The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Director:

Rob Minkoff

Writer (WGA):

John Fusco (written by)

Release Date:

18 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Romance

Tagline:

The path is unsafe. The place is unknown. The journey is unbelievable.

Plot:

A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

Plot Keywords:

Whip | Statue | Hair As Weapon | Desert | Martial Arts

Awards:

4 nominations

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Jet Li	...	The Monkey King / The Silent Monk
Michael Angarano	...	Jason Tripitikas
Jackie Chan	...	Lu Yan / Old Hop
Yifei Liu	...	Golden Sparrow / Chinatown Girl
Collin Chou	...	Jade Warlord
Juana Collignon	...	Southie Girl
Morgan Benoit	...	Lupo
Bingbing Li	...	Ni Chang
Jack Posobiec	...	Southie
Thomas McDonell	...	Young Southie
Zhi Ma Gui	...	Old Woman
Shen Shou He	...	Farmer
Bin Jiang	...	Young Village Man
Shaohua Yang	...	Jade Soldier
Yu Yuan Zeng	...	Inn Keeper
Deshun Wang	...	Jade Emperor
XiaoLi Liu	...	Queen Mother
Xiao Dong Mei	...	Inn Keeper's Wife
Mathew Tang	...	Jade Officer #1
Jun Cheng Hong	...	Jade Officer #2
Alan Ng	...	Jade Officer #3
Michelle Du	...	Painted Girl
Yang Jun	...	Herald #1
Crystal Kung	...	Slave Girl
Jeffrey Kung	...	Herald #2
Jia Xu Wei	...	Tracker
Sheng Huang Ming	...	Cult Killer #1
Rui Li	...	Cult Killer #2
Long Zhang Fei	...	Cult Killer #3
Cheng Luo	...	Cult Killer #4
Xiao Zhou	...	Cult Killer #5
Bin Lin Hai	...	Cult Killer #6
Jie Zhi Hui	...	Cult Killer #7
Ju Shi Xiao	...	Golden Sparrow's Mother
Meng Guo	...	Young Golden Sparrow
Lu Cui Wen	...	Goat Herder
Yong Li Xiao	...	Young Monk #1
Zhen Zhang	...	Young Monk #2
Xiao Keng Ye	...	Abbot
Wan Zhao Zi	...	Medicine Monk
Matthew Grant	...	Paramedic
Alexis Bridges	...	Kam
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jason Chong	...	Lu Yan / Old hop

Directed by
Rob Minkoff

Writing credits (WGA)
John Fusco		(written by)

Produced by
Nai Liang Chi	....	line producer
Raffaella De Laurentiis	....	executive producer
Scott Fischer	....	co-producer
Hester Hargett	....	line producer
Ryan Kavanaugh	....	executive producer
David U. Lee	....	co-executive producer
Philip Lee	....	associate producer
Jason C. Lin	....	co-executive producer
Michael Paseornek	....	executive producer
Casey Silver	....	producer
Solon So	....	co-executive producer
Lynwood Spinks	....	executive producer
Mathew Tang	....	line producer
Zhongjun Wang	....	executive producer
Woo-ping Yuen	....	executive producer

Original Music by
David Buckley

Cinematography by
Peter Pau		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Eric Strand

Casting by
PoPing AuYeung
Nancy Foy

Production Design by
Bill Brzeski

Art Direction by
Eric Lam

Set Decoration by
Bin Lan
Yu Ci Wen

Costume Design by
Shirley Chan

Makeup Department
Tony Acosta Jr.	....	special makeup effects shop technician
Crist Ballas	....	special makeup effects artist
Steve Buscaino	....	special makeup effects shop technician
Mark Garbarino	....	special makeup effects designer
Rufus Hearn	....	prosthetic hair technician
Brian Hillard	....	special makeup effects shop technician: Mark Garbarino's Funhouse
Greg Johnson	....	special makeup effects shop technician
James Kagel	....	special makeup effects artist: sculptor
Missy R. Russell	....	special makeup effects coordinator
Shaun Smith	....	special makeup effects coordinator
Dave Snyder	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Connie Cheung	....	assistant production manager
Hester Hargett	....	unit production manager
Steve Lionetti	....	production supervisor
Johnny Wang	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Matthew Feitshans	....	key second assistant director
Sharon Lam	....	first assistant director: additional photography
Jason Siu	....	third assistant director
Ken Siu	....	first assistant director
Dick Tso	....	first assistant director
Woo-ping Yuen	....	action director
Cindy Zhang Jiawei	....	third assistant director

