What are the Kingdom live action films?
The first Kingdom film opened in Japan in April 2019, directed by Shinsuke Sato, known for Gantz and I Am a Hero. Kento Yamazaki stars as Shin, with Ryo Yoshizawa as Ei Sei and Kanna Hashimoto as Karyo Ten. The film compresses the manga's opening movement, the palace coup and Shin's first steps into the war, into a single propulsive story.
It earned about 5.73 billion yen at the Japanese box office, a major hit that turned a respected manga into a national film event. Sequels followed: Kingdom II: Far and Away in 2022, Kingdom III: The Flame of Destiny in 2023, and Kingdom IV: Return of the Great General in 2024, each climbing further into the manga's campaigns and adding generals as the cast expanded.
The films are notable for scale. Battle scenes shot with thousands of extras and large location work in China and Japan give them a physical weight rare in manga adaptations, and Hara's involvement in promotion, drawing film posters and illustrations, kept the manga audience invested rather than skeptical.
Each release lifted the manga again. Japanese sales charts showed Kingdom surging around every film, the classic adaptation loop, and the film program helped carry the series to its 100 million copies milestone. A further sequel has been discussed as the natural continuation, since the films still trail the manga by many campaigns.
Collecting around the films includes Japanese theater programs and pamphlets, film poster art by Hara, Blu ray special editions with making of documentaries, and novelizations, a paper trail that sits naturally beside the tankobon shelf.
