The Forbidden City - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Forbidden City



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Not gonna lie here, but I was a bit surprised by The Forbidden City when I popped it in for this review. I hadn’t paid attention to the press release too much, but assumed from the cover art and the title that this was going to be your typical Chinese martial arts flick. And being that Well Go USA was releasing the title, you wouldn’t expect it to be anything but that either. But upon starting the review, it quickly became apparent that this was an Italian film with a Chinese lead, making this….a spaghetti chop socky flick? But either way, it was certainly a surprise as The Forbidden City is not the enigmatic Chinese city, but rather a Chinese restaurant in Italy that acts as a front for a triad-run brothel.

The opening scene brings us back to a point in time when China had implemented the “one child” rule for decades, making it illegal for families to have more than one child to mitigate overpopulation. The following vignette highlights a family with two daughters, with one daughter hidden from the rest of the world so that the Chinese government wouldn’t crack down on them. Seguing directly into decades later, we’re thrust into a human trafficking situation, where one of the sisters named Mei (Yaxi Liu), has been intentionally trafficked so that she can find her sister, Yun (Haijin Ye). Turns out human traffickers don’t like their victims to sass them back, and soon Mei is beating the ever living snot out of the criminals.

Barely escaping the Forbidden Palace brothel/restaurant, Mei finds her way to an Italian restaurant headed up by Marcelo (Enrico Borello), which was the last known coordinates of her sister. Turns out Marcelo’s father, Alfredo (Luca Zingaretti), isn’t there, and now Mei has no way of figuring out where her sister went. Marcelo has no idea either, as Alfredo left with a Chinese sex worker (hint, hint, we all know who that was), and the two are both searching for him. Add in a triad mob boss named Wang (Chunyu Shanshan) and an Italian mobster, and you have the typical setup for a revenge thriller. BUT, here’s where things go sideways, in a good way. I’m not going to spoil the twists and turns that happen, but needless to say, the second half of the film is a very refreshing take on the revenge genre.

While I was fully expecting Mei to be the butt kicker and the primary star of the film as she goes full on Taken on the bad guys, but its really the relationship between Mei and Marcelo that elevates the film and fleshes it out. The two have a distinctly different (and refreshing) relationship that turns the film from a rote revenge actioneer into something rather thoughtful and enjoyable in a non-action sort of way. Don’t get me wrong, Mei certainly tears up the place when need be (that opening vignette with her breaking out of the restaurant is pretty awesome), but this is not your typical martial arts film by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not perfect as the final act stretches out a bit long, but overall, I really enjoyed this Italian surprise.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

While we usually have ZERO technical spec listings for a Well Go USA title, it looks like IMDB lists a native 4K master and Arri Alex mini cameras as the film source, so it certainly explains how stunning the image looks in 2160p and in 1080p down rezzed. Heavily stylized with thick blue filters out in the city, and amber or red filters for inside the restaurants (red for the Chinese lighting, and amber for the Italian restaurant), the film still looks amazing. Fine details are great, and really make out the limits of the 1080p format. I noticed some light color banding in some of the darker shots, but it was so minimal that I couldn't take away even half a star for that. Contrast and skin tones look great, and outside of the banding I would say this is a picture perfect image, only outclassed by the excellent 4K UHD transfer








Audio:

The twin Dolby Atmos tracks in Mandarin and Italian sound fantastic as well, though I recommend watching it in the Italian track, as that is the original. Dialog is spot on perfect, and the action bits in the opening scenes really blast the listener with a sonic wall of awesomeness (yess, a very technical term). Immersiveness is off the charts, with strong surround usage for the action sequences and the restaurant scenes, with some super-heavy bass when called upon. At first, I was thinking the LFE was only moderate, but as the film progresses, the low end really kicks up (pun intended on “kicks”).












Extras:

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Final Score: ​

The Forbidden City may not be exactly what I was expecting going into the film, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Italian/Chinese production. It had action, it had heart, and it had an unlikely relationship that feels a lot more authentic than many of the typical movie tropes. Sure, there are cliché-ridden moments throughout, but overall, I liked the fresh take on an old genre. It goes on a bit long (by like 25-30 minutes in my opinion), but still isn’t going to stretch your attention span that much. Technical specs are top-notch, and of course besides the minimal extras found on the disc, this is a great package.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Enrico Borello, Yaxi Liu, Marco Giallini
Directed by: Gabriele Mainetti
Written by: Stefano Bises, Gabriele Mainetti, Davide Serino
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Italian: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Mandarin Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Italian, Mandarin DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 138 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: April 21st, 2026

Recommendation: Fun Watch