Art Department
Danielle Berman	....	set decoration buyer
Sherrie Dai	....	assistant art director
Andy Friend	....	storyboard artist
Delin Fu	....	set designer
Xiu Guo	....	assistant art director
David E. Harshbarger	....	prop buyer
Rong Hua	....	buyer
Hin Fat Hung	....	property master
Dao You Jiang	....	action props
Jeffrey Kong	....	associate art director
Kwok On Lau	....	assistant property master
Wai Ming Law	....	assistant property master
Tze Fung Li	....	on-set dresser
Zhi Kui Lu	....	set designer
Margo Kaczynska McKenzie	....	key scenic artist
Mark Pacella	....	storyboard artist
Domenico Reordino	....	head painter
Eduardo Sicangco	....	illustrator
Terry Siu	....	assistant art director
Ming Hua Tang	....	action props
Fu Kei Tse	....	assistant property master
Wei Min Wang	....	set designer
Wai Yan Wong	....	on-set dresser
Zhanjia Yang	....	key set designer
Yin Keung Yau	....	assistant property master
Wen Yi Zhang	....	assistant property master
Wu Jie Zhang	....	action props

Sound Department
Tom Caton	....	boom operator
Justin Flynn	....	mix assistant
Yagmur Kaplan	....	adr mixer
Sylvain Loiseau	....	post-production audio manager
Robert Mackenzie	....	re-recording mixer
Ian McLoughlin	....	re-recording mixer
Peter Mills	....	sound effects editor
Jiajia Mok	....	sound effects editor
Glenn Newnham	....	sound effects editor
Roger Savage	....	re-recording mixer
Christopher Sheldon	....	adr supervisor
Jing Tao	....	sound supervisor
Andy Wright	....	re-recording mixer
David Wyman	....	sound mixer

Visual Effects by
Brian Adler	....	visual effects supervisor
Jordan Bahat	....	visual effects assistant
Jeremy Ball	....	visual effects coordinator
Vanessa Cheung	....	matte painter
Tim Christensen	....	digital compositor: Frantic Films
Peter Demarest	....	digital compositor
Kent Estep	....	digital effects supervisor
Karin Eunson-Ross	....	visual effects production manager: Frantic Films
Mathew Giampa	....	digital compositor
Rocco Gioffre	....	visual effects supervisor: Svengali FX
Jeong Jaehoon	....	visual effects artist
Wonjo Jeong	....	visual effects coordinator: Macrograph
Youngho Je	....	visual effects production manager: Macrograph
Karin Joy	....	visual effects producer
Ko Eun Koni Jung	....	visual effects coordinator
Janghyung Kim	....	senior effects technical director: Macrograph
Jinny Ko	....	effects technical director: Macrograph
Mark A. Kolars	....	visual effects supervisor
Andrew H. Leung	....	matte painter: Svengali FX
Marcus LeVere	....	senior visual effects artist
Michele Moen	....	concept illustrator: Svengali VFX
Michele Moen	....	matte painter: Svengali VFX
Nicole Montemayor	....	visual effects coordinator
Youngkwan Oh	....	visual effects coordinator: Macrograph
Kiju Park	....	visual effects producer: Macrograph
Sungyong Park	....	visual effects artist: Footage
Jason Pelham	....	visual effects editor
Federico Rivia	....	texture artist
Nabil Schiantarelli	....	senior compositor
Randal Shore	....	visual effects producer: Frantic Films
Ron Simonson	....	senior visual effects supervisor
Elaine Essex Thompson	....	visual effects producer
Stefano Trivelli	....	compositing supervisor: Svengali FX
Jamie Venable	....	visual effects producer: Svengali FX
Sarah Vinson	....	visual effects coordinator: Los Angeles
Robert Grigsby Wilson	....	visual effects assistant
Danyo Donghyun Yoon	....	pre-visualization artist
Junshik-Raul Yun	....	assistant visual effects editor

Stunts
Georgi Manchev	....	stunt double

Camera and Electrical Department
Eric Aupetit	....	dollyman: "b" camera
Edmond Chan	....	focus puller: "a" camera
Luen Wai Chan	....	dollyman: "a" camera
You Liang Chen	....	focus puller: "e" camera
Sung Fai Choi	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Jimmy Fok	....	key grip: "a" camera
Kwong Yu Fung	....	focus puller: "d" camera
Patrick Ho	....	camera operator
Patrick Ho	....	grip
Louis Jong	....	key grip: "b" camera
Chan Heung Kong	....	gaffer: "b" camera
Jason Kwan	....	camera operator: "e" camera
Kenny Lam	....	camera operator: "a" camera
Tak-Shing Lee	....	chief gaffer
Wing Hong Leung	....	focus puller: "c" camera
Wing Hong Leung	....	loader: "c" camera
Shen Song Long	....	focus puller: "b" camera
Felipe Perez-Burchard	....	HD coordinator
Qing Zhang Xiao	....	best boy electrician: "b" camera
Wu Hua Zhang	....	best boy electrician: "a" camera

