There is really nothing else quite like Lars von Trier's Kingdom trilogy, or at least the two-thirds of it that has been completed thus far. Part black comedy, part mystery, part ghost story, and part soap opera, this film is all delightful. I've sat through 271 minutes of the predecessor film and another 286 of The Kingdom II and if part III were available, I'd plunk it into the DVD player right now. Like a lot of primetime American soaps, both The Kingdom and The Kingdom II end with cliffhanger-type unresolved threads that leave you thirsting for more.

To quickly recap the basic premise, from the prologue, The Kingdom Hospital was built on ancient marshlands where the bleach’g ponds once lay. Here the bleachers moistened their great spans of cloth. The steam evaporating from the wet cloths shrouded the place in permanent fog. Centuries later, the hospital was built here. The bleachers gave way to doctors and researchers, the best brains in the nation and the most perfect technology. To crown their work, they called the hospital “The Kingdom.” Now life was to be charted, and ignorance and superstition never to shake the bastions of science again. Perhaps their arrogance became too pronounced, and their persistent denial of the spiritual. For it is as if the cold and damp have returned. Tiny signs of fatigue appear in the solid, modern edifice. No living person knows it yet but the gateway to the Kingdom is opening once again.

Historical Background: After completing his so-called "E-trilogy" (The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1987), and Zentropa (1991), originally released under the name Europa), Von Trier's next undertaking was a unique effort for Danish television called The Kingdom (sometimes called Rigel) (1994). It consisted of four televised episodes, later strung together into a four-and-a-half hour film. Von Trier promised that the story would consist in total of thirteen episodes when it was completed. The film under review here, The Kingdom II (Rigel II) (1997), provided episodes five through eight. For this second installment, Van Trier co-directed with his frequent collaborator, Morten Arnfred. Unfortunately, since the completion of The Kingdom II, the actors (Ernst-Huro Järegård and Kirsten Rolffes), who played arguably the two most pivotal roles (Stig Helmer and Sigrid Drusse) in the first two segments, have passed away. That leaves the completion of the trilogy in limbo. I scoured the internet for information as to whether there are concrete plans underway for The Kingdom III, but found nothing definitive. If you try searching yourself, you may come across some sources that state that the filming is currently in progress, but those items are dated 1999 or 2000. It may have been anticipated at that time that the film was about to be made, but it was not. There is also no current listing in the Internet Movie Database for Kingdom III and they often list films that are in progress. Kingdom III was anticipated to be five episodes long. The American rights to The Kingdom were sold to Stephen King and provided the basis for the short-lived television series called Kingdom Hospital that ran on ABC in America and the BBC in England before being yanked due to poor ratings.

Von Trier completed one film between The Kingdom and The Kingdom II, the well known and highly acclaimed Breaking the Waves (1996). Since The Kingdom II, Von Trier's work has included The Idiots (1998), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Dogville (2002), and Mandalay (2003).

The Story: The main characters from The Kingdom are all back for another go-around. There are eleven plot threads alive and interwoven in Kingdom II. I'll offer only a very brief sketch of them. The Swedish Stig Helmer (Ernst-Huro Järegård), a consulting neurosurgeon, is trying to evade responsibility for a botched operation that left a young girl, Mona (Laura Christensen), badly brain damaged. The anesthesiology report could provide the crucial evidence against him, but it was been squirreled away in a hiding place in the archives by Helmer's nemesis, a young resident physician named Krogshøj (Søren Pilmark), nicknamed "Hook" in the first film. As the film opens, Helmer has returned from Haiti with a potion that can turn a person into a zombie, acquired from a medicine man. A dose of it ends up in a cup of coffee that is guzzled down by Krogshøj. Later, he is declared dead because the zombie-state induced by the drug is indistinguishable from death. Helmer, fearing that he'll be charged with murdering Krogshøj, acquires the antidote and tries to catch up with what everyone else assumes to be Krogshøj's corpse, to revive him. It's nip-and-tuck and he ends up literally yanking the coffin off the track that leads to the incinerator at the crematorium.

