However there are other Rouran characters, such as the Rouran princess who understands the goodness of taking Chinese land, but is not a fan of all of the pillaging and fighting that is reuquired to acheive it (especially when she realises the war is mainly being fought for the ego of her brother the prince rather than for the actual good of the Rouran people. This feels very real through the film and you truly can sympathise with Mulans devestation when she is led to believe that Wentai has been killed in battle.Įqually the Rouran characters are portrayed well their leadership, especially the prince are portrayed as nasty, but also wanting what is best for their people. The film is certainly not all bad though, the relationship between Wentai and Mulan is certainly nice to watch as he finds out she is a woman early on and the two begin an ill fated relationship. The plot line of both warfare and a strong female character are a strong foundation for this film and yet through some lack of thinking it falls at the last hurdle and ends up squarely in the centre of mediocrity. This is all quite frustrating as the potential of this film to be truly fantastic is plain for all to see. They are no different to what would be seen in any film about ancient battles but without any of the epicness that can be seen in other great battle sequences that can be seen (like in Lord of the Rings or maybe Game of Thrones).

One example would be when Wentai is captured and Mulan infiltrates the camp to resuce him, which all happens due to another Chinese general betraying them none of which felt particularly necessary and all could have been cut with no damage to the film itself.Įqually the fight scenes are simply not as good as can be found in other Wuxia films. Iį it had been a half hour shorter than it was it would have felt less bloated as a whole and the plot would have felt less padded out with various and unnecessary points within it. Like far too many period dramas it falls into the trap of thinking it needs a long run time, therefore it gets quite slow towards its third act and feels like it goes on somewhat. The film certianly has a large amount of potential but it has some major shortcomings that are hard to overlook.

In this version Mulan fights as part of a 12 year war against the Rourans, a group of Mongolians. The film is the same basic story of Mulan so fans of the 1998 Disney film will somewhat know what to expect, though Jingle Ma stated his intention to make the film his own.

Mulan: Rise of a warrior is a 2009 live action wuxia film directed by Jingle Ma and starring Zhao Wei as Mulan, Chen Kun as Wentai and Jaycee Chan (son of Jackie Chan) as Tiger.

Mulan rise of a warrior review