When I tell you how much I love Kingdom franchise…
Damn. I wish I could put into words beyond my reviews how cool Shinsuke Sato’s work is on adapting this IP for the big screen. I’ve never had the pleasure, especially since my proximity and convenience to film festivals is so paper thin, but I always look forward to legitimately catching these. Much like what Keishi Ohtomo’s Rurouni Kenshin films have done for jidaigeki fandom since 2012.
Anyhoo, Kingdom: Battle Of Souls is now up for parsing as of July 17 via Toho, and the newest final trailer is up. Led by Kento Yamazaki and a mix of new and returning cast members, the new installment sets three years after the events of Kingdom: Return Of The Great General, with protagonist Shin taking on the title of Commander, as the Qin State faces all the other States in an epic battle of wits against cunning legendary strategist, Riboku, played by Shun Oguri.
The core battle I’m looking forward to here is the one between Shin, and maniacal Zhao General Mangoku, played by Yuki Yamada who has shown some of the fiercest screen presence I’ve seen during his supporting tenure amid the HiGH&LOW saga. We see just a smidgen of that here, and much more in the trailer which you can view below. Check it out, and stick around as we could get some festival dibs on this one for those in the mix.
