Movies set in unexpected locations typically make a point of labeling where they take place with prominent on-screen chyrons. “The Forbidden City” slyly withholds that information, treating the answer almost like a twist. The surprise stems from a prologue set in rural China, where a father teaches his two daughters kung fu before leaping forward to its first bone-shattering set-piece.
A decade or so later, Mei (Yaxi Liu) reappears in the basement of the Forbidden City, a multi-story Chinese restaurant-cum-brothel, fighting her way through a crowd of thugs and sex traffickers. When one assailant pulls a knife, she smashes a compact disc and fights back with the jagged shards of plastic. Mei kicks her way up the stairs, intending to save her older sister Yun, who’s nowhere to be found. Cornered in the kitchen, she improvises weapons from iron pans and a gnarly cheese grater, dousing the next round of henchmen in boiling grease.
