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THE FORBIDDEN CITY MOVIE REVIEW
Genre-fusing sometimes is an awkward affair, ending up with a film that doesn’t know what it is. But sometimes it creates something that feels very new. Sometimes it ends up being epic. Fortunately this is the case for The Forbidden City. The story follows Mei, a girl who along with her sister was born in China during the one-child policy time and her existence had to be kept secret. Now, she is in Rome looking for her sister who disappeared while trying to earn money to help Mei. What’s not good is it looks like her sister got a job at a brothel run by a Chinese gangster who controls a good part of the crime in the city. What is good is that Mei kicks all kinds of ass. In a stunning opener, actress Yaxi Liu proves she’s got mad skills and the director and cinematographer know how to shoot her to great effect. But wait, there’s more! The film also focuses on Marcello, an Italian chef who works at a restaurant with his mother. His father has disappeared although much to their distress appears to have abandoned them because he fell in love with another woman. That woman turns out to be Mei’s sister. And there’s a lot of stuff going on here that neither Mei nor Marcello know about involving their families. As they start to work together, despite the language barrier, they start to develop feelings for each other. And oh boy, did Wright and Chris develop feelings for this film. The Forbidden City is one of the best and most original things to play Fantastic Fest this year.
DIRECTED BY: Gabriele Mainetti
STARRING: Enrico Borello, Yaxi Liu, Marco Giallini, Sabrina Ferilli, Chunyu Shanshan, Luca Zingaretti, Tomal Islam, Haijin Ye, Claudio Pallitto, Daniele Mosca, Sheena Hao, Seck Abdoulaye, Paolo Buglioni, Dan Ke, Xu Guo Qiang, Elisa Wong, Jia Yimin, Roberto He, Stefano Tancredi, Francesca Fiume, Yingyi Liu, Philippe Guastella
YOUR REVIEWERS
Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)
Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar and theater management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others).
Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.
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