Kingudamu

Takao Osawa's performance was wonderful! It was so weird! (just compliment) After watching this, how do I see him? What should I think of my memory that I cried a lot like a child in old drama? He was suited a bronze pike better than a 'Shield of Straw.'

This movie is based on a historical fiction comic that depicts Qin's unification of China in 221 BCE. It's already been about 3 years since I wanted to read it. I didn't expect I watched the movie before reading! Although I dislike Japanese movies, I went to a theator with my mother who was crazy for Ryo Yoshizawa.

From the last half, I was so excited! At first, to be honest I felt boring because of Japanese unique elements : CG, the overacting and etc... But the development of the last half gave me heat up like a manga for boys! What controls people is also people.

I felt it like a digest of TV dramas. I felt the wipes of scenes worse. Thus it had some holes that threw a wet blanket on the story. But actually I just enjoyed it so much because I watched it without spoiler.

Now, the golden week( a national long holiday in Japan) has finished and the kingdom week has begun...!

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.

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.

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.

He grunts. He screams. Then he screams again.

Kento Yamazaki overacts and over emotes in every scene, specially in the first half. To show grief, anger, surprise or any other emotion, he has only one register: He screams loudly. And he grimaces. He hams it up. He acts unintelligent but determined, a gritty stubborn brainless dolt. His dialogue is also childish, culminating with the cliched speech about the power of dreams during his last major fight scene. Would you ramble on about the power of dreams when fighting a mortal adversary?

He fast becomes very annoying. And since he's the central character, he ruins the movie for me.

It is too bad, because there is a lot to like in this movie. Great fight scenes, great choreography, impressive settings, hundreds of soldiers, interesting adversaries with original looks and fighting techniques. Some very good second role actors, specially Masami Nagasawa and Takao Osawa. The director, Shinsuke Sato, has become know for his manga adaptations, and this movie is a specially faithful adaptation of the first part of Yasuhisa Hara's manga. If it wasn't for the poor dialogue and overacting, this would be a very fun Wuxia movie.

Because of these fun elements, I hesitated a lot before knocking my rating down . Then came the last scenes, glorifying the forceful unification of China (in this age of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Yughur troubles). These scenes were completely unnecessary, and probably placed in the movie to support a larger Box Office performance in China.

Not recommended.