Starring: Vicki Zhao Wei, Chen Kun, Hu Jun Director: Jingle Ma Chor-sing Category: IIB (Putonghua)
Hua Mulan, the woman warrior whose legend has been a part of Chinese folklore for more than a millennium, is such an enduring character that even the insipidness of this latest incarnation will do little to dim her allure.
Mulan's eight decades on the screen, dating back to Shanghai silent pictures in the 1920s, have seen her doing double symbolic duty. There's Mulan as an emblem of Chinese resistance against invading forces, striking an especially resonant audience chord in Mulan Joins the Army, the nation's No1 box office hit of 1939. And there's Mulan the inspiring feminist icon, as presented in the operatic Hong Kong drama Lady General Hua Mulan (1964) and Walt Disney's animated blockbuster of 1998. Comparisons with these illustrious predecessors aside, the mawkish Mulan proffered by director-writer-cinematographer Jingle Ma is lacking in legendary stature.
The problems belong primarily to the script, co-authored by Ma and Zhang Ting, and casting. Vicki Zhao (above) is an accomplished actress but her rendition of the title character is lacking in conviction. The illusion is marred in part by a too-pretty make-up job and a vocal quality that, even when deepened, patently belongs to a woman.
This is not an insurmountable obstacle to suspending one's sense of disbelief, provided the scenario is so absorbing as to make such issues seem petty. But that's not the case with Mulan.
Within the first few minutes of the nearly two-hour production, the stage is set for an overtly manipulative combination of schmaltz and cutesiness partially offset by battle scenes effectively choreographed by action co-ordinator Stephen Tung Wai. The story is a variation of the Mulan saga, with a brutal but boring barbarian leader (Hu Jun) determined to take over the neighbouring Wei kingdom, leading to martial arts wiz Mulan (Vicki Zhao) clandestinely enlisting to spare the life of her ailing father. She proves to be a military wiz as well, her secret kept by puppy-like sidekick Tiger (Jaycee Chan) and brooding officer Wentai (Chen Kun).