A dance-hall floor becomes a battleground in "The Queen of Witchcraft," a 2025 Chinese action drama from director Qi Dao that pairs martial-arts choreography with a period melodrama's sense of loyalty and betrayal.
What is The Queen of Witchcraft about?
Set during the Republic of China era, the story follows Axi, a young woman whose command of Kung Fu sets her apart long before she ever sets foot in the dance hall where much of the film unfolds. Sold into service there, she is unexpectedly taken in as a goddaughter by the hall's master, a position that grants her protection but pulls her directly into the venue's internal power struggles. Corruption runs through the hall's management, and Axi's fighting skill becomes both a shield and a liability as she pushes back against the people trying to control the business and the women who work there. Alongside that conflict, the film follows a romance that develops even as the stakes around her rise, giving the drama a second register beneath its action sequences. The combination of a combat-trained heroine and a claustrophobic, high-society setting gives the film a distinct texture within its genre, closer to a character study wrapped in fight choreography than a straightforward action vehicle.
About the cast
Liu Mengmeng leads as Axi, with Leif Ye and Qing Feng rounding out the principal cast. The film's marketing leans on its combat choreography, and the ensemble's task is to keep the dance-hall setting's social tension as convincing as the physical confrontations.
Context & significance
Republic-era Shanghai and its dance-hall culture have long supplied Chinese cinema with a ready-made backdrop for stories about class, survival, and reinvention, and "The Queen of Witchcraft" works within that tradition while foregrounding a fighter protagonist rather than the singers and hostesses more commonly placed at its center. Blending Action and Drama, the film asks its lead to carry both registers, and the period setting adds costume and set-piece weight to what is at heart a story about one woman navigating an institution built to exploit her.
Watching The Queen of Witchcraft on Ktime
"The Queen of Witchcraft" streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles available, so viewers can choose the original Mandarin performances with Farsi subtitles or the fully dubbed version. Watching requires only a free K-Time account login, and the platform's Farsi-first interface is built for Iranian diaspora audiences looking for East Asian genre cinema alongside Persian-language content.