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Forbidden Kingdom is based loosely on Journey to
the west, which was originally about a stone monkey who upsets heaven.
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Before
I tell you the story, I should first point out that this movie is
the first movie that stars both Jackie Chan and Jet Li at the same
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The premise of the story was, that the stone
monkey was causing trouble in heaven and whilst the jade emperor was in
his 500 year meditation; he would leave his general in charge.
The general had a fight with the stone monkey who
too was an immortal and he tricked him into a hand to hand fight.
Once realising the trick, the monkey king sent his staff into another
world and is there it has stayed for almost 500 years.
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This
where we first see the young American kid. He loves kung fu
movies but knows nothing about the sport. he get caught up in
something with what probably are a bunch of local thugs, who force
him into getting some old Chinese guy to give them his money.
The old guy gets shot and they chase the kid to find out if he will
keep his mouth shut. The kid is dragged by a staff he is
carrying of the building and when he wakes, is in another world. |
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On
awaking; he discovers that he is in another country and has no idea
where he is or how he got there. It looks like a country that
is being controlled by some war lord and seems to be killing the
local people for no apparent reason.
This is where we first meet the drunken immortal. I say that
because he drinks all the time and if you have ever seen Drunken
Master; which ironically is about Wong Fei Hung, a character
that is most famously associated with Jet Li.
The drunken master tells him about the legend
of a man from another world that would one day bring the staff back,
revive the stone monkey from his slumber and defeat the evil general
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Whilst
in the middle of a bamboo woods, a person with a hood steals the
iron staff and disappears into a monastery. He looks
suspiciously like the stone monkey but has this typical
serious look on his face. |
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The
evil protagonist is a witch who desires the elixir of everlasting
life, that the evil general has promised in exchange for the iron
staff. This way the stone monkey will
never be brought back to life and he will not get his arse handed to
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The story is formulaic an doesn't really do
anything new. It is nothing more than a typical kung fu movie.
I still expect to see a film where one person spills the other persons
pint and fight across the world only to find out that the second person
want his two pounds for a new pint.
It is mindless fun with the usual moment where the
kid who knows nothing what-so-ever about kung fu becomes a bad ass in a
couple of weeks of training. Leave your brain at the door when you
go to watch this film and you will be fine.
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