If Mark Twain had taken a swing at the script for The Forbidden Kingdom, it probably would have been titled, “A Boston Yankee in Emperor Chan’s Court.” East meets West in this enjoyable but ultimately perplexing hybrid of Asian lore and American discipleship.

Jason (Michael Angarano), an American teenager obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics, spends most of his free time wandering Boston’s Chinatown. His favorite haunt is a pawnshop stocked with his favorite, hard-to-find DVDs. But after stumbling upon the legendary staff (think of it as a Chinese Excalibur) of the warrior, the Monkey King, Jason inexplicably finds himself transported back in time to ancient China.

There he bands together with an unlikely trio — the drunken kung-fu master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), an inscrutable monk (Jet Li), and the haunting beauty The Golden Sparrow (Crystal Liu Yi Fei) — on a perilous quest to free the Monkey King from the wicked Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) who imprisoned him in stone five hundred years earlier. As Jason battles the Jade Warlord’s henchman and dodges the deadly White Hair Demoness, Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing), he learns the true meaning of friendship, loyalty, honor and the martial arts.

Based on a traditional Chinese legend, The Forbidden Kingdom is a collaboration between Western and Eastern talent. The film is directed by Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little), while renowned action choreographer Wo Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) masterminds the fight sequences and shares a producing credit. Overall, the film looks fantastic. Already exotic scenery is enhanced by respectable CGI. And the fight scenes — violence as ballet — are tremendous, even if they do call a bit too much attention to the wire-rigged mechanics that make them possible in the first place.

The Forbidden Kingdom marks the first-ever onscreen paring of the two martial arts titans, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Chan and Li operate in different tones and genres, at least insofar as American perceptions are concerned. And while their fight scenes are spectacular to behold, the two superstars stand as illustrations for what doesn’t work in The Forbidden Kingdom. The film tries to contain the best of two worlds — exaggerated, cartoonish comedy and disconcertingly brutal violence. Like Chan and Li, the two philosophies grind uncomfortably beside each other. We are never sure if we should laugh or wince.

As usual, Chan’s English is nearly indecipherable; Li’s is not much better. The film needs subtitles, even for the long swaths spoken in English.

The Forbidden Kingdom allows for the admission of a white Westerner into the world of Wuxia — the magical realm in which gallant swordsmen glide gracefully through the air — no matter how ridiculous that encroachment might appear. The Forbidden Kingdom acts as a way to democratize the sort of magical films Asia has been making for years but have only recently blipped on Western radar screens in the form of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Unfortunately, the film’s comedic inclinations and juvenile hero remove any possibility that The Forbidden Kingdom will be taken seriously.

Like the cliché about Chinese food, the entertaining The Forbidden Kingdom is certainly tasty, but is only momentarily fulfilling.

© Copyright 2008 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.