The Princess scratched an itch that I pretty much forgot that I had. I’ve always wanted to see a medieval period piece that features martial arts style action. And with director Le-Van Kiet at the helm, her latest film totally delivers, and scratches that itch in spades. For those not in the know, her 2019 Vietnamese action film Furie was a revelation, and instantly put her name as action talent worth keeping an eye on. And while its star Vernon Ngo has certainly been around since the mid-2000s, Furie really propelled her as an internationally recognized action lead. It was one of my favorite films of that year, and really worth checking out if you haven’t already. And I was so pleasantly surprised by this film, I just had to write this review after I finished it.
Written by Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton, The Princess follows our unnamed title character, played by Joey King, and we find her in the middle of a lot of chaos from the get-go. She wakes up chained and in a bed, in the highest room of the tallest tower in the family castle. Something is wrong. She is to wed Julius (Dominic Cooper) against her will after she stood him up. He has grown power hungry, feeling that her father, the King (Ed Stoppard), has been far too welcoming to outsiders. Julius basically stops just short of saying he’ll make the kingdom great again as his army takes over the castle, and loot it like it was the January 6th insurrection.
The royal family has been taken prisoner while the Princess is in her room. She wakes up, realizing what’s going on, and swiftly springs into action. What ensues is a reverse Raid situation, in which she has to fight her way down the tower, so that she can rescue her family from Julius, his men, and his equally ruthless second-in-command, Moira (Olga Kurylenko). Thankfully, she does eventually find some help along the way in the form of her mentor, Lihn (Veronica Ngo).
This obviously isn’t a very subtle movie. The villains are nakedly repeating a lot of common current right wing talking points, the theming around the Princess being accepted for who she is by her father as opposed to what he wants her to be – an obedient, traditional girl, is fairly simplistic and about as complex as an old Disney movie. However, none of that really matters because the straightforward story is there to lay a sturdy foundation for the action set pieces to really shine, and shine they do!
This film features some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen all year. Sure, they’re not as imaginative as something you’ll see in RRR or as audaciously crafted like in Top Gun: Maverick, but if you wanna see some good old fashioned ass-kicking of the highest order, this is one you have to see. Not only are they shot in a clear, cohesive way, the choreography takes into account Joey King’s size and stature compared to her bigger and sometimes armored male counterparts. She’s had competent training, but she isn’t a superhero, so she gets hurt and thrown around, and often has to use her wits to make it through each encounter as opposed to whatever brute strength she has.
Aside from the film’s simplicity, the only flaws I would actually consider as such are some of the clunky setups. The film utilizes flashbacks to give insight to the Princess’ relationship with her father and her training with Lihn. These scenes are not bad in and of themselves, in fact, they’re necessary just to set up a few basic story setups and payoffs, but they do have a tendency to halt the film’s momentum. The script also feels like the kind of basic girl power through-line you’d expect from male writers, but thankfully, the film doesn’t focus on that too much, and the moments where it does call out the subversive nature of what’s happening, it feels natural of the situation and the characters involved.
Sometimes The Princess feels more like a glorified reel or an audition tape for something bigger and better, both for Joey King as an action lead and Le-Van Kiet as a big budget genre director, with impressive set-pieces coming one right after the other with flimsy but serviceable connective tissue in between. However, I don’t see this as a bad thing like some other folks seemed to have. If we’re willing to overlook the lack of story density in something like The Raid, and plenty of other simple and small-scale action classics, then I don’t see why we can’t do the same for this. I had a really great time, and I was very invested in our lead, rooting for her to win, wincing at each hit she took, and pumping my fist with her every victory. King proves to be a very capable action hero, and I loved her dynamic with Ngo. Cooper can play a villain like this in his sleep, but he definitely gives the role a slimy energy that I really dug. I also really like seeing Kurylenko just pop up in these random genre films, be sure to check out last year’s Sentinelle on Netflix, solid stuff. Anyways, The Princess is just a lot of fun, and it keeps things tight and fast. I think some of our biggest blockbusters could learn a thing or two from this.
The Princess is currently streaming exclusively on Hulu.