Mulan

Released by: Showbox Entertainment/Cine Asia
Released on: 6/21/2010
Director: Jingle Ma, Wei Dong
Cast: Wei Zhao, Jun Hu, Kun Chen, Jiao Xu, Jaycee Chan, Rongguang Yu
Year: 2009
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The Movie:

Directed by Jingle Ma, 2009's Mulan is a star making vehicle for Vicky Zhao, who plays the titular female warrior who, early in the film, impersonates a man and enlists the massive Chinese army as a means to get save her poor and ailing father from having to abide by the Emperor's conscription. Because of her impressive loyalty and skills in the battlefield, she climbs the ranks and eventually becomes a general who manages to lead her forces against Rouran tribal raiders despite the fact that they're massively outnumbered. As we trace her career over a prolonged period of time, we see how Wentai (Chen Kun), a soldier she was in love with, broke her heart so that she could focus on her military destiny and how a conflict with a man named Modu (Hu Jun) over her gender would soon turn into a positive and empowering experience.

One of many historical epics to have come out of the Chinese film industry in recent years, Mulan is a pretty decent mix of glorious battle scenes and character driven historical drama. As the film takes place over a fairly lengthy period of time, the filmmakers are wise to make sure that as we get to know more about Mulan, we learn to appreciate and like her as a person. Zhao is very strong in the lead role, proving she's as talented as she is beautiful and she handles both the dramatic aspects and the physical aspects of the role quite well.

More than a celebration of a Chinese folk story, Mulan is actually a fairly dark story. When you consider that the best known (at least in the western world) adaptation of this story comes from Disney, you might go into this film expecting a family friendly fluff piece but the film ventures into some pretty dark and violent territory. The battle scenes are well shot and large in scope, with some great cinematography and memorable violence and on a visual and thematic level, the film is quite impressive.

As far as the story goes, there are some slow spots and Mulan's periodic rants aren't all that convincing. Not the fault of Zhao but of the writers, there are just some phrases in the film that you can't realistically imagine anyone saying in such a situation, and as such, we're pulled out of the movie when these manic speeches are delivered. There are also spots where it's impossible to believe that Mulan would not be recognized for the female that she is. Zhao is a very pretty woman and rather small in stature and on top of that, she looks and sounds very feminine. Certain scenes hide this well, others don't hide it at all and you can't help but figure that more people would have found her out.

That aside, this is a pretty good movie. The visuals are great, Zhao's performance, despite the story and script slip ups, is a good one and while the pace may fluctuate between perfect and, well, dull the majority of the movie is quite well made.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Mulan looks very good in this AVC encoded 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen high definition transfer. There's a bit of noise reduction obvious in some scenes as well as some minor edge enhancement to note, but these aren't overpowering even if they are easy to spot at times. Colors look good, with a lot of dusty browns dominating many of the scenes giving the picture a dirty, gritty feel that works well in the context of the story it's trying to tell, while skin tones generally look nice and natural. Outside of the periodic DVNR already mentioned, detail is also pretty strong as is texture. It's not quite a perfect transfer, but it's certainly a very good one.

Showbox offers up audio options in Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional subtitles provided in English only. The DTS-HD track is hands down the way to go if you can decode it, as it has way more punch and really does a great job of placing you smack dab in the middle of the film's majestic battle sequences. There's loads of rear channel activity and a very healthy low end rumble that will really ensure your surround sound system works its hardest. The track is well balanced, clean and free of any hiss or distortion and the subtitles are easy to read and free of any typographical errors.

There's actually a really great selection of supplemental material included on this release, starting with eighty-five minutes of interviews that include input from Vicky Zhao, Jingle Ma, Chen Kun, Hu Jun, Jaycee Chan and Jiao Xu, each of whom spend a fair bit of time talking about their respective characters and sharing their experiences on set.

From there, check out the first of two featurettes which is a fifteen minute making of documentary that mixes up some fairly standard talking head interview clips with the standard on set footage that gives us a fly on the wall look at the movie as it was being made. More substantial and more interesting is the second featurette, a five part, half hour long documentary that covers a few specific scenes in a bit more detail but which otherwise follows the same sort of format as the other featurette.

Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the film, trailers for a few other Cine Asia releases, animated menus and chapter stops. All of the extras are in standard definition PAL format and in Chinese with English subtitles (except for some of the trailers).

The Final Word:

Mulan is a pretty impressive high definition viewing experience thanks to Cine Asia's efforts. The transfer is a strong one and the audio is even better and the disc contains a pretty decent collection of extras as well. The movie itself won't win you over if you already appreciate the recent wave of Chinese period epics, but there's no denying the scope, grandeur and impressiveness of the fight scenes of the remarkable pageantry of the wardrobe and set design.