We don’t go to a lot of movies, but when I noticed that the new Jackie Chan movie (also starring Jet Li) was playing at our local theater, I decided it was time to go. When, a few hours later, I found out I had won two free movie tickets, I knew I had obviously made the right decision. We gave brief consideration to seeing Iron Man instead, but my husband reasoned that we knew we’d be buying the DVD of Iron Man, so we might as well use our tickets for The Forbidden Kingdom.
It’s a good movie. Not great, perhaps, but definitely good. Sometimes I had trouble following a few details of the action (I had similar difficulties with the last Jackie Chan movie we rented, The Myth). Partly I was confused by the similarities in the character names “Jade Emperor” and “Jade Warlord,” though the two are worlds apart.
But on the whole it was very enjoyable to watch. Beautiful scenery, superb martial arts scenes, the usual Jackie Chan humor popping up at unexpected times, and the reasonably believable character development of the teenage boy from South Boston who finds himself transported back in time to ancient China. If I were more a fan of kungfu movies and could have recognized the various styles of fighting (my husband commented on how they showed so many styles), I’d no doubt have had more to appreciate.
One thing I like – though I know about it only from reading about the movie at imdb.com – is how the movie incorporates so many characters from Chinese mythology and adventure pulps. Even the teenage boy’s last name, Tripitikas, is derived from Tripitaka, a character from the Chinese epic novel “Journey To The West”. Apparently even the anime series Dragonball Z, which my husband and sons have spent many hours watching together, uses a few tidbits from that story.
I enjoy this sort of repackaging of elements from both ancient stories and popular literature. It’s fun, reading books or watching movies, to be able to catch those references. Even with a movie like this, where I can’t catch the references, I appreciate knowing they’re there for the people with the right cultural background.
