Throw away some first.
gimmick. The biggest gimmick of the whole movie is that this is the first time that the two greatest kung fu stars in existence will perform together on the same stage. The Chinese version completely ignores the artistic conception of the name The Forbidden Kingdom, and directly only sees Double J and calls the movie "King of Kung Fu". the meaning of its story. While the distributor used the name "King of Kung Fu" to usher in a promotional effect for the film, he wondered if he had considered the negative impact of the translation from the film's artistic conception.
Cultural divide. Cultural misunderstandings and barriers are the biggest problems when films are shown to Chinese audiences. The immortals in the movie are not like those in Journey to the West or other Chinese myths, who are omnipotent. These are based on the mythological background of Journey to the West, which is somewhat incomprehensible or even ridiculous in the eyes of Chinese people. But when we think about the form of Greco-Roman mythology that old beauty is familiar with, it is completely understandable that the film will present these "absurdities". And those lines that are difficult to understand, such as the silent monk's "keep breathing", I think it is only the result of the director or screenwriter's superficial understanding of oriental culture. (When I heard this sentence, I suddenly felt that the silent monk was bent over by the Japanese rat master with the four green-haired turtles. Maybe this is the way of saying in Lao Mei's mind.) Let's
get down to business.
An American teenager who is addicted to Chinese kung fu and has watched many kung fu movies is actually a person who is physically and mentally weak. Because of his cowardice, he helps a group of bullies who bully him to run to the shop of an old Chinese man (Huo) Robbery, chance (or fate), the teenager traveled through time and space through a stick from the ancient East in Huo's shop, and came to a man who was ravaged by the evil Yujiang God of War (feeling that his status is a bit like Erlang God) world. There he met Zuixian, Jin Yanzi, and silent monk. Facing the siege of Yujiang War God, his white-haired witch and countless Yujiang warriors, he overcame many difficulties, released the petrified Monkey King, and defeated Yujiang War God. Finally, the Jade Emperor, who ended 500 years of practice and exited the customs, helped him return to the world he lived in. The teenager used the real kung fu he learned in the far east to teach the villainous gangster, and re-encountered each other's beloved Jin Yanzi (the reincarnation?).
As Li Lianjie said before, the original intention of the film is actually to make a fairy tale - even if the film itself can't just be watched by his three-year-old daughter - maybe that's why the animation director Rob Minkoff made this film. reason for the film. In my opinion, the movie itself is not just a fairy tale about a teenager who travels through time and space to a faraway country and ultimately helps good overcome evil. More, it is a dream buried in the director, screenwriter, and everyone who is obsessed with Chinese kung fu and kung fu movies - such as the young people in the film. What the director did was bring the boy and us an Alice in Wonderland fairy tale.
And the moving that the film brings us does not come from the fairy tale itself, but the film's worship of Chinese kung fu movies and the reverie it brings to us. At the beginning of the film, when the main creators were introduced, it began to pay tribute. The watercolor-style screen switching is already reminiscent of kung fu movies in the 1970s and 1980s. People and films who have played a pivotal role in the development of kung fu movies will appear one by one. Later, in Huo's store, the teenager mentioned "Ten Tigers in Guangdong", "Witch with White Hair", and Shaw Brothers. The phrase "I borrow you five Bruce Lee movies (Bruce only starred in five movies in his lifetime)" is even more meaningful to say from Jackie Chan, the kung fu superstar who suddenly emerged after Bruce Lee's death and filled the gap in Hong Kong kung fu movies. As well as the tone changes later in the film's development, the obvious traces of the interior set on the Peach Banquet are not so much rough and the director's carelessness, but rather the film's intention to let us wander in the dreamland composed of the former kung fu movies. Not to mention that Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Yuan Heping, three mythical figures in the development of kung fu movies, got together. The 10-minute fight between Double J in the broken temple is not only a pivotal scene in the film, but also the epitome of countless classics - "Shaolin Temple", "Drunken Fist", "Once Upon a Time", "Snake Shaped Hands", Heroes of Jingwu", such a feeling of transcending time and space, at least for me, has to be moved.
The film itself has many flaws. Apart from the ones mentioned at the beginning, there are also the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother, when they left the Pan Tao Banquet, the movements of the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother floating back are really funny. The thick eye shadow of the Jade Border Warriors makes people feel sick , as well as various other factors that displease audiences and critics alike do exist. However, when the creators paid tribute to kung fu movies in a way of almost kneeling down, it reminded us of when we were children in front of the TV and learned the dance of the people in kung fu movies. When they turn our dreams about kung fu and kung fu movies into reality, when we are truly moved, do we have to complain that what we realized is not as perfect as our dreams?
View more about The Forbidden Kingdom reviews
