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Forbidden Kingdom (The)
R0 - Hong Kong - Joy Sales Film & Video Review written by and copyright: Shane Roberts & Noor Razzak (2nd January 2009). |
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The Film
 After finding an antique Chinese staff in a Chinatown secondhand store and being beaten up by a gang of thugs, American teenager Jason (Michael Anagarano) is transported back in time to ancient China. Once there, with the help of Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) a drunken kung fu master, a silent monk (Jet Li) and Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) a beautiful kung fu fighter out for vengeance, he goes on a quest to return the staff to its rightful owner, the Monkey King who has been imprisoned for 500 years. If you think this sounds like a predictable combination of "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "The Neverending Story" (1984) and even the terrible "Black Knight" (2001) starring Martin Lawrence you’d be right. I know that these fantasy films are meant as family entertainment and its wish fulfillment for the kids, but even they must get sick of the same story with just a change of location. It also annoys me that a story set in ancient China and featuring famous characters from Chinese mythology and stories as well as featuring two of Asia’s biggest stars in Jackie Chan and Jet Li still feels the need to use an American director (and a second rate one into the bargain) as well as making the teenage hero a whiney American (where a Chinese actor would make far more sense) just to get American investors and to pander to the U.S. audience. I know that as a teenager I was able to identify with any character my age who found it hard to make friends and felt like an outsider without him (or her) having to be white. Also, if I had to think of a director for a kung-fu fantasy epic, Rob Minkoff, the man who brought us "Stuart Little" (1999) and "The Haunted Mansion" (2003) wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of my list. And, while it’s not necessarily all Michael Anagarano’s fault that his character is so annoying and frustrating, he’s definitely no Michael J. Fox or even Shia LaBeouf. Even Jackie and Jet appearing together makes a better poster than an onscreen partnership. I’ve been a fan of both for over 20 years but I haven’t, as evidently a lot of their fans have, been dying to see them in a film together. They’re both amazingly talented martial artists but they’re known for very different styles of films; Jackie for his Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin inspired slapstick acrobatics in "Project A" (1983), "Policy Story" (1985) and "Armour of God" (1987) among many others, and Jet for his multiple world championship winning wushu skills and generally being ‘as hard as nails’ in films like "Once Upon a Time in China 1-3" (1991-1993), "Fist of Legend" (1994) and "Hero" (2002). Their first film together was always likely to suit one more than the other and with "The Forbidden Kingdom" Jet loses out. Putting them together is like teaming Jim Carrey with Clint Eastwood. Can you imagine a scene with "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) era Clint as Dirty Harry driving to a crime scene while Jim in Ace Ventura mode hangs out of the window talking out of his backside? Doesn’t work, does it? The one saving grace is of course the action (even if it is only PG rated) with Jackie and Jet as well as Yifei Liu and Collin Chou doing what they do best, and it’s all choreographed by the king of martial arts action Woo-Ping Yuen and his team. The cinematography, set design and costumes were also great and while the overly familiar plot, corny dialogue and 'PG-13' rating will turn off long time fans of the genre, it’ll probably be loved by its younger target audience.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1 this anamorphic transfer is excellent, for such a recent film you'd expect this. I have a feeling that the mastered used for this image is the same used for the American region 1 release of the film. The image is sharp and detailed, the colors are vibrant and bold, especially the forest greens and the sky lines which look incredible. Skin tones are natural although they veer towards the orange a couple of time. Blacks are bold, shadow detail holds up well and there were no compression related problems that I could see.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in both Cantonese, one in DTS-ES 5.1 and the other in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-ES sound track. Aside from dubbing issues (in which actors are clearly speaking in English but its dubbed in Cantonese, this was a fair bit distracting) the soundtrack is pretty solid. With dialogue sound clear, ambient sounds are well mixed in this otherwise aggressive soundtrack that features some immersive set pieces and action scenes. Music is well placed amid the sound space and overall it's an excellent track, although I wish the DVD producers could have included an English soundtrack as well. Optional subtitles are included in English as well as Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
Extras
Joy Sales has released this film with a series of interviews, a featurette, premiere footage, DISC ONE: The only extra on this disc is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 1 second. DISC TWO: First up we've got a series of cast and crew interviews, in these clips the participants comment on various topics that include their characters, the story and plot, they talk about working with each other or shooting on location in China among other things. These are all accessed individually and include: - Jackie Chan which runs for 4 minutes 2 seconds. - Jet Li which runs for 2 minutes 38 seconds. - Michael Anagarano which runs for 1 minute 32 seconds. - Yifei Liu which runs for 50 seconds. - Collin Chou which runs for 1 minute 34 seconds. - Director Rob Minkoff which runs for 1 minute 38 seconds. - Writer John Fusco which runs for 1 minute 44 seconds. - Producer Casey Silver which runs for 2 minutes 4 seconds. - Action Choreographer Woo-Ping Yuen which runs for 2 minutes 52 seconds. - Cinematographer Peter Pau which runs for 2 minutes 39 seconds. - Production designer Bill Brzeski which runs for 2 minutes 38 seconds. There's also some "Premiere" footage which runs for an astounding 104 minutes 32 seconds and feature the red carpet ceremony and interviews with the various cast and crew as well as a Q&A after the screening with the stars. All the footage is fly-on-the-wall style and in Cantonese with optional subtitles. Next up is a "Behind-the-Scenes" featurette which runs for 16 minutes 13 seconds, this is footage taken during the film's production in China and features the cast and crew shooting scenes, it's more fly-on-the-wall style footage and features no narration (which would have been a welcome addition), the footage is mostly in Cantonese with optional subtitles. A photo gallery features 20 images of shots taken for publicity. There are three TV spots that round out the extras, but on the menu they are listed as "trailers", they include: - TV spot 1 which runs for 31 seconds. - TV spot 2 which runs for 31 seconds. - TV spot 3 which runs for 32 seconds.
Packaging
Packaged in a 2-disc amaray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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