Director Jingle Ma
Starring Wei Zhao, Kun Chen, Jaycee Chan
Rated M
Score 5/6

The epic story of the Chinese girl-warrior, Mulan, who fights to defend her father.

With Disney’s live action remake of its 1998 animated classic scheduled to be released in March, it looks like I have an excuse to go watch it. Now for those of you who might be interested before Disney’s release of its animated movie over the course of 71 years 6 movies Mulan movies where released, the first being released in 1927. This adaption of the Chinese legend was released in 2009.
If you go looking for this one DVD apparently it has been known as many different titles including Hua Mulan, Mulan, Mulan: Rise of a Warrior, Mulan: Warrior Princess and Mulan: Legendary Warrior.

I’m fairly certain that I have watched this one before, but I have never actually reviewed it before. Compared to the stereotypical Disney the color palette for Mulan is very subdued. This is also a gritty and perhaps even a little brutal in places, perhaps to the point of being heartbreaking. However, this was not a gory movie, which it ran the risk of becoming.
I’m not that familiar with the director Jingle Ma’s work. Ma delivered a movie that was beautifully shot in places and is going to be the measuring stick for Disney’s upcoming release.
I mentioned this movie to a friend of mine, and he asked ‘did they cast somebody cliched’ in the role of Mulan. By the standard he was measuring a cliched casting choice, I’m certain they weren’t. Zhao Wei (this is the only movie I have seen her in) gave a great performance and I loved her character arc.