Title: Forbidden Kingdom (15)
Year: 2014
Running Time: 130 minutes
Director: Oleg Stopchenko
Cast: Jason Flemyng (Jonathan Green), Andrey Smolyakov (Father Paisiy), Aleksey Chadov (Petrus)
Notes: Also known as Forbidden Empire and as Viy. Charles Dance has a small part and is credited as Charlz Dens . Won a Russian National Movie award.
Rating: 9
Thoughts: An English cartographer takes on mapping Transylvania but finds a superstitious people.
And rightly so when it transpires there is a demon in their midst! This is adapted from a tale that is over two hundred years old and was an interesting story. It's something that makes 'origin' films (admittedly this is pushing it) so good, as they are often very strong stories unknown to many outside their own region. Flemyng is excellent, a haphazard adventurer that could easily be from an HP Lovecraft novel. There is some great natural humour and interchange between Flemyng and his hosts. In addition some of the action scenes are well executed and have plenty of tension. It's a bit camp, it's a bit quirky, and overall it's a delight. I can easily see past the dubbed dialogue as the cyberpunk mix of ideas is so much fun and the story fairly original. A sequel, with Jackie Chan and Arnie, suggests this went down well.