Casting Department
Bryan Riley	....	casting associate

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Pik Kwan Lee	....	assistant costume designer

Editorial Department
Regan Copeland	....	digital conformist
Zach Fine	....	second assistant editor
John Nicolard	....	digital intermediate supervisor
David Rosenblatt	....	first assistant editor
Bill Schultz	....	digital intermediate executive
Don Shore	....	post-production coordinator
Walter Volpatto	....	digital intermediate colorist

Music Department
Kirk Bennett	....	orchestrator
Nick Glennie-Smith	....	composer: additional arrangements
Nick Glennie-Smith	....	conductor
Harry Gregson-Williams	....	score producer
Tricia Holloway	....	music team
Scott Johnson	....	assistant music editor
Jamie Luker	....	music scoring engineer
Malcolm Luker	....	music scoring mixer
Abhay Manusmare	....	digital score recordist
Robert Puff	....	music preparation
Adam Milo Smalley	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
Mladen Cernjak	....	transportation coordinator
Nai Zeng Chi	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Shauna Cho	....	assistant accountant
Luo San Claire	....	assistant: director
Jia Qi Du	....	production assistant
Jack W. Haddox	....	production controller
Victor A. Haddox	....	accountant
Peter Hric	....	horse master
Alison Klayman	....	assistant: Liu Yifei
Alyssa Lam	....	assistant to producers
Jian Jun Liang	....	production assistant
Michael Lichtenegger	....	assistant production coordinator
Ling Yun Li	....	assistant accountant
Hilde Odelga	....	production coordinator
Casey Silver	....	presenter
Jason Siu	....	production assistant
Mitch Spacone	....	system support: FotoKem
Chao-Bin Su	....	mandarin dialogue
Davina To	....	production secretary
Huan Wang	....	assistant accountant
Fred Wei	....	production assistant
Katherine Wood	....	production coordinator
Dale Wyatt	....	dialogue coach
Jun Xu	....	production assistant
Wei Xu	....	production assistant
Xia Yang	....	production accountant
Woo-ping Yuen	....	action choreographer
Cheng Hua Zhang	....	production assistant
Jian De Zhang	....	location manager
Zhi Tian Zhang	....	researcher
David Magdael	....	publicist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Casey Silver Productions
• China Film Co-Production Corporation
• Huayi Brothers
• Relativity Media

Distributors

• Encore Films (2008) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Mongkol Film Company (2008) (Thailand) (theatrical)
• Lionsgate (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Bulgaria) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Croatia) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Czech Republic) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Hungary) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Poland) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Romania) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Serbia and Montenegro) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Slovakia) (all media)
• Blue Sky Media (2008) (Slovenia) (all media)
• Castello Lopes Multimedia (2008) (Portugal) (all media)
• Emperor Motion Pictures (2008) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Huayi Brothers (2008) (China) (theatrical)
• Huayi Brothers (2008) (Hong Kong) (theatrical) (co-distributor)
• Independent Films (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Lionsgate (2008) (UK) (theatrical)
• MEED Films (2008) (Lithuania) (theatrical) (Baltic states)
• Maple Pictures (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Pinema (2007) (Turkey) (all media)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2008) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Shochiku Company (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Top Film (2008) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Viva International Pictures (2008) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• Weinstein Company, The (2008) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Weinstein Company, The (2008) (France) (theatrical)
• Weinstein Company, The (2008) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Weinstein Company, The (2008) (USA) (theatrical)

Special Effects

• Asia Legend (wire removal)
• Footage (visual effects)
• Macrograph (cgi)
• Svengali Visual Effects

Other Companies

• Departure Studios  sound post-production
• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Firstar Films  bridge financing
• Keypoint & Cinerent Studio  Chinese version production
• Lionsgate Records  soundtrack
• Mandarin Laboratory (International) Ltd.  subtitles: Hong Kong version (uncredited)
• Northwest Sinfonia  orchestra
• Salon Films  equipment provided by
• Soundfirm Beijing Co. Ltd.  sound post-production
• Soundfirm  sound post-production

Also Known As:

Jackie Chan/Jet Li Project (USA) (working title)
King of Kung Fu (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Untitled J&J Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence.

