The Forbidden City (2025) Movie Review: A Well-Paced but Thematically Muddled and Clumsily Concluded Cross-Cultural Revenge Drama

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The martial arts film, “The Forbidden City” (Original title: La città proibita, 2025) begins with a rather warmhearted scene in a family’s life. Yet, it retains a tragic undercurrent of something we learn only a few moments before, which plagues their lives. Set during a time in China’s history when the country enforced its contentious one-child policy, that scene leaves us expecting a mournful tale. That’s what it hints at in the next few beats, only to pivot into a widely different lane. After revealing a trace of familial trauma in their small unit, it leans into a crime thriller lane, showing the protagonist, now an adult, facing the threat of exploitation by a group of sadistic criminals.

By doing so, it immediately puts itself in a tricky territory of a project that tries to show a woman’s path to self-determination, propelled by something devastating. Yet, it also makes one thing clear: the film is set in an elevated version of our reality, where violence is seemingly the sole equalising force. Since then, the script occasionally acknowledges its moral or ethical undercurrents but never fleshes them out.

That can be intentional for a project marketed as a martial arts drama. You may chuck the cerebral aspects and focus on an experience where people can seek catharsis from brutal action. That’s why there’s no point in expecting a self-reflexive deconstruction of the anatomy of cinematic violence. Simply accept the omission as a part and parcel of the genre.

Amid those limitations, the film does sketch out a resonating story of a woman trying to find her missing sister, and a man realizing the hidden truth about his family. Yet, for a film centered around martial arts, it features surprisingly few fighting sequences. Instead, what we get is a bittersweet family drama with a few action scenes to satisfy the genre fans. If you go expecting something as relentless as “Parabellum,” you might get out experiencing something relatively closer to “John Wick: Chapter 4.” In short, there are far more dramatic scenes analyzing the psychological layers of its characters’ pain and frustration than brutal action.

The Forbidden City (2025) — A still from “The Forbidden City” (2025)

Yaxi Liu, a stunt performer and actress, plays Mei, one of the protagonists, deeply concerned about her missing sister’s life. Enrico Borello plays Marcello, a second fiddle in her journey while sorting out his own familial complications. His father went mysteriously missing, leaving him and his mother, Lorella (Sabrina Ferilli), to fend for themselves. So, his journey is driven by anger over abandonment, unlike Mei’s, who has a stronger emotional bond with her missing sister. Her quest is rooted in the political limitations of her country, whereas his quest is more about personal grievances than societal boundaries.

The script, written by Gabriele Mainetti, Stefano Bises, and Davide Serino, uses those psychological details to develop its investigative side, intersected with a romance storyline and a family drama. That combination may not always yield a strong result and can instead dull its emotional impact. Yet, that doesn’t happen in “The Forbidden City,” which is surprisingly engaging. ‘Surprising’ because of the low number of adrenaline-pumping stunts.

A lot of its credit goes to Liu and Borello’s effortless performances, who make the romantic arc seem convincing enough to make you overlook its set of cliches. That’s also true about the supporting cast, especially Ferilli and Marco Giallini, who are sincere in conveying their characters’ underlying despair and smug entitlement, respectively. Mainetti’s direction is also effective in never letting the transition between its multiple storylines feel jarring. Well, for the most part.

For a film that introduces aspects of cross-cultural differences, it is far too undercooked. Set in Italy, it briefly shows people from other parts of the world being exploited in some shape or form by the local heavyweights, and how their native cultures are used in that exploitation. Yet, it never engages with its intricacies, nor does it analyze Mei and Marcello’s cultural differences affecting their newfound relationship, beyond the language barriers, lending to the overall adorable nature of their love. Even if underwhelming on those grounds, it could have at least sorted its key storylines and ended them with believable outcomes.

Mei’s arc still ends with a fairly convincing conclusion, despite her underwritten character. We learn barely anything about her bond with her sister besides the root cause of their estrangement. However, Marcello and Lorella’s arcs are tied up clumsily, making the fate of their love-and-hate relationship with Annibale feel severely underwhelming.

The final moments, revealing that fate, lean heavily into a melodrama, while staying respectably distant from it before, which makes the shift toward the conclusion awkward and jarring. Those flaws dampen the residual effect of this film, which otherwise features well-choreographed and competently performed stunt scenes. So, it makes you wonder if a strictly action-packed film, unconcerned with its themes, would have made it more satisfying. Yet, for what it’s worth, this is entertaining enough to keep you immersed in their lives for its two-hour runtime.