Meanwhile, Helmer also has to try to withstand the amorous advances of the rat-shooting Rigmor Mortensen (Ghita Nørby), who needs him for sex and as an ear for her morbid rants about bizarre animals. Helmer, who mutters anti-Danish epithets under his breath, also has to evade a bailiff (Klaus Pagh), who is intent on serving him a subpoena, and deal with a secretary, Mrs. Svendsen (Birthe Neumann), whom he can't abide.

The hospital's top doctor, the dottering Professor Moesgaard (Holger Juul Hansen), is so overstressed by his administrative duties that he becomes increasingly incoherent and has to turn over his duties to Helmer while he seeks psychiatric help. The rogue psychiatrist Ole (Erik Wedersøe), operating in the basement, is into every conceivable kind of fad therapy, from rebirthing and drum-beating to a variety of other Gestalt approaches.

One of the more absurd activities to occupy the staff of Kingdom Hospital are ambulance races in which a number of ambulances compete to get to the Hospital first, traveling the wrong direction down highways with sirens blaring. The hospital's top driver, known as The Falken (Thomas Bo Larsen), loses his nerve after a collision. A young intern, Christian (Ole Boisen) decides to take Falken's place in order to impress a female colleague, Sanne (Louise Fribo), who considers him boring and prefers the randy flatterer Mogge (Peter Mygind), who is son of Moesgaard. Mogge stole a head off a cadaver in Kingdom I and is being blackmailed by Krogshøj, who holds the videotape evidence of Mogge's transgression.

Dr. Bondo (Baard Owe), a cancer specialist and researcher, had transplanted a cancerous liver into himself in Kingdom I, hoping to grow the largest carcinoma ever. Worshiped by the students for his dedication to science, Bondo has to decide whether to commit the carcinoma to research or preserve it as a museum piece. Bondo ultimately requires a bone marrow transplant and discovers that the most compatible donor, a half-brother he has never met, is on the hospital's staff.

The ghost story part of the film is carried mainly in a thread centering on Mrs. Drusse (Kristen Rolffes), a spiritualist whose job it is to repair the "wound" in Kingdom Hospital. She is released from the hospital as Kingdom II opens but is immediately hit by one of the ambulances returning during one of the road races. She has a near death experience and meets the spirits at the portal, but she is sent back because she has unfinished work to do on behalf of the spirits. Somewhere in the hospital, there are devil worshipers responsible for calling Satan to The Kingdom. It is up to Mrs. Drusse, with the help of her dimwitted, beer-guzzling son, Bulder (Jens Okking), to uncover the source of the problem and fix it.

The other thread that pertains to the "horror" aspect of the film relates to nurse Judith Bang Petersen (Birgitte Raaberg), who gave birth to a freak baby, called Little Brother (Udo Kier), as Kingdom I came to a close. I don't usually like to refer to any baby as a "freak," but the pejorative clearly fits in this instance. Small wonder, since the child's father was a ghost, Aage Krüger (also Udo Kier), who, while living, had killed his daughter, Mary. Now Aage has become a demon and Satin incarnate. Little Brother is therefore half devil and half human. He grows abnormally fast, turning into a hideous monster that soon requires a bed with a special extension! He also speaks fully formed adult thoughts with the voice of a child. Though he is ugly as a platypus, his mother loves him as only a mother can.

The lead doctors of The Kingdom, called consultants, operate a secret society dedicated to bizarre initiation rituals and covering each other's backside. Their most urgent project is to deal with the unpleasant influence of the hospitals politically-appointed efficiency expert, Bob (Henning Jensen), whose cost-cutting measures threaten to further diminish the already shabby quality of medical practice.

