Fantasia 2025 Review: FORBIDDEN CITY, Cooks Up Quality Kung Fu in Rome

This glossy Martial Arts extravaganza from Gabriele Mainetti (Freaks Out, They Call Me Jeeg Robot) is the real deal, and leading contender for action picture of the year. From its superb opening ‘bait and switch’ involving China’s One-Child policy, to its operatic show-down climax, Forbidden City (La Città Proibita) delivers full package entertainment. 



The story is simple, the plot a labyrinth. 



Mei, A fierce young woman skilled in martial arts attempts to single-handedly battle her way through an underworld of Chinese gangsters, as well their rival Italian crime organisation, in the multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Rome’s Piazza Vittorio, to find her lost sister who has disappeared after becoming romantically entangled with an older Italian man. Along the way she herself becomes tangled up with Italian chef, Marcello (Enrico Borello), the son of her sister’s lover, and nephew to one of the crime bosses. Romance, food preparation (from both west and east) and expertly choreographed Kung Fu action ensue.

The film’s opening action sequence is so damn good that you might initially wonder if the film can top its cleverness and audacity.  Starting at the bottom of a receiving warehouse and moving its way through an expansive Chinese kitchen, before spilling out on the busy streets of Rome. Mei kicks, weaves and improvises her way with whatever tools and hot liquids, are available, as the camera (equally lithe as she is) glides and swirls in long takes to display stunt-woman turned lead Yaxi Liu. Her physical performance is note perfect and she convincingly switches from the films complex action to equally demanding dramatic beats. Watching Forbidden City is to witness the birth of a movie star.



What follows is a racially and cultural loaded epic melodrama, replete with double crosses, flash backs, musical numbers, culinary asides, and family histrionics. The best blending of martial arts action and domestic dynamics on a film of this size, since Wilson Yip’s Sha Po Lang, along with the grand scale community building set-pieces of Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle.


It is a testament to Mainetti’s storytelling chops that he can keep all the (ahem) plates spinning. He never lets the film drag or get bogged down in is sprawling story. Superb supporting work from its Italian cast including Sabrina Ferilli as Marcello’s mother (and Alfredo's restaurant Maitre D), Marco Giallini (channelling an uncanny Robert Loggia-esque performance) as his ‘old stock Italian’ uncle. Combined with a surprising number of subplots around the workers at both restaurants slash competitive crime-fronts. 



Mr. Wang (Shanshan Chunyu), who Mei desperately wants to kill, has an estranged son, Maggio, who he dots one. Maggio has culturally integrated with the Italian rap scene in ways Wang himself has failed by never leaving his old-world enclave. It offers some rare depth and motivation (for the genre) to an antagonist character that is actually fleshed out by various unexpected turns. Other denizens around the diverse neighbourhood, such as a Nigerian street sweeper, and a Muslim sous-chef, also get screen-time and character-arc to boot. There is a lot going on here, but it feels effortlessly executed.



The film carves out a lot of space for an unlikely romance for the avenging sister and the burned out Marcello, who are completely at odds culturally, and initially only connected via her missing sister and his missing father, whom they grieve in different ways. They require either a mobile phone’s translation app to even communicate, but their relationship grows into a full bloomed romance  in between heroic bloodshed and side trips through Roman architecture. Yaxi Liu and Enrico Borello have great chemistry, and the film knows how to use each of their character’s strengths and weaknesses to further season the story, to easily let the audience buy into the romance, without skimping on the busting of heads, and sweeping operatic comeuppance.