Runtime:

USA:113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Finland:K-13 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #44223) | Malaysia:U | Ireland:12A | Hong Kong:IIA | Australia:PG | South Korea:12 | Portugal:M/12 | UK:12A | Singapore:PG | Philippines:G (MTRCB)

Filming Locations:

Anji bamboo forest, Jiangsu, China

Company:

Casey Silver Productions

Trivia:

Just before Sparrow throws the dart at the Jade Warlord, she says "Come Drink with Me" which is the English title of the old Cheng Pei Pei movie where she played a character named Golden Sparrow.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Jason makes reference to the game Virtua Fighter 2, and states that a character uses the "Buddha's Palm" technique. The only Virtua Fighter character that uses the move is Lei Fei. Lei Fei did not appear in the series until the fourth installment, and didn't get the "Buddha's Palm" move until Virtua Fighter 5.

Quotes:

Golden Sparrow: She should have killed you, witch!
Ni Chang: Not if I kill you first, orphan bitch!

Movie Connections:

References Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Just saw it at the theater down the street from my house...

In gong-fu movie lore, it has long been foretold that one day two of the greatest stars of the genre would come together one day on the screen. That day has come in "The Forbidden Kingdom," which stars two of the latest and greatest stars of the martial arts movie genre - Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Combined, both men's careers span over 30 years and over 100 movies, in their native China and here in the United States; that's a lot of kung-pow kicking and punching. They both decided to make their American crossovers around the same time during the 1990s - Chan's first hit in the U.S. was "Rumble in the Bronx" (1995) and became a mega-star due to the "Rush Hour" movies, while Li made his American debut as the lead villain in "Lethal Weapon 4" (1998), received his first English-speaking starring role in "Romeo Must Die" (2000), and earned critical respectability with "Unleashed" in 2005.

Now, we're at "The Forbidden Kingdom." I like both stars. My friends and I, like many other martial arts movie fans, have eagerly awaited this cinematic pairing for some time.

Starting in the present - 2008 - an American teenager named Jason (Michael Arangano) who has an obsession with gong-fu movies is magically transported back in time to ancient China by the long-lost staff of the fabled Monkey King (Li, in one of two roles in the film), where he learns he has been chosen to return it to him. 500 years earlier, the mischievous martial arts master Monkey King had been imprisoned in stone by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).

On his journey, Jason comes across the drunken beggar Lu Yan (Chan, in one of two roles in the film), who teaches him gong-fu so that he will be able to take on the Jade Army. They are also aided by The Silent Monk (Li, in his other role) and the orphan assassin Sparrow (Yifei Liu). There is one particularly funny sequence where Lu Yan and The Silent Monk fight over how to train Jason to defend himself - with Lu Yan's unorthodox methods and the Monk's more traditional approach.

"The Forbidden Kingdom" is one fast-paced and entertaining martial arts flick that keeps you watching just because of the know-it-all/seen-it-all before charisma of the star talent. With nods aplenty toward the martial arts movies of yesteryear (chiefly old-school Shaw Brothers movies, as well as plenty of helpings of Taoist philosophy and the Jeet Kune Do teachings of Bruce Lee), "The Forbidden Kingdom" is perhaps what Quentin Tarantino has fantasized so much about during countless cinema grind-house outings as an impressionable teenager and later as an adult realized on the screen in his "Kill Bill" films.

But Tarantino is nowhere in sight. Behind this production, is American screenwriter John Fusco (who based the script on the epic story "Journey to the West," which is cited as one of the four great novels of Chinese literature) and American director Rob Minkoff (of "The Lion King"). This production, put simply, is probably the best combination of American-Chinese talent since "Enter the Dragon" way back in 1973. Choreographing the fights with plenty of wire-work and CGI pizazz is Woo-ping Yuen, known for his work with both Chan and Li, as well as "The Matrix" (1999) and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000). It's pretty impressive that although it's fairly obvious that wires are being used in the fight scenes, it doesn't really take away from the action like it often tends to in American features, but actually enhances their intensity here.

I got a lot of enjoyment from watching "The Forbidden Kingdom" and watching the magnificent grace of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Despite occasional script deficiencies, I found this picture working from the opening credits, which was a sure sign that what was about to come would surely satisfy the martial arts movie fan inside of me. For many martial arts movie fans, "The Forbidden Kingdom" may perhaps be the movie they've been waiting for since the untimely passing of Bruce Lee 35 years ago.

10/10