Average movie with some plot holes
I watched this movie mainly because of Kento Yamazaki and I have to say this wasn't his strongest role.The movie in general has really nice costumes, locations and scenes, but the overall story is a little bit strange (at least).
There were too many scenes that were lacking some logic for me (almost all of them at the end, in the palace) which killed my high expectations. Some characters were also really strange and I didn't understand their purpose (for example the character of General Ouki).
This is not a trash, no, it's a nice movie when you just want to relax, but don't expect anything special or you will be dissapointed.
Was this review helpful to you?
A Great introduction to a grand story
Kingdom is based on of the many manga I've bought and which... I haven't gotten around to read due to lack of time. Seriously there's 70 volumes already published in my country, I have all of them and I haven't read a single one.By the same token, from what I remember the anime already has 5 seasons... and I haven't watched a single one yet.
Only bought the series because it is apparently popular so I didn't know anything of its story.
Since I've been burned by Japanese live actions I don't know how many times before, I was really wary about this one, but I was pleasantly surprised.
I thought it delivered an entertaining story with lots of action and a hero easy to root for. The fighting scenes were a bit too long for my taste. We get a useless "comic relief" in the character of Ten that I just couldn't care about and it was honestly a bit weird to have subtitles in which the names were spelled in Pinyin when characters are pronouncing them the Japanese way. Sometimes the Japanese and Chinese pronunciations were pretty close, and other time not at all, but I got used to it at some point.
I've seen several projects by Yamazaki Kento, all live actions and didn't think much of them because honestly... well they sucked. But checking my list, I realized all the projects he acted in which I hated were from the beginning of his carreer. I haven't seen a single project of his in the last 5 years that I disliked. He seems to be choosing his projects more carefully now and I'm starting to feel, he's slowly but surely becoming my favorite Japanese actor.
Anyway it had some minor flaws but I was thoroughly entertained and it made me want to finally take the time to read these freaking 70 volumes accumulating dust in my library. Not gonna do it because I don't have the time but you never know....
A solid 9
Was this review helpful to you?
Great Start to Epic Story
I went into this movie having already thoroughly enjoyed the anime and I had some trepidation that a live action film would not re-create something similar.I was also prepared that this is only the first part of an ongoing story. This is the start of the journey for Shin to become the worlds greatest general and Zheng to unite China.
I'm glad I ignored that trepidation. and began this live action journey. This was a genuine fun watch.
Yes, it didn't re-create every moment of the anime both in story telling and the action scenes, but I never felt short changed. The action scenes were well choreographed and story flowed.
The cast in this movie managed to bring to life the anime characters that I was familiar with. The ending was maybe slightly weak, however in the context of the future films I wasn't overly bothered by this.
An enjoyable watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
