The part that is more Chinese than Japanese in style (though the original story is based on The Warring States Period) sees State of Qin, under Eisei’s leadership this time after events of first movie, face new threat that emanates from their neighboring state, Wei. Wei’s army led by General Go Kei invades borders and uses assassins to try and kill Ei Sei who survives narrowly due to Shin and Ka Ryo Ten heroic intervention. In his journey towards becoming a general, Shin gets into his first real battle; he is however just recruited as foot soldier and part of a five-man team that includes leader Takukei who is emotionally stable, two former friends who don’t believe anything Shin says Bihei & Bito and Kyokai whose true identity will soon be revealed in a fight scene as an angry great fighter girl. As such the other thousand man commander Bakukoshin and the bossman General Hyoko are almost wrong in everything they do with respect to the group or even for all the Qin troops as far as their superiors are concerned.
Let me make it clear, to fully enjoy “Kingdom 2”, one would have to put the logic aside and just take things as they come without asking themselves too many questions, because Chinese/Hong Kong epics tend to concentrate on particular (action) sequences and then build the narrative around those. Also, anyone who gets attached to the characters in the first film will have a reason for being let down in this regard since most of them are almost completely forgotten which is a pity if we remember how appealing Eisei and Ten were. But this time their place is taken by other members of Shin’s group; Kyokai especially becomes quite an interesting character that owed much of its success to great performance of Nana Seino playing this role.
Kento Yamazaki’s over the top acting as Shin in the first film is gratefully toned down considerably here (this tendency of the actors in these adaptations to look like their anime counterparts borders on the ridiculous), especially since this time around, there is more of a focus on action than story. Also worth mentioning is Kiyohiko Shibukawa as Bakukoshin, who is convincingly silly and clueless while setting up every other terrible decision that gets made from beginning to end, thereby serving as a comic relief even when events are serious.
And speaking of action sequences, the film boasts many magnificent ones. We start with battles that involve the five-member group, in which Shin and Kyokai are always at their best when it comes to speed as much as their attackers; we also have larger scale conflicts involving entire armies facing off against one another. The movie’s set pieces in this regard are all excellently directed, choreographed, edited and shot. As far as the action direction is concerned, Yuji Shimomura has done a pretty good job here. This top-rated work of “Re:Born” director and “Crazy Samurai Musashi” is testimony enough that he is among the best filmmakers today working in this genre not only because he insists on using stuntmen who move as fast as possible.
Akira Sako’s cinematography does justice to everything happening in there together with having the most benefit from Masae Miyamoto’s costume design and Hidetaka Ozawa’s art direction thereby making it a powerful combination resulting into numerous outstanding images. Particularly, this overall depiction of Kyokai and Gokei will be unforgettable for every viewer. Lastly, Tsuyoshi Imai’s editing gives the movie a lightning-fast pace thus both adhering to its aesthetics and also helping disguise some story inconsistencies.
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