The Forbidden City Brings High-Octane Martial Arts Action Home on March 17

Fists fly through Rome in the genre-bending action thriller The Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City Finally Hits Home — The Martial Arts Thriller We’re Still Mad We Missed at Fantastic Fest

There are always a handful of films at festival season that slip through the cracks—and then haunt you afterward.

For us, one of the biggest was The Forbidden City.

After tearing through the festival circuit and earning serious buzz as a martial arts supernova disguised as a genre-bending thriller, Well Go USA Entertainment is finally bringing The Forbidden City to audiences at home. The film arrives on Digital March 17, and if the trailer is any indication, this one was built to be watched loud, fast, and fully locked in.

Directed by Gabriele Mainetti (They Call Me Jeeg Robot, Freaks Out), The Forbidden City is an Italian–Mandarin Chinese action thriller that refuses to stay in one lane. Set in Rome but pulsing with high-level martial arts choreography, the film feels like a collision between European crime cinema and Hong Kong–style fight filmmaking—and it works.

The story follows Mei, played by Yaxi Liu (Mulan), who arrives in Rome searching for her missing sister. Along the way, she crosses paths with Marcello (Enrico Borello), a man desperate to uncover the truth about his own father. Their paths converge into a shared mission of truth and vengeance, dragging them deep into the Roman underworld where fists speak faster than words.

And make no mistake—this is not martial arts as a garnish.

The action here is lightning-paced, brutal, and relentless, the kind of choreography that feels physical and earned rather than polished into oblivion. Mainetti stages his fight scenes with clarity and momentum, letting bodies collide hard while still keeping the camera honest. It’s the kind of genre craftsmanship that plays just as well to action purists as it does to fans of stylish crime thrillers.

The supporting cast stacks the deck even further, including Sabrina Ferilli, Marco Giallini, Shanshan Chunyu, and Luca Zingaretti, grounding the film’s chaos with texture, menace, and emotional weight.

The Forbidden City was an official selection at both Fantastic Fest and the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival, where it quickly earned a reputation as one of the best martial arts films to hit the circuit last year—the kind that sneaks up on you and then doesn’t let go.

If you’re into genre-blending action, international cinema that doesn’t water itself down, or martial arts movies that actually move the needle, this is one you’ll want to correct immediately.

We missed it in the theater.

We’re not missing it again.

The Forbidden City hits Digital on March 17, from Well Go USA Entertainment.