The Princess Warrior is now available on VOD and Digital from Film Movement.
It’s not every day Mongolian cinema gets to shine on the global stage. The Princess Warrior marks the latest effort in that regard from directing duo Baasanjargal Sambuu, and celebrated author Baatarsuren Shuudertsetseg whose 2017 novel serves as the basis for this action adventure.
Actress Tsedoo Munkhbat takes on the title role of Mongol princess Khutulun, the classic heroine based on the real life legend which has seen her tale told through multiple mediums. The story chronicles her life from childhood and upbringing – named at the time as Ajurug – the only daughter to respected Mongol ruler, Khaidu (Gerelsukh Otgon). Khutulun is in constant competition with her patriarchal family setting as a girl expectant by her siblings to be a good wife and one day bear children to a worthy prince.
As The Princess Warrior tells it, Khutulun’s skills take shape in archery and weapons, and the ability to tussle with the best. Those attributes are inevitably put to the test when a pending wedding and the assembly of royals and apostles result in a failed assassination attempt on Khaidu, and the subsequent theft of her family’s keepsake, The Golden Sutra.
With this, Khutulun is forced to subvert her family’s will and set out to retrieve the Golden Sutra and save the fate of her people. That means ultimately joining up with her clan of warrior bretheren to square off against hordes of enemies serving under the command of an enemy force led by the power hungry prince, Nomkhon (Munkhtumur Dondov), and his sultry sorceress, Zulifa (Setgeltuvshin Bayrbat). Going forward, it also means Khutulun and her clan coming to terms with one of their captives, Abatai (Badrakh Battogtokh).
A good deal of this exposition lends a few flashbacks to provide some healthy insight to the motivations of a few of our characters into adulthood. Key to this is establishing some of the relationships in the film, including between Khutulun and her brother, Duva (Ezenmunkh Ganbat), whose own ambition eventually becomes his downfall.
The rest of the film leaves off with a digestible ninety-minute epic that handily crafts a story driven with action and drama, and solid performances by Munkhbat and the cast, along with a few light spritzes of fantasy to augment the film’s supernatural allure in key moments. It matters especially that the fight scenes – coordinated by Tseyendash Damdinsuren – holds up for a largely modest presentation in screenfighting and choreography by Munkhbat and other key roles involved in the action. Other areas of the action lean more on the hit-or-miss end of things, but where the fight scenes might be lacking from time to time, they definitely make up for it in the long haul.
With a winsome storybook ending to cap it all off, The Princess Warrior bookends a worthy effort by Baasanjargal in his first film, and by Shuudertsetseg in her second directing credit following her 2013 solo debut, Queen Ahno – Spirit of a Warrior, based on her 2010 novel. I’ll be sure to chime in with a response to that film once I’ve seen it, while The Princess Warrior and anyone curious from time to time about Mongol cinema will serve something of a delightful watch, especially if you love palatable action adventures with strong female leads.
