My initial impression of The Forbidden Kingdom was "euk, not another Hollywood version of a Chinese kung fu movie". Especially when they placed an American as the male lead. That impression... was dashed within ten minutes of watching the movie.

With so many heavy weights - the likes of The Curse of the Golden Flower, Hero, Three Kingdoms - hitting the big screen, we get the feeling that the Chinese movie industry is selling itself as a serious martial arts arty farty, uber Chinese/China culture-centric sort of market. We've forgotten the real deal, back when Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung were still shooting the drunken fist and other iconic kung fu classics. It took an outsider to bring back those things we missed seeing on a kung fu flick.

True, with Jackie Chan and Jet Li, there's no lacking in great action and fighting sequences. But there was the great in between (as I call it) humor and overall fun-ness in the movie that we don't get to see in the movies we Asians have created ourselves. I remembered watching those kung fu flicks on the huge TV at home, laughing when the baddies get whacked in all manner of ways by the heroes. I remembered the bantering between the shi fu and tu di (mentor and disciple) and the great camaraderie between rivals who became fast friends. Guess what, The Forbidden Kingdom has all of that.

The other thing that had me so astonished was the great accuracy of Mandarin! Unlike many other American movies make believe Asians, the crew was made up of predominantly Taiwanese and China Chinese. So for the first time, I've heard perfectly fluent Mandarin speaking actors. I still haven't gotten over the shock of hearing Chou Yun Fatt and Michelle Yeoh's horrendously mispronounced Mandarin in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The worse should be that Singapore FHM girl in Rogue Assassin who didn't seem to have passed primary school Chinese language oral exams. For that, I salute to the production crew.

Another thing to look out for, the score. For an American production, I thought the score was good enough to pass off in an Asian period movie.

Rob Minkoff is one great director. After watching the movie, it feels like he had grown up obsessively watching Asian kung fu movies. Go watch the movie, his passion is infectious.