Billed as the Malaysian film industry’s first attempt at cracking the international market – a successful attempt I might add, as the film has been picked up around the world – Puteri Gunung Ledang (The Princess of Mount Ledang) is a gorgeous high budget take on a famous Malaysian story of a forbidden love. And mark my words: if this is a first attempt then keep your eyes on Malaysia because there are no freshman jitters here. Puteri Gunung Ledang is a poised, complex, impeccably crafted film.
Gusti Puteri is a princess of Majapahit, a small kingdom on the island of Java. Gusti has fallen in love with Hang Tuah, the Lord Admiral of nearby Melaka: the country that would eventually become Malaysia. Though their feelings for each other are strong they simply cannot be acted upon. Both have responsibilities to their own countries, their nations follow different religions – Majapahit is Buddhist, Melaka Muslim – and they are of different social classes. Nonetheless they swear their love to one another and promise to meet one day on Mount Ledang, a remote mountain in Melaka.
After Tuah returns to his native land Gusti begins to chafe against her cloistered, restricted life and soon makes up her mind to throw her responsibilities aside and follow her heart. She packs in secret late one night and sets off for Mount Ledang, where she intends to live in seclusion until Tuah finds a way to join her.
All nice and heartwarming to this point, yes? But nice, heartwarming stories don’t survive centuries to become famous pieces of folklore, now do they? Trouble comes in the form of Demak, the ruler of a neighboring Muslim nation who has been making aggressive moves on Majapahit. When he attacks a village the king of Majapahit – Gusti’s brother - longs to strike back with force, but realizing this is a war he cannot possibly win he decides instead to marry off his sister to forge a strategic alliance that could save his nation. The problem now, of course, is that his sister has disappeared leaving her brother to scramble to find her and try to force her into a marriage she wants no part of.
The film divides fairly neatly into two parts. The first half starts broad with a great deal of time spent on political maneuvering and wrangling between nations. We are introduced to a range of diverse cultures and the different classes contained within each as the film introduces subtexts of sexual and class politics as well as religious based conflict. While you do need to pay close attention to keep the broad range of characters and allegiances clear as you’re quickly introduced to a vast range of characters those characters are each drawn strongly enough with clearly defined personalities that the effort pays off in a rich and diverse world. As the film moves into its second half it narrows down, focusing more and more on the relationship between Gusti and Tuah, becoming more purely their film. Make no mistake about it, though the film contains some strong genre elements – a pair of martial arts sequences and a small handful of surprisingly effective black magic sequences – this is, at its core, a tragic love story.
While the cast is uniformly strong – the weakest link likely being the one-note king of Majapahit – the production design is equally impressive. This is simply a beautiful film. From the opening sequence in a maze made of draped-cloth walls, through the rich detail of both the Majapihit and Melaka palaces, Puteri Gunung Ledang is simply stocked with beautiful images. The scope of this thing is staggering, with extensive period sets built to capture the authentic details of this world. On those rare occasions when the film incorporates special effects they are simply and tastefully executed, blending flawlessly with the natural environments. If there is a weak element it is in the martial arts sequences. Though the performances are good – and use a grappling based style I’d not seen before – they are not choreographed or filmed particularly well, particularly when it comes to wire rig work and supernatural elements. The sequences are certainly far from painful but they are also not up to the incredibly high standards set by the rest of the production.
There has been no word yet on when the film may see a release in the western world but for now it is relatively easy to find on a high grade Malaysian VCD release, complete with excellent English subtitles. Definitely worth the effort of tracking it down.