Review of My Kingdom (2011) by Panta O — 25 Dec 2011

"My Kingdom" is a tale about Beijing Opera - a specific form of opera with martial arts incorporated... the story begins when at the turn of the twentieth century, a Prince Regent who ruled China tries to solidify his rule executing whole clans of martial artists, including children. One boy, Meng Er-kui, sang as he was led to the headsman and was rescued and taken in by Master Yu Sheng-ying (Yuen Biao), to be trained and raised as a brother to Guan Yi-long.

The beginning of the movie was very well done and I really enjoyed opulent costumes and elaborate recreations of 1920s Shanghai. There's not a frame that doesn't seem to have some sort of detail that makes the audience grin: from mysterious General Lu (Louis Liu) who lounges in the back of the theatre like something you'd see in a movie from the period to the two brothers' wardrobes who change from the traditional costumes of the rural Chinese to a more western hayseed look to Yi-long's spiffy suits and top hats.

Very colourful backdrop with really amazing action scenes choreographed by the great Sammo Hung, are bringing interesting real "opera duels", where the object is much more to demonstrate smoothness of form than to inflict injury... But, there was heaps lacking in the chemistry of the actors - not all the casting was perfectly done! That's how we can go from the exceptional scenes like the battle between Yi-long & Er-kui and Yue (with Mu-lang on the periphery) to completely flat action skills of Barbie Hsu.

One of the critics wrote that "My Kingdom" has weaknesses, and while it addresses them, it doesn't quite do so smoothly... and I agree with that 100%! The action peaks too early and it was quite high... which means that from there on everything was going downhill. But, still, if you have a chance, I'll say - watch it!