The “Damsel in Distress” trope is one of the oldest, and most annoying tropes to still exist. This is 2022, knock that shit off already. Yes, I do recognize that in order to really stick it to the protagonist, sometimes someone close to them has to be threatened in order to raise the stakes- and sometimes it will be a woman. But it doesn’t always have to be a woman like a majority of films in the past (and the context always makes a big difference). The entertainment industry is getting a little better about representing women in games, tv shows, and films, and The Princess (2022) is one such film.
I came across The Princess as I was searching for The Predator on Hulu. It’s a bit different from what I was looking for, but the trailer grabbed my attention enough to check it out. What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! The Princess stars Joey King, Dominic Cooper, Olga Kurylenko, and Veronica Ngo. If you notice, three of those main characters are women- a major point in and of itself. So what’s the plot, you ask? It’s so simple that the question of whether this counts as a parody often crossed my mind. There’s a Princess (Joey King) who refuses an arranged marriage to an evil man (Dominic Cooper), so that evil man and his baddies take The King’s (Ed Stoppard) castle and The Princess hostage, and she must fight her way out to save her family. The Princess works despite its barely-there plot thanks to its awesome action sequences and clever trope subversions.
This film isn’t trying to win any Academy awards for storytelling, and that’s fine with me. This is an action movie, first and foremost. There’s so little talking that I wonder if the script even broke twenty pages. The plot is there just enough to keep the action from feeling random and pointless, but other than that, the fighting gets to shine as the real star. Kefi Abrikh choreographed the action sequences, and they’re a treat of top-notch hand-to-hand brawls, clanging swords, whipping whips, and all sorts of other deadly implements one can find around a castle. In an interview with Jennifer Matarese, star Joey King talks about how hard she trained in order to be able to do 85-90% of the stunts herself. She may be a newcomer to the action genre, but you’d never know it with her terrific performance rendered all the more shocking if you, like me, only know her from The Kissing Booth.
In my book, Action Movie Freak, there’s a section dedicated to “One-Man Wrecking Crew.” The Princess is one of the few films starring a woman that would make it into that category! The Princess starts beating baddies by herself four minutes into the film and doesn’t stop until an hour in when Linh (Veronica Ngo) shows up for a few minutes to help (more out of politeness than necessity). This is The Princess’s show for sure.
I appreciate that the Princess isn’t a “graceful” fighter in the purest sense. She. Fights. Dirty. She does whatever it takes to win. She’ll roll in the mud, fall in the dust, and grunts and screams her way through every fight until she’s blood-soaked and worn out. Like a brutal disciple of Jackie Chan, she uses everything around her as a weapon: the ribbons on her dress, the vase on the table, and a rack of ribs in the kitchen.
The Princess is a thoroughly terrific watch that goes down smooth. It won’t win awards for thoughtful storytelling, but it deserves it for thoughtful and well-done action sequences.
Action Rating: 5 Damsels Kicking Ass, out of 5
Disclaimer: Just because I am the Action Flick Chick and love action movies does not mean I condone real life violence in any way. Everyone has their own shit to deal with, be nice to each other.
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