I gave the film a 6 because of its beautiful overall appearance and the Chinese Opera scenes, which was what drew me to watch the movie. I loved 'Farewell My Concubine' and have watched it countless times, but despite shamelessly borrowing a similar love triangle and plot structure from 'concubine' was forgettable within the half hour it will take me to read the reviews and compose my own.
To begin with, the film was set in 1920's Shanghai, but the glamorous young actors had today's Japanese animation hairstyles, especially General Lu, who must have been the youngest General in the entire police force and whose youthful appearance seriously undermined the film. Next, the martial arts was just plain distracting and again, out of sync with the period. Just because you can fly through the air and run up walls on wires does not mean that you should - I was expecting Jackie Chan to burst in at any time. You can have Peking Opera films and you can have martial arts/chop socky, but the two don't mix well - as if you had mixed a classical piano concerto with boogie woogie. The fight scenes in Peking Opera are very ritualistic, precise and stylised.
Last was the tortuously convoluted plot which required me to keep flipping back to earlier scenes on the DVD to see if I had missed something. Perhaps the English subtitles had left a lot of explanation out of the translation, but it was very hard to figure out what was going on, and because of this dramatic tension was completely lost. A major plot twist, which later turned out to be a red herring, was obvious right from the start, and the big reveal of the red herring was dropped as casually as if someone had accepted a cup of tea, thanks. Overall, the ending wrapped up too hastily with no tension or drama.
Perhaps this was intended to be a teen age flick where no one expected them to follow the plot as they would be too busy swooning over the handsome leads. Maybe taking back the film and recutting it might make a difference, but as it stands it is a wasted opportunity - a teenage Bugsy Malone.
39% - Audience
5.2Plot summary
In the 19th century, the Prince Regent of the Qing Dynasty orders the mass execution of the entire Meng clan. Before his beheading, the leader vows that his family will avenge this travesty of justice. Awaiting his death, a five-year-old Meng boy named Erkui bravely sings an aria. The power and purity of his voice touches the opera star Master Yu and his seven-year-old pupil Guan Yilong. Master Yu rescues the boy and the two orphans become brothers. Years later, Master Yu wins the coveted golden "The Mightiest Warrior" plaque from the Prince Regent, but subsequently loses it in a duel with his archrival Master Yue. Banished from the stage upon his loss, Master Yu spends his time training the two brothers in the village. When the boys grow into men, they set off for Shanghai to pursue revenge. Once they reach Shanghai, they quickly defeat Master Yue, not only reclaiming the plaque but also taking over Yue's opera troupe. Almost overnight, they become sensations of the Shanghai opera scene along with Master Yue's former lover, Xi Mulan. But soon, their collective pasts catch up with them and all three end up in a complex web of love, lust, deceit, betrayal and revenge, ultimately ending in tragedy.
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Aknock off of Farewell My Concubine
HK Neo Reviews: My Kingdom
My Kingdom fails big time because the director forgotten the cutting floor. The film suffers from poor pacing, editing and everything associated with the production room. It is the kind of film that is beautiful to look at, namely the actors, the actress and the surrounding 1920s Shanghai backdrop, but comes off empty and unfulfilling. You know there is a problem when you enter the film with zero expectations and still managed to be disappointed. It is all the more disappointing when you realise an actress in the calibre of Barbie Hsu is suitably wasted and probably the best thing to happen in the film. There is no ongoing debate as to the other two male leads in Wu Chun and Han Geng as neither can act above their restricted wooden facial expressions and range. Fans of old school kung fu cinema can rejoice in seeing veteran Yuen Biao and Yu Rong-Guang gracing the screen in the opening minutes, but its all downhill from there. All in all, My Kingdom does not feel like a complete film, but rather an episode of happenings here and there. The plot is unbelievable and the acting is non-existent. Barbie Hsu has done better works and even the action sequences directed by Sammo Hung cannot save this Kingdom from sinking into hell
Neo rates it 3/10
- www.thehkneo.com
My Kingdom was easily better than 60% of American movies.
This movie is a lot better than the other reviews might lead you to believe. I'm not sure what the other reviewers expected. If anything the movie suffered because it had greater ambitions than it could possibly live up to, but the overall viewing experience was not conspicuously unpleasant. The choice for General Lu was the biggest flaw of the film. Many problems existed, but none of them crippled the entertainment value of the film. Most of the other problems were easy to ignore.
International cinema fans have been spoiled by the above average quality of the movies that come our way. Hollywood has such a stranglehold on the industry that foreign directors face a much higher artistic standard to become successful here. Because of that so many really magnificent pictures have come out of Asia in the past ten years. To become commercially successful on this side of the Pacific requires nothing less. When a movie like My Kingdom comes along and it is merely entertaining instead of a virtuoso production the criticism leveled against it can be less than fair.