King of Kings is a very sweet movie for children that will undoubtedly come out in streaming services and DVD after its theatre run. It tells the whole story of King Jesus’ life from beginning to end. While the violence was minimal, there was lots of action with memorable CGI choreography. While a long movie, it is safe for children to watch.
Charles Dickens is cast as the engaging storyteller for the film. Many people don’t realize that Dickens had a very deep faith in Jesus Christ. The last Dickens book The Life of Our Lord was published posthumously 85 years later, after the death of his last child. Written for his ten children, it shows his love for both Jesus and one’s neighbours: “My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the history of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable.”
In this film, Charles Dickens, his son Walter, and Walter’s cat are very amusing & entertaining and kept things moving forward. The film begins with Walter outperforming his father Charles during a theatrical reading of A Christmas Carol. Walter was totally fascinated with the King Arthur story. Dickens shows his son how the King Arthur legend was actually a takeoff on the New Testament story about Jesus, the true King of Kings. Jesus is specifically called the King of Kings in 1 Timothy 6:15 and Revelation 19:16. The term Christ/Messiah literally means ‘anointed King’. Ironically, when people swear using the word Christ, they are unconsciously calling Jesus the King of Kings.
The film stars the well-known Hollywood voices of Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Griffin Davis, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, and Oscar Isaac.
The writer-director Seong-ho Jang is one of South Korea’s leading VFX visual effects experts. The King of Kings has become the top-grossing Korean film in North America, bringing in over $61 million dollars worldwide. Known for groundbreaking innovation, Jang has been responsible for much of the VFX in Korean films. He was deeply concerned as a Christian that there were not any feature-film animations about Jesus’ story. Thirty-one percent of South Koreans identify as Christians.
Jang told The Christian Post: “I was a big fan of films and animation. And at the same time, I read all of Charles Dickens’ books. Later on, I found out that there’s this book, The Life of Our Lord, and I read it. After reading it, I thought it would be a very unique way to talk about Jesus’ story through Charles Dickens.
He wanted to communicate the Jesus story in a way that whole families could connect with. For Jang, the message of King of Kings is all about the love of Jesus: “I want them to feel that the reason for His sacrifice is His love for us. That is the message that I want the audience to bring back home after they watch this.”
With Korea now being one of the three largest missionary-sending countries in the world, we look forward to future Christian VFX/CGI films coming from Korea. God is on the move. May He use movies like this to help many children encounter the true King of Kings.
Books by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God's Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.
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