![mulan rise of a warrior mulan rise of a warrior](https://img5.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/c/s/csg7nvl5el8gsc7l.jpg)
A moment of hesitation and a flash of anguish before lopping off an enemy’s head, speaks depth beyond a standard glorious battle, a sentiment echoed in her words “Kill too many people and you will forget yourself” at the end of the film. Mulan’s characterisation is thankfully faithful to the spirit of her animated predecessor: she’s fierce, strong willed, funny and inspiring, but here her emotions and commitment to family and country have been more fleshed out. However her homecoming is bittersweet: the alliance to ensure peace requires Wen Tai to marry the Ruonan Princess instead of her. After securing an alliance that ends the 12 year war, Mulan finally returns home to a hero’s welcome and her frail yet loving father. Sent north to repel the invading forces, treachery will see her forces decimated and friends die before her eyes. The film stays fairly true to the original: Mulan takes her sickly fathers place in the war, trains hard, winning the respect of her peers and the love of her country, but expands and deepens the plot into a grand, violent and at times touching tale on duty and the horrors of war.Īs she proves herself on the battlefield, all the while concealing her gender, she moves up the army’s ranks and into the high esteem of battalion sub-commander Wen Tai (Chen Kun). Gone are the sing-a-longs and talking dragon of the 1998 Disney classic, replaced with a new militaristic focus that takes us through Hua Mulan’s (Zhao Wei) rise through army ranks as she defends her homeland against the invading Ruonan forces.
#MULAN RISE OF A WARRIOR FREE#
What I love most about Australian free to air multicultural broadcaster SBS, asides from the high likelihood of seeing boobs, is its amazing range of offerings, one of which is 2009’s Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (also known as Mulan: Warrior Princess).