SYNOPSIS:
During
the Northern Wei period, there was a little girl named Hua
Mulan who lived alone with her father, Hua Hu. Influenced
by her father, Mulan secretly began learning martial arts
and military strategies as a young girl and become a skilled
martial arts fighter. When Mulan was 18, a nomad called Rouran
launches an invasion against Wei. Facing peril, Wei conscripts
all men of every family into the army. Mulan could not bear
the thought of her father going back to battle in his old
age so she intoxicates her father, disguises herself as a
man and secretly joins the army in her father's place. Soon,
her martial arts skills draw the attention of Wen Tai, the
deputy battalion commander. One day, Mulan takes a bath in
a hot spring. Mulan is seen by Wen Tai and she knocks him
down and gets away. But the secret of her real gender is catching
up to Mulan...
MOVIE REVIEW:
Pardon us for being frivolous, but we are
more familiar with Disney’s version of the titular hero(ine).
Yes, the one who sings “When will my reflection show
who I am inside?” while pondering her real identity
in ancient China. Yes, it’s also the same Mulan who
has a talking dragon as a guardian. So we received this real
life action movie, we couldn’t help but giggle and joke
about a singing Vicki Zhao (Red Cliff, Painted Skin) and the
surprise appearance of a chatty dragon friend. Oh, what preposterousness.
In any case, we shall get on with the review
proper. If you are knowledgeable about Chinese culture, you’d
know the Chinese story about a brave girl who decides to enlist
in the army so that her ageing father wouldn’t have
to suffer the hardships of war. So off she goes without informing
her parents, trying her best to hide her gender, while mingling
with hundreds of rowdy men in the army camp.
If you think we are trivializing the values
of filial piety, courage and love with the above writeup,
we apologize. But that is the essence of the story, as adapted
by writer Zhang Ting in this movie adaptation directed by
Jingle Ma. Ma is known for his lightweight Hong Kong comedies
like Tokyo Raiders (2000) and Summer Holiday (2000), so when
he tackles something with a heavy hand, it is somewhat difficult
for audiences to connect with the picture emotionally.
There is really nothing wrong with the movie,
because the cast does deliver decent performances. There is
Zhao and her boyish look (which serves the role really well),
Chen Kun (Playboy Cops, The Knot) who plays a handsome commander
with his appealing charisma, Jaycee Chan (The Sun Also Rises,
The Drummer) who never fails to make us chuckle with his unintentional
comedic acting, Hu Jun (Red Cliff, Assembly) and his weighty
presence as the villain, and Yu Rong Guang’s (Three
Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, Brothers) underrated
performance as Mulan’s father.
The production values aren’t that bad
either. Expect to see grand battle scenes, gorgeous landscapes
and breathtaking cinematography. There is even a touch of
artistic merit here, with Russian superstar Vitas taking on
an interesting role which requires him to, err, sing. You
have to see this yourself (after researching on the influence
and impact this performer has in his home country) to experience
the grandeur director Ma is trying to inject into the 113
minute movie.
So
what is it that makes us feel that this is just another movie
which could have been so much more? It is probably the “been
there done that” approach that fails to connect viewers
on an emotional level to feel for the story and its characters.
Heck, at least we enjoyed listening to Coco Lee and Jackie
Chan playing the characters in the Chinese version of the
Disney animated movie.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Code 3 DVD contains a 15 minute The Making
Of which has the cast and crew talking about the
movie. Interesting moments include discussions of Vitas’
involvement in the movie, and how the music partly produced
by Singapore’s Lee Si Song and Lee Wei Song contributed
to the movie’s storytelling. There is also a Trailer
included on the disc.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
movie’s visual transfer is fine. It is presented in
its original Mandarin audio track.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by John Li
Posted on 8 February 2010
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