By Hannah Yi
While social distancing does mean hanging out with your friends in person less frequently, it should not stop you from virtually enjoying quality movies with your friends. One of these movies I recently streamed on Netflix’s new movies section is “Kung Fu Panda 2,” a family classic that guarantees its audience a lot of comedy, action, and a high quality instrumental soundtrack and score filled with Asian influences all packed in an animated 90 minute movie. Although the movie is marketed towards a younger audience, all family members and friends of all ages will find this movie entertaining. The sequel begins with the Furious Five and Dragon Warrior (Po)’s antagonist: Lord Shen and his backstory. Immediately, the movie’s cinematography depicts contrasting colors. The majority of his introduction scenes have black and dark colors except for the fireworks and Lord Shen’s white feathers. After Lord Shen’s backstory is revealed, the following scene with Po and the Furious Five depicts a sudden contrast in colors and brightness as the instrumental music even shifts in tempo and mood.
“Kung Fu Panda 2” is about Po and the Furious Five struggling to battle an evil peacock Lord Shen who wants revenge against the Dragon Warrior (Po) and has extensive plans to conquer Gongmen City and all of China through his secret lethal weapon. In the very beginning, Lord Shen and his parents who are the rulers of Gongman City are struck with a life changing prophecy that Lord Shen will eventually be destroyed by a panda due to his dark-natured behavior. With this in mind, Lord Shen rallies his followers and enacts a genocide among all pandas in China in order for his prophecy to change along with his fate. When his parents find out about his inhumane actions, they immediately exile him and Shen isolates himself with his followers, scheming revenge until he is powerful enough to take over Gongmen City and China. Decades later, Po feels helpless as none of his peers, masters, and his own adopted father have information about his biological parents. While Po experiences self conflict, Lord Shen returns back to Gongman City and makes it his main initiative to destroy Po along with the Furious Five with the help of his secret weapon. Even after he is warned by the same soothsayer who told his parents and Lord Shen’s destructive fate, Lord Shen still seeks revenge. Throughout the movie, Master Shifu advises Po that lethal weapons do not stand a chance against those that find inner peace. Po ultimately utilizes this advice while Lord Shen relies on his lethal weapon to wreak havoc upon citizens of Gongmen City. I found that all the actors and actresses were able to convey their character and important themes very well in this movie. I found that Mr. Ping played by James Hong delivered his role as Po’s adopted father quite well and although his “Chinese” accent is definitely not the most authentic, it helped in establishing the setting of the movie. Moreover, his perspective raising Po from a young age and accepting him as his own was one of the most memorable scenes.
The movie has great themes for anyone to take away from. I especially liked the fact that Po’s identity as an adopted son was addressed because it encapsulated the majority of the thoughts and struggles faced by those adopted or those in the foster care system. The movie well depicted the scenes when Po was experiencing an identity crisis as the background instrumental music would cease or be quieter than usual and there was a very present black/dark grey background color every time he felt lonely. Once the Furious Five confronted him, immediately, the background color would shift to a warmer tone and the set would brighten up in color, indicating a switch in Po’s mood. Beyond this, I also enjoyed the scenes where Po reflected who he was beyond the ultimate hero as the “Dragon Warrior.” Seeing how his friends including Tigress as well as his father Mr. Ping helped him deal with his identity crisis was very heartwarming and it is an excellent example of how asking for help from loved ones can help people cope with self crisis. I enjoyed this movie because unlike “Kung Fu Panda,” this movie has scenes with more serious topics that are very applicable to current events. After achieving inner peace, Po learns that Lord Shen was responsible for ordering essentially a mass genocide of pandas out of fear from the prophecy given by the soothsayer that stated Lord Shen would be defeated by the Dragon Warrior. Even after learning this, what is more powerful is Po’s response. Rather than killing Lord Shen, Po urges Lord Shen to forgive his past self and his past wrongdoings and move on with his life. This type of forgiveness is not easily heard of or found when discussing topics of genocide and human rights injustices (or in this case panda rights injustices) yet the fact that Po was able to move on from his tragic early life shows how forgiveness should not be seen as unachievable. My one complaint is that I wish the backstory of the villain Lord Shen was more developed as I found the reasoning behind his revenge and attitude to be poorly justified.
“Kung Fu Panda 2” appeals to many groups of people although the movie is marketed towards younger children. Those that enjoy family comedy and/or animated movies filled with action scenes would enjoy this movie. As a movie portrayed in a small village in China, I would say the traditional Chinese costumes are pretty authentic as well as the sets with most of the fighting scenes inside ancient palaces; the distinct spiral buildings painted with red pigment and gold stood out to me. I would rate this move a 9 out of 10 flames or stars.
