The Sales Girl (2023)

The Sales Girl feels special because it treats coming-of-age not as a checklist of milestones, but as a quiet, risky awakening—set against the off-kilter, neon-underworld texture of modern Ulaanbaatar. It’s a drama with an unexpectedly tender sense of humor and a pulsing, well-chosen soundtrack, anchored by two unusual, vividly drawn women: Saruul, all restraint and dutiful ambition, and Katya, an elegant, prickly mentor whose worldliness is both inviting and unsettling. The film’s originality lies in how it makes a taboo setting feel less like provocation than a lens for self-discovery, desire, and the complicated ways we learn who we are. It won’t be for everyone—especially if you want big melodrama or a tidy moral—but if you’re open to a thoughtful, culturally specific character piece that lingers, it’s absolutely worth the watch.

The Sales Girl is clearly trying to be a coming-of-age drama about sexual awakening and the push-pull between family expectations and personal freedom, with a mentor-mentee dynamic that aims for tenderness more than shock. The problem is it can feel like it’s delivering a message rather than letting the characters breathe, and the setup risks coming off a bit schematic: sheltered student, worldly owner, “liberation” lessons, then inevitable fallout. If you’re hoping for a nuanced, psychologically rich character study, you may find the pacing and emotional turns a little too tidy and the provocation more talked about than truly explored. That said, the performances give it some grounding, and if you’re in the mood for a restrained, dialogue-driven drama that treats sexuality as a topic to discuss rather than a spectacle to gawk at, it might still work for you.