Kingdom (5 Stars)

This is the 32nd film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

"Kingdom" is an epic historical film that takes place in the Qin Dynasty, beginning in 255 BC. Two young boys, Shin and Hyou, grow up as slaves on a farm. They spend all their free time practising swordsmanship. Shin is the more skilled of the two, but when a representative of the government comes to the farm, only Hyou is summoned to serve the king. Only later does Shin find out the reason. Hyou looks identical to the king, so he's to take his place if there are ever problems.

The problems come. The king's brother wants to murder the king, so he unknowingly kills Hyou. Shin volunteers to help the king regain his throne. Battle after battle is needed to succeed.

It's a typical Chinese historical film, except for one small detail: it's a Japanese film! The dialogue is spoken in Japanese. I find it surprising that a Japanese studio would want to make a film about the early days of Chinese history. I'm curious whether the film has been received well in China. But those are just political questions. As far as the film's quality is concerned, it's outstanding.