The Forbidden Kingdom

November 9, 2008 by admin
Filed under Featured, Movies

Plot

South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King Sun Wukong (Jet Li) and heavenly soldiers amongst the clouds. He is a fan of kung fu movies; posters cover the walls of his room, and his TV is playing an episode from the 1970’s Japanese TV Series “Monkey”. After getting dressed, he makes his way to a pawn shop in downtown Boston’s China town to buy wuxia DVDs. There, Jason converses with Hop (a prosthetics-laden Jackie Chan), the shop’s elderly owner, and, while thumbing through some DVDs, he is drawn to a golden staff inside a room full of antiques. Hop tells him that the staff is to be delivered to its rightful owner and then closes the door.

On his way back home, Jason is attacked by local bully Lupo (Morgan Benoit) and his cronies, who force him to go back to the pawnshop at night so that Hop will open the door, allowing them to steal his money. Feeling betrayed, Hop tries to attack the thieves with the staff, but is shot by Lupo. Hop, wounded, tells Jason that Jason must now deliver the staff to its rightful owner. Jason takes the staff and runs from the thieves. On top of a building, he is surrounded by the bullies, as Lupo fears that Jason will expose the shooting to the police and intends to silence him. Before Lupo can shoot, Jason is suddenly pulled off the roof by the staff and falls backwards onto the asphalt, and through time.

When Jason wakes up, he has been transported to ancient China, near a village which is soon attacked by armored warriors who notice his staff and try to take it from him. He is rescued by the inebriated traveling scholar Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), who is surprisingly alert and agile when drunk. Later that night, seated in a teahouse, Lu Yan tells Jason of a legend of the Monkey King, who caused havoc at the banquet held by the Immortals on the Five Elements Mountain celebrating the Jade Emperor’s forthcoming 500-year period of meditation. The Jade Emperor took a liking to the Monkey King and decided to award him a heavenly title, much to the chagrin of the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou), who was the Emperor’s general. The Emperor then left the Jade Warlord in charge of heaven before retreating to his period of seclusion. The Warlord challenged the Monkey King to a duel to display their fighting and magical abilities. After tricking the Monkey King into setting aside his magic staff Ruyi Jingu Bang, the Warlord struck him with a spell that would turn him into stone, whereupon the Monkey King threw the staff far off beyond the Warlord’s grasp. Lu Yan ends the tale by stating a prophecy in which person known as the “Seeker” will find the staff and free the Monkey King. Lu Yan and Jason are then attacked by the Jade Warlord’s soldiers, from whom they are rescued by Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei), a young girl who refers to herself in the third person. Her family was murdered by the Jade Warlord and she has sworn revenge against him.

The Jade Warlord is told by his men that they have seen the magical staff. Alarmed, he sends the young white-haired witch Ni Chang (Li Bingbing) to retrieve it for him in return for anything she desired, naming her price to be the Warlord’s elixir of immortality. When Jason wakes up in the morning he is attacked by a person dressed in white clothes, who takes the staff from him. Jason, Lu Yan, and Sparrow follow the man’s trail to a temple. There, Lu Yan meets the Silent Monk (Jet Li), who refuses to hand the staff over. The two fight over the staff until the Silent Monk realizes that Jason is the staff’s prophesied Seeker and joins the protagonists in their quest to free the Monkey King.

As the four make their way to Five Elements Mountain, Lu Yan and Silent Monk teach Jason kung fu. After crossing a great desert, they encounter Ni Chang and her henchmen. After a quick scuffle, the four manage to escape with the staff, but Lu Yan is mortally injured by Ni Chang’s arrow. The protagonists take refuge in a monastery, where they find out that only the Jade Warlord’s elixir of immortality will heal Lu Yan, revealing that he was never actually immortal as he proclaimed. Jason, desperate to help Lu Yan, goes alone to the Warlord’s palace to exchange the staff for the elixir.

At the palace, Jason learns that the Jade Warlord promised the elixir to Ni Chang if she brought back the staff; given that Jason has brought it, he is commanded to fight Ni Chang to the death, earning the elixir by his victory. Although Jason has developed some proficiency in martial arts, the far more experienced Ni Chang easily defeats him. Jason is saved when the Silent Monk and Sparrow arrive, with Lu Yan being carried by monks from the monastery. The Silent Monk duels the Jade Warlord to protect the staff while Sparrow fights Ni Chang. During the fight, Jason seizes the elixir and throws it to Lu Yan, who drinks it and becomes immortal, regaining his strength and energy. Lu Yan then fights Ni Chang on a balcony. The Silent Monk is mortally wounded during his battle with the Jade Warlord and throws the staff to Jason. Jason takes the staff and shatters the Monkey King’s statue form, freeing him from his imprisonment. The Silent Monk dies of his injuries and becomes a golden hair, revealing him to be a magical human familiar created by the Monkey King immediately prior to his imprisonment. The fight between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord recommences.

After a long battle, Lu Yan dispatches Ni Chang by sending her off the palace balcony. Sparrow tries to kill the Jade Warlord with her jade dart, but is fatally wounded when he deflects it by a chi blast. Infuriated, Jason is able to stab the Jade Warlord with the dart when the Monkey King shoves him in the boy’s direction, whereupon he drops the Warlord into a pool of lava. Jason then attends Sparrow, who thanks him in first person before dying. He is subsequently praised by the newly returned Jade Emperor for fulfilling the prophecy. As his reward for his courage, Jason chooses to be return to his time and place.

Jason wakes up back in modern-day Boston, lying where he fell. Apparently very little time has passed since Jason went to ancient China, as he is attacked by Lupo that very instant. Jason defeats him single-handedly, frightens off the other bullies, and alerts the police. Old Hop manages to survive the gunshot, on grounds that he is immortal and is actually Lu Yan.

Before Jason leaves the scene, he sees a girl who resembles Sparrow and works at the Golden Sparrow shop. Jason, surprised but delighted to see her, speaks with her briefly and goes home, where he practices his kung fu on the roof with a staff as the Monkey King begins his own Journey to the West.