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The Forbidden City Synopsis: “The son of an indebted restaurant owner joins a foreign girl in search of her sister. Together, they’ll have to fight side by side against the most ruthless members of the Roman criminal underworld.”

Love can transcend nearly all odds, from language barriers and cultural differences to even distance. Whether that bond is between a sister desperately searching for her sibling or the connection of love at first sight, audiences rarely get treated to a film that blends so many alternating storylines that converge ambitiously. Gabriele Mainetti’s The Forbidden City (La città proibita) is bold, choosing not to be defined by a single genre. Fueled by revenge, this kung-fu gangster romance is as entertaining as it sounds.

The Forbidden City starts out almost like a fairytale, where two sisters, Mei (Liu Yaxi) and Yun (Miki Yeung Oi-Gan), are being taught kung fu by their father while their mother looks on from a window in their house set in rural China. Though the family is on constant edge, ready to hide Mei at any inkling of surveillance, due to the one-child-per-family policy they are aware they have broken this rule. But once their daughters are shown together, it’s obvious that there is no separating them willingly.

Growing up as an illegal child gave Mei a quiet reserve, not like she had a choice. The film’s opening establishes that Mei is the one who gets shut into cupboards while Yun gets to live a life without fear of being taken. That’s until adulthood, when Mei finds herself in a Chinese restaurant’s basement, ruthlessly fighting her way through the building. Each new door she opens reveals the truth about what this restaurant really serves. The Forbidden City gives little context to where Mei’s older sister could be, but for those following Mei’s moves, the truth behind Yun’s work is revealed: she is a prostitute who has found love. With piles of thugs littering the floor on every story of the building, Mei understands that finding her sister is going to be much more complicated.

There’s nothing that Mei can’t use as a weapon; she’s like a dark-haired, mysterious MacGyver. From breaking a CD in half to slice and dice an opponent to dousing the kitchen floor with hot grease, ready to sizzle some sex traffickers, perfectly choreographed fights are plentiful in The Forbidden City, but none compare to this first encounter. Once Mei defeats Mr. Wang (Chunyu Shanshan), the head of the exploitative operation, she is sent to Rome—not as an assignment, but by seemingly teleporting through a doorway in the restaurant to the streets of Italy. Here, the film shifts from a kung-fu masterclass to an enemies-to-lovers romp.

Continuing the theme of restaurants used as fronts, Marcello (Enrico Borello) works as a chef in his father Alfredo’s (Luca Zingaretti) Italian restaurant, spending long, exhaustive hours cooking dish after dish, with his mother serving as the hostess. Beneath the surface, his father works in a shady, mob-like role but wants to leave it all behind to be with a beautiful young woman. When Marcello’s father goes missing, his path crosses with Mei, and if you had X-ray vision, the butterflies in both of their stomachs would be overwhelming to see. They form a team to find both of their missing loved ones, a partnership that doesn’t disappoint, given the film’s solid track record of engaging fights.

There’s no denying that a lot is going on with The Forbidden City’s plot. For the most part, the creative team of Mainetti and his fellow writers, Davide Serino and Stefano Bises, do an admirable job juggling it all—most interestingly in how it depicts two differing cultures coming together through Mei and Marcello. Yun is a prostitute working out of a Chinese restaurant; Marcello also works in a restaurant that is used for nefarious purposes. Though neither Mei nor Marcello can speak each other’s language, their connection is conveyed through simple looks and acts of bravery that say what words cannot. The trio of writers crafts a well-earned romance, yet there are gray areas that are hard to ignore.

A lot of work is put into establishing Mei and Marcello, to the point that details of Yun and Alfredo are forgettable. Even when they are found, the focus shifts away from “how” or “what” happened to them and toward Mei vowing revenge. The way that side characters in the film, such as Marcello’s mother Lorella (Sabrina Ferilli), are barely phased when she learns her husband has been unfaithful poses more questions than the film answers. With focuses shifting too often from one romance to another, one was bound to suffer; it’s a shame that the one that does is the film’s main conflict.

It can’t be understated that the fight sequences in The Forbidden City are a joy to watch, in part due to the power that exudes from the small but mighty Yaxi. From her exterior, she’s an unassuming, shy young woman with a petite structure that doesn’t give way to the fierceness she possesses. She fights with the passion of someone for whom each strike could be her last, especially when she learns the fate of her sister. Yaxi’s non-fighting moments are just as engaging; while her character has a powerful punch, she’s a woman of few words, so when she speaks, you take in every word. Her chemistry with Borello starts off awkward yet relatable, making their love-at-first-sight dynamic blushworthy.

While the balance of the film’s dueling romances needs some evening out, the romantic gangster kung-fu film works well enough to be an enjoyable watch. From the resilience of a sister to the determination of a son, their connection makes The Forbidden City swoonworthy—one of the most unlikely romance films of the year.

Rating: 4/5

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The Forbidden City is available now on digital.