Kingudamu

I love historical movies, including the films about the history, either real or fictional, of the Asian countries. And so I had high expectations of spending a nice evening by watching another Asian historical movie. Alas, my expectations were ruined by the totally annoying acting, or should I say - over-acting, of the main character. His grotesque bulging eyes, yells and totally stupid demeanor, either caused by the script or his own 'contribution' to it made it so irritating that me and my wife could not watch it for more than first 20 minutes.

I was hoping this would be an action packed war movie, and it was in some ways. But the constant emotional cry/screaming drove me absolutely insane by the end of the movie, so much so I didn't even finish the last 15 mins of the movie. It was unbelievably predictable, the lead character was uninteresting who was constantly screaming and yelling for long periods of time. There was more drama in this movie than anything else. If you took out all the screaming, crying, flashbacks, and talking in between fighting (super unrealistic) you could condense this movie into a short 30 min movie and you would still get all the important parts of this movie. I went into this movie expecting to enjoy it, and ended it early because it was that boring and annoying. It could have been such a better movie than it turned out to be because the plot of the movie was good. I would advise skipping this movie unless your into drama war movies where there's almost non stop crying and screaming and very little action.

Despite what the trailer shows, there are zero epic battles. There are hardly any "screenshot-worthy" scenes either--less than ten. It's also extremely over-dramatic and half an hour too long at least.

But it's fun.

I have tried half a dozen times to get into the anime, but I cannot force myself to enjoy something with that "quality" of animation, and beyond that even the loud-mouthed, obnoxious, and totally-unrelatable protagonist spoil enjoyment. I can't commit my time to seeing a grouchy child not be smacked to pieces by the adults in the room.

This movie, sadly, has the same unworthy protagonist, but at least I can say that the producers translated that perfectly and the main actor followed instructions to the t. It is, however, entertaining. No modernization at all, no attempt to shoehorn contemporary mores into a story older than Jesus, no deeper meaning other than being fun.

That's what a movie should be. Kingdom is fun to watch. While the details are obviously skipped over because of its format, the rags-to-general story clearly takes its shape. The side characters, despite no backstory, are all acted flawlessly so their motivations are natural and slot with expectations rather well. Good directing makes the "feel" seem more Western than Eastern, but that's good in my book as the Western style is more palatable.

I can recommend this is you want to be entertained and can look past its flaws. It is not arthouse, it's not a HanCinema kind of deal, but it doesn't need to be. Definitely going to binge the second movie right now.

First of All... The Story, The cast are really good.. kingdom is based on history about Xin, slave who dream about being the great general under heaven.. The story is not 100% accurate but still based on history, Xin in history is not really recorded thats why author has freedom to write but he is exist.

Then this is made based the manga thats why there are many overacting n else like Xin scream and else.. logically its not logic but based on manga its really accurate, kento played xin really well.. they made it as dramatic as the manga.. if u watch while thinking as stand alone moviee based in history only maybe u will disappointed but i read the manga n watch the anime.. this really cool. Im satisfied with the fight scene.. tho its not perfect but it executed really well, this is just beginning,

the fun is there when xin climbing from foot soldier into general.. i hope it has sequel

Nice production, great setting (the warring states period of China)! Overly expressive however, as common in Japanese cinema. But this adds to its charms, and certainly should not bother the viewer. Especially not if one has seen their fair share of Japanese cinema.