The Forbidden City Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Forbidden City Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 18, 2026

This film's title along with its key cover art and the very fact that it's being released on disc by Well Go USA might understandably lead some to believe this is a "typical" wuxia outing from a home media label known for such efforts. While The Forbidden City does in fact work a considerable amount of martial arts action into the proceedings while also offering what might be called a female ronin type (which the internet informs me are called onna-musha or onna-bugeisha), the film's title does not refer to a royal complex but instead to a brothel, and the narrative actually unfolds mostly in Rome rather than China in a contemporary rather than historical time frame. This is in fact perhaps the first film I've personally reviewed that offers a soundtrack in both Italian and Mandarin, something that in and of itself gives the production some distinctive interest.

The opening vignette of The Forbidden City actually begins with a short text crawl documenting the so-called "one child policy" which until rather surprisingly recently was in force in China, though the first images in the film pretty strongly suggest at least one family may have broken that rule, as there's a father teaching martial arts to two young girls circa 1995 who turn out to be sisters. Things rather quickly segue forward a couple of decades to find one of those little girls, Mei (Yaxi Liu), now grown up and in Rome searching for her missing sibling Yun (Haijin Ye).

Considering the carnage that breaks out, it might be slightly misleading to label Mei's introduction to Italian cook Marcello (Enrico Borello) a "meet cute", but one way or the other after some interstitial drama (and action sequences), it turns out that Marcello is in somewhat the same boat as Mei, in that his father Alfredo (Luca Zingaretti), owner of the restaurant Marcello is struggling to keep solvent, has also disappeared, evidently with a Chinese sex worker. The interstitial material between Mei arriving and meeting Marcello has already introduced a nefarious Chinese criminal boss named Wang (Chunyu Shanshan), whose illegal enterprises include the titular establishment, as mentioned above another supposed restaurant which is a cover for less savory activity, including prostitution. Already the broad outlines of this story are being made clear, but what ends up happening is in some ways rather surprising and in a way actually refreshing in terms of how these ostensible martial arts action epics typically unfold.

If what might be termed the "surrounding context" here is at least somewhat familiar, with Mei engaging in all sorts of distaff John Wick-esque dispatching of various villain types, it's actually the developing relationship between Mei and Marcello that provides the heart and soul of the story, after a perhaps unexpectedly early reveal (at least given the arguably overstuffed running time of more than two hours) as to the ultimate fates of Alfredo and Yun. If the general "arc" of the plot is probably a foregone conclusion, there's some really interesting and even provocative subtext at play, with Mei and Marcello struggling to overcome language barriers, and with allusions to sidebar issues like anti immigrant sentiment and even socioeconomic strata in Rome. That latter element may hint at if not exactly be Neorealism in somewhat the same way that the martial arts offered here hint at but are not exactly wuxia.

The Forbidden City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Forbidden City is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini and a 4K DI as the relevant data points. If the above mentioned John Wick built a franchise palette out of teals and purples, The Forbidden City (while not a franchise, yet anyway) does much the same thing out of reds and blues, though some of the blues admittedly can creep toward teal territory. The palette is so distinctive that it's one reason I will advise those with an interest in this title and the appropriate home theater equipment to opt for Well Go USA's The Forbidden City 4K standalone release (without a 1080 disc), as the Dolby Vision / HDR grades add materially to what is already a really impressive looking palette in 1080 and SDR. The opening vignette is actually kind of relatively bland from a palette standpoint, with a lot of neutral tones, but once the story moves ahead a couple of decades and gets to Rome, the palette starts to pretty much explode in various ways, with several early action sequences bathed in reds and blues, with a perhaps commendably surprising lack of depletion of fine detail. Detail levels are typically excellent throughout, but it's the palette that really helps to define the "look" of this feature. Digital grain is apparent but never overwhelming, which is another big plus in my estimation.

The Forbidden City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Our audio specs only allow for one primary language, which in the case of The Forbidden City is somewhat misleading. While it's probably arguable that Italian takes the upper hand here, there is still quite a bit of Mandarin, and in fact one of the running issues of the story is our focal pair using translation apps on phones to try to understand each other. For that reason, I've listed both languages above. One way or the other, the Atmos mix is consistently immersive, at least after things get to contemporary times and Rome. The action sequences may not quite match some of the frenetic sonic activity of the John Wick films, but they often come close, and there are some fantastically immersive moments with both discrete channelization and some whip pan effects that really add to the energy. A number of crowd scenes and even a concert of sorts enter the fray, all of which provide further opportunities for nicely engaged side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

The Forbidden City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 1:54)

Note: After years of authoring their discs so that previews for other Well Go USA releases automatically followed whatever supplements were on any given disc, the label has changed things recently so that things go back to the main menu. There are still previews that play at disc boot up, but those can be chapter skipped.

Packaging also features a slipcover.

The Forbidden City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are some undeniably cliché ridden aspects to this tale, especially in a couple of late reveals that anyone worth their "twist" salt is going to see from a mile off, but those predicable elements are probably easily outweighed by an unusual story context and especially these two particular characters. The film is probably too long by a half hour or more, but when it's kicking on all gears (kicking being the operative term), it really connects both on the action side of things but maybe even more importantly with some actual human emotion. Technical merits are solid and The Forbidden Kingdom comes Recommended.