The Forbidden Kingdom.
From my comments on codrus's LJ post about the film:
Hard to call this a good movie? I disagree. This was an excellent movie, but by that, I mean certain things. Is it a V for Vendetta, Hero, or No Country for Old Men excellent kind of movie? -- no -- but it is a champion of the Kung-Fu genre. The white-haired witch raised by wolves, the deadly girl with the pipa (stringed-instrument), the fight in the tea house, the Drunken Boxing, the battle over the staff by two kung-fu legends, the defeating hordes of soldiers, the relatively accurate Chinese mythology, the kung-fu training -- especially under the waterfall -- and the flying warriors all come right out of a legacy of film that has established them as conventions. This isn't a tired film that brings nothing to the genre, however; it explores them all in beautifully done new ways. The plot, as you mention, with the kid from Boston getting thrown into the mix is more campy than the kung-fu, but that sets up the entire film. All the fantasy in the film is from a dream about kung-fu movies. One of the things the kid does right in the beginning is tell us that this movie is made by people who know kung-fu movies. That sort of narrative framing makes me wet, and at this point it goes without saying that I am a fan of kung-fu movies. All in all, for me, this is a go-back-to-the-theatre, can't-wait-to-buy-the-DVD kind of excellent movie.
Hard to call this a good movie? I disagree. This was an excellent movie, but by that, I mean certain things. Is it a V for Vendetta, Hero, or No Country for Old Men excellent kind of movie? -- no -- but it is a champion of the Kung-Fu genre. The white-haired witch raised by wolves, the deadly girl with the pipa (stringed-instrument), the fight in the tea house, the Drunken Boxing, the battle over the staff by two kung-fu legends, the defeating hordes of soldiers, the relatively accurate Chinese mythology, the kung-fu training -- especially under the waterfall -- and the flying warriors all come right out of a legacy of film that has established them as conventions. This isn't a tired film that brings nothing to the genre, however; it explores them all in beautifully done new ways. The plot, as you mention, with the kid from Boston getting thrown into the mix is more campy than the kung-fu, but that sets up the entire film. All the fantasy in the film is from a dream about kung-fu movies. One of the things the kid does right in the beginning is tell us that this movie is made by people who know kung-fu movies. That sort of narrative framing makes me wet, and at this point it goes without saying that I am a fan of kung-fu movies. All in all, for me, this is a go-back-to-the-theatre, can't-wait-to-buy-the-DVD kind of excellent movie.