The Forbidden Kingdom

The Forbidden Kingdom is the first film to pair Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the two biggest Hong Kong martial arts stars of the 1980s and 1990s, who had never fought each other on screen. It grew out of a John Fusco script, developed with Jet Li from Journey to the West, the 16th-century Chinese novel featuring the Monkey King. Rob Minkoff, co-director of The Lion King, directed.

Yuen Woo-ping on the fights

The action was choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, who had launched Jackie Chan in 1978 with Drunken Master. The nod is deliberate: Chan's Lu Yan fights in the drunken style that made his name. Jet Li, a Chinese national wushu champion in his youth, plays a monk with a cleaner, more classical style. Their temple duel midway through is the scene everyone came for, with each man bringing out his signature moves.

A coming-of-age story

The hero, played by Michael Angarano, is a fan who learns stance, patience and control in training scenes that echo the Shaw Brothers films. Golden Sparrow, played by Liu Yifei, was inspired by the heroine of King Hu's Come Drink with Me (1966). Collin Chou plays the Jade Warlord and Li Bingbing a white-haired witch, another wuxia borrowing. The film was shot in China and in Mongolia near the Gobi Desert, wrapping in August 2007.

Reception

Made for $55 million, it grossed around $128 million worldwide. Critics praised the fights and found the plot padded: 63% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. For practitioners, it is an easy way into classic kung fu cinema, family friendly, before going back to the original films of its two stars.