Having ended the war after twelve long years and that the main leads survive, were perhaps the silver linings of this movie. Bound by their duties and responsibilities to their country and towards securing a lasting peace, the ill-fated lovers parted their ways and lived in each others’ memories. Despite their deep love, there was no fairy tale ending - Mulan and Wentai did not “live happily ever after”. The romance between Mulan and Wentai is another highlight of the movie. It is a touching movie which conveyed authenticity. There was a richness of dilemma which Mulan faces: “Country v.s Self” and “sentimental v.s ruthlessness”. There is no word to describe the poignancy of the circumstance the characters were in hence silence is powerful in bringing out the pain. Overall, the actors put up an outstanding performance. Jaycee played the sidekick, Xiaohu, who injected comic relief to the film and demonstrated his strong loyalty to his friends while Hu Jun portrayed the blood thirsty and megalomaniac Rouran prince very convincingly. In the show, Mulan and Wentai had to suppress themselves and bear the enormity of the task of defending the country. Vicky Zhao and Chen Kun managed to deliver and brought out the complex emotions of their characters vividly –sorrow, grief, anguish, frustration, fear, terror, helplessness, resilience and courage - in the face of the cruelty of war. I agreed that Director Ma had made the right casting choice. Director Ma sought to amplify the greatness and selflessness of Mulan through the various self sacrifices and tough decisions she had made for the sake of her country. Thus, the focus of the movie was less about Mulan’s accomplishment in battles but her personal journey of self discovery to being a great general. He attempted to leverage on the perspective and emotions of the female persona in stark contrast to its male dominant environment. Thus, it will be an uphill challenge for “Mulan” to excite the audience (Chong, 2009).ĭirector Ma avoided these pitfalls by giving a different meaning to war and crafting the story around its central character, Mulan. Furthermore, there is a slew of Chinese historic war epic films in recent years, such as “The Warlords”, and “Red Cliff”. There are already several film adaptations of the story of Mulan hence this movie would run the risks of becoming a cliche. I think that using the Chinese idiom, 巾帼不让须眉 (jin guo bu rang xu mei), is an apt term to describe the heroine. Mulan eventually assumes a historically critical role in defending the nation in a time of war who was on par with the men. Through the harsh military training, she proved herself an outstanding warrior. The legendary Hua Mulan (starring Vicky Zhao) disguised herself as a man, taking the place of her ailing father, to enlist into the army. In the army camp, Mulan met her childhood friend, Xiaohu (played by Jaycee Chen), as well as gained the attention of Wentai (starring Chen Kun), the battalion’s Vice Commander. The Plot is simple : When China faced the impending threat of invasion, a nation wide draft was conducted. Below is my take on the show.Ĭast: Vicki Zhao, Chen Kun, Hu Jun, Jaycee Chan, Vitas, Nicky Lee, Xu Jiao I gained two free tickets from OMY.com to watch the movie preview of Mulan, and then have to write about it.
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