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Spoiler Points for The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) [PG-13] 113 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $13.00
DVD Release Date: 9 September 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Click to read the non-spoiler review
Click to see photos from the Premiere of The Forbidden Kingdom
Spoiler Points:
• Teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) from south Boston watches as his best friend, Old Hop (Jackie Chan)—owner of a Chinese Themed pawn shop—is shot by a street gang hoodlum. Defending himself with an ancient Chinese artifact held by Old Hop's father before him to be given to the rightful owner, Jason suddenly finds himself transports back in time and across the earth to ancient China where he finds himself in the prophesied traveler carrying the Staff once wielded by the Monkey King (Jet Li) before he was frozen in stone by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).
• His new master, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) aka the Immortal Drunken Monk and the mysterious Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) whose parents were killed by the Jade Warlord and the Silent Monk (Jet Li) join forces in helping him develop his Kung Fu and eventually face the Jade Warlord to return the staff to the Monkey King.
• As they travel to the temple of the Jade Warlord, they encounter problems: first in Jason's inability to be trained and then in their encounter with the wicked Ni Chang (Bingbing Li) whose ghostly white braid she manipulates as a weapon of mass destruction. She wants the staff to turn it over to the Warlord for his favors of a bottle of immortal elixir.
• Eventually, she ends up nearly killing Lu Yan (whom was believed to be immortal, but apparently was not really immortal). Jason sets off on his own to exchange the staff for the elixir and finds himself double-crossed by the Jade Warlord who suggests a duel to the death between Ni Chang and Jason with the victor receiving the elixir. When all hope is lost, Jason turns to find the Golden Sparrow and the Silent Monk have arrived to assist in his duel.
• As the mayhem ensues, Jason gets his hand on the elixir and gets it to Lu Yan who drinks and lives to fight. Shortly thereafter, the staff is given to the Monkey King statue unlocking his imprisonment and allowing him to merge again with his alter ego created from a strand of hair and now in the form of the Silent Monk. He then takes on the Jade Warlord who ends up in a firey volcanic death pit after Jason stabs him with one of the Golden Sparrow's jade knives, the only ones in the world that could pierce and end an immortal. In exchange for ending the time of tyranny in the realm, the Jade Emperor gives Jason a single wish—and he elects to return home despite having made such good friends. When he returns, he finds himself in the midst of a street fight with his Boston bullies. What they do not reckon is that he would return fully charged with new, super Kung Fu skill. He takes them on and teaches them a major lesson. A girl who runs the Golden Sparrow Shop across from Old Hop's show shows up to say how brave he was—she looks a lot like the Golden Sparrow.
Points of Contention:
• Of course the major point of contention in the film is whether or not, just like in the Wizard of Oz, this was all a dream for Jason. It could have been, we'll never know.
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