2008 · action · adventure · fantasy
The Forbidden Kingdom
Directed by Rob Minkoff1h 44m2008
An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself travelling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.
Our read: The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) reads as a sombre, breathless, inventive action · adventure · fantasy entry — extreme in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Sombre, breathless, extreme action / adventure, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, epic, measured.
- sombre
- kinetic
- extreme
- inventive
- epic-stakes
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How The Forbidden Kingdom feels to watch.
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“You want Jackie Chan and Jet Li sharing a playful martial-arts fairy tale.”
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