I didn’t know anything about Forbidden Kingdom, this new project from Jackie Chan, Jet Li and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, until today — now it’s one of my most anticipated films of next year! I grew up listening to the Chinese folk tale of the Monkey King and now they’re going to bring an adaptation (though it looks like a really loose one) to the big screen. Yay! Everything from the cast, to the costumes, to the weapons, to the fight scenes, to the cinematography, to the music (which is probably not from the movie) looks like it’s going to be awesome.
From the sneak peek on YouTube it looks like it will have all the polish of a Crouching Tiger, but with all those martial arts heavy-hitters on board the fight scenes will really be top-notch. Here’s hoping the rest of the movie can hold up. What’s with non-Chinese actor Michael Angarano being in this film? What’s his role? (The scene with him holding the mythical magic staff of the Monkey King gives me a bit of concern.) The other thing that worries me is the very last scene of the trailer showing Chan saying to Li “We can kill each other when it’s over”. Why is one Chinese character speaking accented-English to another in a movie set in ancient China? This movie looks so authentically Chinese, I hope they don’t ruin it by making all the dialogue in English (just for a wider audience).
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 