Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior Blu-ray Movie Review

It's a man's world.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 7, 2013

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Or at least try (singular) again. In 2008 Chinese director Jingle Ma helmed Mo hop jeung luk, which made it to various Western markets under the perhaps more poetic titles of The Butterfly Lovers and The Assassin's Blade (the title it was given for its Blu-ray release). As I mentioned in the review of The Assassin’s Blade, there was more than a passing reference to the folktale of Hua Mulan, the Chinese woman who dressed as a man and became a famous warrior (kind of Joan of Arc style), and who of course inspired the huge Disney hit Mulan. Not content to merely reference the tale of Mulan, Ma returned a year later with Mulan: Rise of a Warrior, a film which ostensibly offers a more “factual” depiction of the character who first appeared in the dim mists of time in an ancient Chinese poem which evidently first appeared as early as the sixth century but which disappeared in that version, only to resurface some five or six centuries later in the version which still entrances children of all ages today. Mulan’s story, while best known to contemporary audiences from its Disney version, has actually been a staple of cinema since the silent era. This is material certainly rife with possibilities, especially given China’s patriarchal and (to some outsider eyes, at least) sexist tendencies. And the fact that Mulan was a warrior of course opens up all sorts of possibilities for epic fight sequences. While Ma, working with a screenplay by Ting Zhang, tries to walk a tightrope between intimate character beats and the larger scope a story like this requires, the result is really rather curiously uninvolving a lot of the time, playing out like a series of tableaux rather than a compelling personal journey of a very unusual woman.

Hua Mulan (Wei or Vicky Zhao) is introduced as something of a cipher, which may ultimately be part of what hobbles this Mulan. She’s shown operating a loom, certainly an allusion to the “proper” role of a female in that era of Chinese history, but when an incursion from the marauding Rourans, all traditional fighting families are called up to provide one family member to battle the onslaught. Mulan’s father is sickly—we know this because he utters little coughs now and then, kind of like Carol Burnett in her long ago parodies of Camille or Love Story. Mulan, who has exhibited a talent for martial arts since her young childhood (which we know courtesy of a quick flashback) takes off in the middle of the night dressed as a male in order to represent her family in the Chinese fighting forces.

As with The Butterfly Lovers, this Mulan wastes surprisingly little time on extending the supposed subterfuge of Mulan’s cross dressing, at least insofar as a few key characters are involved. Almost immediately upon entering the camp, Mulan is recognized by her fellow villager Fei (Jaycee Chan), and not much later through a series of misadventures, she’s recognized as a female by commander Wentai (Kun Chen). This would seem to at least slightly subvert one of the major premises of the film, though Mulan still supposedly passes for male to the rank and file, something that discriminating viewers may find next to incredible considering Zhao’s delicate features and overwhelming beauty.

While Jingle stages several battle sequences with a fair amount of flair, what really ends up working the best in Mulan is the title character’s slow realization that this “man’s world” she literally fought to enter is an emotionally devastating one. We see this first in a fantastically performed moment where Zhao really nails both the horror and resolve of this character as she has to summon the fortitude to decapitate the opposing army’s General. That act is actually what propels Mulan into the front ranks (no pun intended) of her nation’s fighting forces, though it also sets a pretty clunky romantic subplot into motion where Wentai fakes his own death in order to further Mulan’s career.

The ultimate problem confronting Mulan is—well, Mulan. The character is quasi-historical, but the poem(s) which told her story for so long were a mixture of folklore and fairy tale, yet this film wants to play up the historical epic side of things, leaving fantasy and even whimsy decidedly by the wayside. What’s kind of interesting in this regard is that Jingle’s The Butterfly Lovers was awash in a kind of fairy tale ambience, as of course it should have been, and one would think he would have wanted something of the same feeling for his treatment of the Mulan story. But the film doesn’t just play it more or less straight with history, either, adding in a couple of needless subplots in order to give Mulan an appropriate “arc”, for better or worse. Truth is of course stranger than fiction, but in this case when even the “truth” is buried in the dim mists of time, more of a magical realist take on this subject might have been more involving.

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This Super 35 production has been fairly rigorously color graded at the DI stage in one of two ways, both clearly evident in the screenshots accompanying this review. Jingle and DP Tony Cheung favor either cool slate blue tones or slightly warmer amber hues. Perhaps surprisingly, neither of these choices really robs the image of much fine detail, and this high definition presentation offers a generally very precise, well detailed looking image. I was perhaps somewhat more pleased with the overall look of this Blu-ray than my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov was with the Hong Kong release, though like Svet, I also noticed some very minor ringing at times, which are most evident in some of the brightly lit shots. Contrast remains quite strong throughout this presentation, and the occasional use of CGI is quite effective, though it, like some other passing shots, are a bit soft in comparison to the bulk of the film.

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior offers Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes in both Mandarin and English. Toggling between these tracks reveals virtually no difference in the overall mix or amplitude, other than the obvious language differences. That said, as is usual with these choices, I personally would recommend the original Mandarin track, especially since some of the English voice actors (notably Wentai) just don't seem like a particularly good match for their characters. The Mandarin track has some incredibly forceful low end and features some really effective surround activity, especially in some of the set pieces, including the battles and a storm scene. Dialogue is quite crisply presented, even in some of the noisier scenes which also feature a fairly potent but never overpowering score. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is extremely wide.

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (480i; 14:57) is a decent if unspectacular assemblage of interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the film.


• Interviews with Cast and Staff (480i; 1:11:21) is nominally a bit better than the first featurette, though it's obviously culled from the same raw footage used for the briefer interviews in the Making Of piece. Ma has some interesting things to say about the character of Mulan and what he was going for in this iteration of the oft told tale.


• Original Trailer (1080p; 2:17)

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe three will be the charm for Jingle, for the definitive filmic piece on Mulan has yet to be made. That said, Mulan: Rise of a Warrior definitely has at least some things to recommend it. While Zhao is far too pretty and graceful to ever be mistaken for a man (despite her attempts to "butch it up" at times throughout the film), she's quite a winning performer and has a couple of standout scenes here that really nicely depict the emotional turmoil Mulan experiences as she forays into the male dominated world of warfare. The battle scenes are also quite well done and offer the epic scale a film like this cries out for. Less effective, at least for me, was the clunky romantic subplot and a couple of other tangents that robbed momentum from the main storyline. This Blu-ray offers great looking video and really well done audio. Recommended.