When I read the brief summary for the action film, FORBIDDEN CITY, I expected a standard search and avenge tale, rife with martial arts mayhem. A young Chinese woman named Mei (Yaxi Liu) comes to Rome to find her missing sister, and wreak havoc on any what done her wrong. We get that in fine style, plus a whole lot more.
The tale opens with the sisters as children in China’s era of the one child per family law, requiring one sibling to be hidden from public view. Dad manages to teach kung fu to both, in secret, of course. Fast-forward. An adult Mei, who can’t communicate in Italian without her hand-held translator, starts combing Rome’s Chinese district to find Yun (Haijin Ye), who she fears may have landed in some sort of trouble… or worse. She soon finds a bordello run by a Chinese crime gang where Yun had been forced to work. That group shares dominion over the turf with a Roman gang, headed by Annibale (Marco Giallini). The two have a fragile truce, buoyed by their disdain for, and oppression of, every other ethnic group that’s emigrated to their city.
Mei learns that Yun left her servitude to wind up living with a much older restaurant owner named Alfredo (Luca Zingaretti), who seemingly abandoned his restaurant named Forbidden City (Don’t ask why. Either they never explained, or I missed it.), now run by his wife (Sabrina Farilli) and adult son, Marcello (Enrico Borello).
The ambitious script, co-written by director Gabriele Mainetti, covers a lot of thematic territory in its 140 minutes. The action sequences are first-rate. Yaxi Liu is a legit martial artist, with more credits for stuntwork than acting. This is her first leading part. Despite her slight frame, the attractive artist carries off every aspect of what her role calls for, and is likely headed for success as a featured player, following the career arcs of Zoe Bell, Michelle Lee, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds and others who earned their shots at stardom the hard way. Literally.
The surprise for me came from FORBIDDEN CITY’s Minotaur’s maze of subplots and social issues they worked into the protagonist’s quest. Atypically, there’s long-lasting suspense in who is responsible for whatever happened to whom. The plot dips into racial prejudice, abuse of immigrants, criminal enterprises, romantic sidebars and the fleshing out of more characters than usual for the action genre. Though most of the proceedings occur in sketchy areas of the city, they toss in one long sequence that serves as a travelogue for the Eternal City. That part may have been subsidized by the Department of Tourism, since it didn’t do much to advance the plot. And they squeezed in some humorous bits to relieve the tension. Otherwise, some of the drama seemed nearly operatic in its emotional depth.
There’s only a small amount of sex and nudity, minimizing the bordello element. Action abounds, with Mei kicking ass bigtime, despite taking her lumps along the way. It’s mostly hand-to-hand, using weapons other than guns. They stay rather light on the gore, considering the body count. As is often the case, I thought it could have been 10-20 minutes shorter without losing anything essential, while enhancing the flow of the rest. Mostly, I’m looking forward to whatever else will be coming from Yaxi Liu after this breakout performance.
THE FORBIDDEN CITY, in Italian, Mandarin and English, with subtitles, is available on Digital formats from Well Go USA on March 17, 2026.
3 stars out of 4
https://wellgousa.com/films/forbidden-city