There's a couple of brief appearances of a faith healer who apparently rips diseased organs from Drusse's head and Bondo's abdomen, magically, and then immediately eats the disgusting tissue. Happily, it's an illusion! Somewhere in the kitchen of the hospital, two Mongoloid youths, one male and one female, comment, like a Greek chorus, on all that transpires in the hospital, with pithy existential observations.

Themes: The principal theme of the film is made explicit at the opening of each pair of segments: the inability of science to cope with the spiritual world and the supposed foolhardiness of ignoring the influence of spirits and demons. This is, of course, the basic theme underlying many horror films and ghost stories. There's also a bit of an implicit slap at the bureaucracy of hospital administrations and the fraternity of physicians and their protection of one another, even when there's wrong-doing involved.

Production Values: The Kingdom II is even more brilliantly entertaining than its predecessor, even though there are few entirely new characters introduced. The humor element is intensified, with many more clever laugh-evoking set-ups. A lot of the humor has to do with bureaucratic ineptness and physician pomposity. Some of the comedy is of the black comedy variety. At the same time, the ghostly aspects of the film have also been fortified. This is one of those rare cases of a sequel that exceeds the quality of the original installment. The storyline is also more complex, juggling eleven or so threads as compared to about five in the original film.

The cinematography uses a hand-held camera throughout, creating a sense of eavesdropping on the events of the hospital. Viewers not used to the instability resulting from this method of filming may find it displeasing. There are frequent double-exposures and green overlays to signify the presence or influence of spirits. There's an assortment of indoor and outdoor shots, aerial shots of the hospital, an airplane sequence, and spooky shots of long hospital tunnels and corridors. There's a hilarious sub-thread that utilizes a shot from the inside of a toilet bowl looking up. Moesgaard had advised Helmut that he could best gauge his health my whether his turds float. We see Helmut peering down into the bowl in rapt conversation with his turds. Later Moesgaard tells Helmut a story to illustrate the importance of a lot of fiber in one's diet. A ship had sunk at sea, stranding a thousand sailors in the water with neither life rafts nor preservers. One of the sailors was known to eat a lot of fiber and produced good floaters. His shipmates had begged him to do a number two and, when he had finished, a thousand of them held onto one floater for several hours until they were rescued! Helmut listens with rapt and solemn attention until Moesgaard finally has to say, "A joke, Helmut! Don't they have those in Sweden?"

The quality of the performances in this film is outstanding. Ernst-Hugo Järegård was utterly superlative as Dr. Helmer and it's hard to imagine how he could be replaced if a Kingdom III is ever made. Likewise for Kirsten Rolffes. I was taken with the comic touch of Holger Juul Hansen as Moesgaard. Ghita Nørby, who played Rigmor, also appeared in Babette’s Feast. Possibly the best known of the performers in Kingdom II is Udo Kier, in the dual roles of Little Brother and Aage Krüger. Kier's other work includes Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974), Suspiria (1976), Lili Marleen (1981), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Breaking the Waves (1996), Blade (1998), Dancer in the Dark (2000), and Shadow of the Vampire (2000).

Bottom-Line: The only available version of The Kingdom II is an Asian product, but it can be acquired readily via the internet. It provides optional subtitles in English or Chinese, which for me was an easy call. There are a couple of minor annoyances, however. You can't turn on the subtitles until the credits have run and the movie starts. The film comes as two DVD's and the covers are entirely in Chinese lettering except for an English translation of the title. There is no way to tell from either the disk cases or the disks which disk has segments 5-6 and which 7-8, unless you can read numbers written in Chinese characters. Also, at the end of the film, there are some remarks from Lars van Trier, speaking in Danish, for which no English subtitles are provided. Otherwise, the quality of the DVD disks is comparable to that of The Kingdom .


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Denmark:

Babette's Feast
Celebration
Dancer in the Dark
Day of Wrath
Gertrud
The Kingdom
Passion of Joan of Arc
Pelle The Conqueror
Vampyr

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older