Forbidden Kingdom-What Do You Think?

[hong]

So, when is this coming to Austria?

 

[trancejeremy]

Good fight scenes. You could really feel the "Americanization" factor - the, "we have to include THIS/THAT for western audiences," and, "we have to include this/that or the KIDS just won't get it," and that really just pushes it towards dull and uninteresting. IGNORING the formula is just as appealing as BEING formulaic. People will indeed go to a certain movie because they can rely on getting just what they expect, but that doesn't mean that they ONLY want what is predictable and formulaic.

While the "American formula" elements were adequately enjoyable for what they were - grudging submission to formula - they were clearly OUT OF PLACE. It rankles through the entire movie and actually diminished my own enjoyment of it. If they really had wanted to take it in those kind of directions they'd have done VASTLY better by using a teen character from modern Hong Kong rather than New York/Chicago/wherever. Simply using English dialogue rather than subtitles would have been all the nod to American audiences they needed to make. While Chan and Li are not the superstars here that they might be overseas they have better drawing power than they seem to give themselves credit for.

If Chan and Li enjoyed this at all, and if it is at all successful, they owe it to themselves to make a movie that THEY want to make, in America, with a Hollywood budget, in English, but otherwise with open disregard for, "Oh, we have to do this and that to make it appeal to American audiences." It is their acting, stunts, skills, inventiveness that is appealing, not any given plot convention, featured character, or story element.

I think you're giving them too much credit. Have you seen the only movie with both Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan? The one starring Jackie Chan's son? And the two pop stars? (who are admittedly cute) It's pretty much complete schlock...

 

[Ranger REG]

Berman and Braga are now working for that studio???

Hey, that's my line.

 

[WayneLigon]

Good fight scenes. You could really feel the "Americanization" factor - the, "we have to include THIS/THAT for western audiences," and, "we have to include this/that or the KIDS just won't get it," and that really just pushes it towards dull and uninteresting.

I didn't see much of that. Name them?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Jackie Chan and Jet Li, did seem to be an unlikely pairing years ago because of the movie Meltdown/ High Risk. Which was basically Die Hard with Jet Li, taking a swipe at Jackie Chan with a character that was most definitely a spoof of Jackie chan.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Just saw it last night. Was cringing through a lot of it. Very schlocky cheese, although it's clear the makers were fans of wuxia and kung fu movies, if the opening montage of old posters wasnt enough of a clue. Still, the fight scenes were awesome.

One thing that surprised me if the male American lead...not for the fact that he could actually do a lot of the fight scenes, but that they actually filmed him when it was clear he had a major acne breakout going on during parts of it. Usually, that's not something they preserve for posterity.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I didn't see much of that. Name them?

The fact that although everything in the movie is based on Chinese myth and movies, the HERO is an American teenager, and not even Chinese-American. It rings false through the whole movie. The fact that the exposition is accompanied by voice-over. It's generally preferable in movies to just SHOW what you want the audience to know rather than state it to them because movies are a visual medium. I.e., a father is shown to love his son by action and expression, not by the fact that he says, "I love you". Mainstream Hollywood films are paranoid about the audience "not getting it", so they TELL it to them rather than show it (or in addition to).

So I get a vibe of, "Americans won't care about the hero if he's Chinese - he's got to be American. Kids won't care about the hero unless he's a kid. Nobody will understand the backstory unless we verbally explain it all to them because we Americans know American audiences aren't smart enough to understand with having it EXPLAINED to them." YMMV

 

[trancejeremy]

Eh - it's not like a lot of Chinese films star Americans as heroes or the main character. And when you do get them, they are often villains.

Only exception I can think of is Michael Wong, he's often the good guy, but he's half Chinese (even if he can't speak the language) and almost always plays a native Chinese (who for some reason always speaks English). Except in films where he's the villain, where he's an American (like House of Fury).

Speaking of that, if they had to get an American kid, they should have gotten the one from House of Fury. He was a villain in that (played Michael Wong's son, despite being completely caucasian looking), but he knew more martial arts than anyone in the film

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It's funny that the one white guy I saw in all of these Hong Kong Movies often as a villain was an Australian martial artist who managed get into the Hong Kong film industry

 

[Zog]

If they really had wanted to take it in those kind of directions they'd have done VASTLY better by using a teen character from modern Hong Kong rather than New York/Chicago/wherever.
With all that said it's a great movie, though I otherwise did expect a little more teh funny.

The kid is from Boston. And for the Boston crowd, best line of the movie?

'It missed his 'Arrrt.' Pure boston accent. Entire crowd did a Wtf?*laugh*