Kingdom 4 (2024)

There better be a 5th movie!

I'm going to keep this short and snappy but this was AMAZING! And I only have three points to make:

1. Every year a Kingdom movie comes out, and every year I am reminded of how damn attractive and talented Yamazaki Kento is!

I watch these movies every single time in the cinema and it trully is the best way to consume these movies. Seeing the scenery and battles and everything on the big screen just makes the whole experience and the movies even better!

2. Also, they better announce movie 5 soon because the ENDING to this one!!!!! OMG I NEED MORE! We are definitely no where near finished with any arc, plot, or story. And this movie definitely raised stakes by A LOT for Shin and company.

3. Every single movie in the Kingdom series just gets better and better with each installment! 9/10!! GIMME MOVIE 5 NOW ALREADY!

I would happily watch another 3-5 movies (2 and a half hours each at this point) come out over the next ten years of this series. It's SO GOOD.

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It’s a good film, whether you’ve seen the prequels or not.

So, having singled this out amongst the trailers in cinemas a few months ago, I’d been planning to watch to this one for a while. However, I did fail to watch the rest of the films in the series to prepare myself properly. This did not prevent the film from being enjoyable at all! It was very solid.

Perhaps my rating should come with a pinch of salt, as fans of the previous films would almost certainly rate this higher.

The action is very very solid. It’s also particularly well done for not feeling like “flying men” at all, as some of these surreal historical pieces can do. Action on and off horseback largely a joy to watch. The film has plenty, and I mean plenty, of action. Cinematography? It’d give it a yay? Acting was incredibly strong, along with the music. These really brought things together nicely.

Plot comments shouldn’t come from me as I’m no veteran of the series, but it was well thought out and I did enjoy the story.

There were some small immersion breakers - such as how I couldn’t help but notice every time I could see a certain character’s underarm, that it was always perfectly clean shaven - was this a continuity choice? Possibly, although I can’t be sure. The only other one (which I totally understand, for safety) was a couple times where the animatronic horses felt too obvious - that’s coming from someone who has been riding from a young age though, again, so probably not going to affect everyone’s experience. That was for the main actors. However, there were a number of moments that left me impressed with the horses and their riders in the film (the vast majority of which, real).

The only major drawback is - to those with commitment issues, like me - 146 minutes is a LONG runtime. So this was a bit long for my taste, and there was no interval in cinemas, it was simply buckle in and enjoy the ride.

Overall I would most definitely recommend to anyone interested. I will be indulging in the previous instalments of the series when I have some time to do so. It may also go without saying, but should there be a fifth film, I will likely be trekking out to see that one in cinemas if I have the chance.

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