forbiddenkingdommovie.com/main.html

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