Final Rating: 3/5
After the emperor is killed, his niece sets out on a secret mission to stop the assassins from destroying his legacy in the Vietnamese epic Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor.
Spirit Guardians stars Tuấn Trần as An Nhien, the tomboy-ish daughter of a high-ranking official who dreams of becoming a warrior. After Emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh’s murder, she joins a group tasked with escorting the coffin to a secret location, ensuring his final resting place is never known.
On her journey, An Nhien learns that the assassination was only the beginning of a larger plot to end the Đinh dynasty and works to reveal the schemers before they can execute their plans.
Directed by Nguyễn Phan Quang Binh, Spirit Guardians is the most expensive Vietnamese film ever made, and the budget is put to good use. Spirit Guardians beautifully recreates 10th century Vietnam through period accurate costumes and sets.
The emperor’s palace feels alive, as do the caves and villages. Between locations, gorgeous shots of rivers, mountains, and jungles show off the beauty of Vietnam. While the visuals more than deliver on the promise of a historical epic of its magnitude, the screenplay buckles under the weight of Spirit Guardians’ massive scope.
The film features an enormous cast, each with their own title and place in the political world of ancient Vietnam. The intricacies of both the emperor’s plot and that of his enemies are breezed over quickly and can be disorienting for those unfamiliar with Vietnamese history.
The broad strokes fit into a familiar story structure – the good guys set out in a direction, are ambushed by the bad guys, eventually end up back at the palace for a final battle – but where detail could add texture to the central premise, the sheer number of characters and roles too often bogs down the story instead. The giant cast falls victim to this as well. Clearly talented performers often have their talents squandered explaining the world, with few opportunities to stand out.
Fortunately, the leads are given more than enough to work with. Trần is fierce, confident, and warm all at once as An Nhien. Her arc is reminiscent of Mulan, going from a headstrong girl too eager to prove herself to an accomplished warrior standing shoulder to shoulder with the emperor’s guard.
She’s joined by street urchin Nguyen Phong (Johnny Trí Nguyễn), a ne’er-do-well with a mysterious past who is also one of the only people in the village to see An Nhien’s potential. The two begin as rivals, and their budding friendship and eventual romance makes up the heart of the story.
Trần and Nguyễn have decent enough chemistry in their dramatic scenes but are excellent partners during the many action scenes. Spirit Guardians is awash with fights: contained brawls, forest ambushes, open warfare, and everything in between.
Nguyễn also serves as the action director and draws on a variety of influences from Chinese Wuxia films to modern martial arts flicks for the fights. The resulting action feels genre-bending, mixing styles and ensuring no two fights are ever the same.
An early ball game is shot like something out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, characters weightlessly moving as if floating on the wind. Only a few scenes later, An Nhien and Nguyen Phong come to blows in a dressing room, and their close-quarters combat feels violent and weighty.
Director Binh blends genres and style for a sprawling story that’s nothing if not ambitious. While Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor can’t always deliver on those ambitions, enough of it works for the endeavour to pay off.
Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor was seen during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
