{"id":9534,"date":"2019-07-26T17:30:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T00:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=9534"},"modified":"2019-07-26T18:04:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T01:04:12","slug":"fantasia-film-festival-kingdom-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/fantasia-film-festival-kingdom-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasia Film Festival: \u2018Kingdom\u2019 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Director Shinsuke Sato, responsible for Japanese adaptations of <em>Bleach<\/em> and <em>Death Note<\/em>, tackles historical whimsy and high-flying action in <em>Kingdom<\/em>. A forgotten tale of betrayal and colonization; territorial warfare and Ginsu-deadly swordsman. Have you played the hack-n-slash franchise <em>Dynasty Warriors<\/em>? Omega Force&#8217;s button-masher based on \u201cRecords of the Three Kingdoms\u201d where you fight your way through rival factions on a quest to unite China under one ruler? I mention the vastly popular video game franchise because it reminds one of <em>Kingdom<\/em>, from themes to fighting styles to separated factions. Sato\u2019s direction feels indebted to video game culture, telling China\u2019s unification through babbly cut scenes and katana masterstrokes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/kingdom\/296104\"><em>Kingdom<\/em><\/a> recounts the exploits of Li Xin (Kento Yamazaki), a commoner determined to become China\u2019s most infamous general. He teams up with Yin Zheng (Ry\u00f4 Yoshizawa), Qin Kingdom\u2019s emperor, after an attempted assassination ordered by Zheng\u2019s brother. Xin pledges himself as Yin Zheng\u2019s bodyguard and the two travel through China to Cheng Jiao\u2019s (Kanata Hong\u00f4) stronghold. If Yin Zheng can defeat his sibling, he&#8217;ll be one step closer to uniting China. His conceptual coexistence is mocked by old-world chancellors.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KdZeXuLr49c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Funimation Films is giving <em>Kingdom<\/em> a limited North American theatrical run starting August 16th, so be on the lookout for local screenings. Those fans of the manga who are curious about what to expect from Sato\u2019s vision, here are three reasons to charge into glorious battle with Li Xin.<\/p>\n<h2>1) The Gorgeous Set Pieces<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9554\" src=\"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingdom-Review-Masami-Nagasawa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingdom-Review-Masami-Nagasawa.jpg 960w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingdom-Review-Masami-Nagasawa-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingdom-Review-Masami-Nagasawa-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingdom-Review-Masami-Nagasawa-500x333.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Japanese cinema treats period content with the same big-budget investment as Disney does Marvel multiverses. Movies like <em>Kingdom<\/em> are rich with culture, producing excessive royalties and the magnificence of bygone constructions. Xin and Yin Zheng\u2019s combat within castle walls presents viewers with more than just turn-based attacks. 255 B.C. architectures range from mountainside dojos to marvelous temple complexes. As Wakanda modernizes rural African favelas, <em>Kingdom<\/em>\u2019s production design is full of wondrous stone carvings and arching red rooftops, a focal point of scenic artistry.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just locations, but a complete immersion into Yasuhisa Hara\u2019s manga world: Palaces of grandeur, heritage, and wonder. Bamboo forests where dart-blowing mercenaries lurk or battalion ranks of 80,000 stationed outside Cheng Jiao\u2019s walls. Costumes weave fine kimono silks to owl costumes that double as body armor (worn by He Liao Diao, a mountain girl played by Kanna Hashimoto). Generals don personalized character armors, regional signatures embody standing rituals, and locales prove divinely erected as testaments to traditional local custom.<\/p>\n<h2>2) It&#8217;s An Energized Retelling Of Embellished History<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-9540\" src=\"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2-500x313.jpg 500w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2-400x250.jpg 400w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-2.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sato merges\u00a0<em>Kingdom<\/em>\u2019s textbook elements with a restorative coating of 2010s attitude. Maybe it\u2019s an electric guitar helping to score swift-as-wind duels between Xin and a disgraced mercenary. Possibly Xin\u2019s emphatic declarations as he screams lines instead of merely reading them straight. Filmmakers can easily fall into period-based traps where B.C. dates translate into cinematic drabness by minimalist designs, but Sato\u2019s emphasis on manga energetics liven this otherwise centuries-old time capsule. Maybe a little too much when calling one particularly despicable character an \u201ca-hole,\u201d but the modernization keeps spirits lifted.<\/p>\n<p>Soto\u2019s adaptation of manga pages and anime comparisons is allowed to exaggerate more than your run-of-the-mill Chinese historical actioner. In what world would a petite wanderer in a full owl costume (seriously, lol) be allowed to battle against trained soldiers? Antagonistic forces wear crooked smiles and hamfist their despicableness. Xin leaps high into the air while narration states he \u201cwill fly higher than anyone.\u201d The ratios between good and evil promote cartoonish realms, lumbering berzerker giants and all, which hypes up the entertainment factor. <em>Kingdom<\/em> is an ancient throwback set to popularized beats. It&#8217;s on the nose, but so very indulgent when chronicling Xin\u2019s rise in a very <em>Rocky<\/em> self-gratifying kind of way.<\/p>\n<h2>3) Dat Incredible Action<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-9541\" src=\"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3-500x313.jpg 500w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3-400x250.jpg 400w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/kingdom-3.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Samurai films of this flavor are about supernatural fight choreography: <em>Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon<\/em> recipes. <em>Kingdom<\/em> tosses combatants around with projectile impact but also plays with bloody brutality. It\u2019s no gore-out like <em>The Raid<\/em>, but again Soto draws from manga designs to inject bursts of liquid red splatter when other equals might employ a clean swipe. As \u201cMountain\u201d ruler Yang Duan He (Masami Nagasawa) promises, her people are savage and Yin Zheng\u2019s throne will be \u201cdirtied\u201d throughout their warpath. It\u2019s a promise fulfilled, and an aesthetic choice accentuates the costly dangers of blazing forward toward progress through violence.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing mentioned is to downplay Xian\u2019s fleetness of foot or aerial combos, as fighters defy gravity in signature J-Action fashion. <em>Kingdom,<\/em>\u00a0like all of this ilk, favors the epic over realism, bringing fantasy into ancestral warlord standoffs built on steel and brawn. Scarves come alive and assist their feuding wearer. Larger than life generals swing scepters with enough force to send twenty advancing infantry units flying backward like the Big Bad Wolf to straw houses. The plotting is familiar, but Soto has a blast tossing military around pawns like children handle playthings during recess. No cobwebs cover this invigorated take on China\u2019s coming to form, although there\u2019s a bit too much setting up future installments for those of us who haven\u2019t read or watched <em>Kingdom<\/em>\u2019s other iterations. Still, the importance of characters is not lost nor their imposition squandered. Expect battlefield elegance and theatrical attack modes, an augmented history lesson that\u2019s hip and gets away with it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Kingdom<\/em> is in select theaters on August 20th.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/kingdom\/296104?ref=insidertickets\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7948\" src=\"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Get-Tickets.png\" alt=\"get tickets\" width=\"200\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Shinsuke Sato, responsible for Japanese adaptations of Bleach and Death Note, tackles historical whimsy and high-flying action in Kingdom. A forgotten tale of betrayal and colonization; territorial warfare and Ginsu-deadly swordsman. Have you played the hack-n-slash franchise Dynasty Warriors? Omega Force&#8217;s button-masher based on \u201cRecords of the Three Kingdoms\u201d where you fight your way [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-9534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9553,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions\/9553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}