Hua Mulan

Cast: Anita Yuen, Zhao Wen Zhuo, Vincent Jiao, Li Li-chuen, Cheng Puipui, Li Zhi Xi, Eddie Kwan, Chen Baoguo, Zhang Tie Lin, Dong Xiao Yan, Qu Zhong Heng

Plotline: The first half of the series cycles through how Mulan (Anita Yuen) met her close buddies including the general Li Liang in the army. First, Hua Hu, who has hurt his leg, is summoned to duties and in anger, Mulan seeks her childhood friend Yu Chengen (Vincent Jiao) and demands an explanation. When she finds out there is no choice, she enters the army immediately, just as expressed in the Disney Mulan.

Mulan is instead given a position in the kitchen due to her young age. Chengen tries to help her to get a higher position, but is sabotaged instead by Su Jili, an immortal in the guise of a stupid mortal who only cares for his stomach. Previously Mulan, who had no belief for the gods, and also who hated her mother who looked down on her, had made fun of his altar. (Actually, I think this part about the Kitchen immortal is ridiculous because they made it as if each household has an individual Kitchen immortal and Chinese people know exactly that it is impossible to have so many gods to take care of the kitchen... what would they be doing in their free time, lazing around?)

In the end, Mulan only succeeds through sheer luck and later, when she gains the friendship and trust of General Li Liang (Zhao Wen Zhuo). Formerly, she detested Li because of a misunderstanding whereby she mistook that Li was bullying little kids and in actuality, the kids had stolen his money. Eventually, they get to be the best of friends. Mulan is depressed when the flawless Yu Chengen leaves to become a Taoist priest. The Head General, Li Liang's uncle had hidden the fact Chengen was his own son because of Chengen's mother's death and now, due to wrong planning Chengen had caused his own father's death in a battle. It was in this battle that Mulan was able to become General as well.

More problems arise. Mulan saves the Emperor (Chen Baoguo) when he is ambushed. To reward her, the Emperor asks her to become his private guard but she declines due to filial duties. On the way back home, she faints due to loss of blood and Su Jili saves her. Not long after, she dies and in pain (Su Jili has grown to like her after they become close buddies), he ascends to the heavens and finds out that it is predestined she would die at a young age due to her committing evil in a past life. When nobody is watching, he writes "will die at 99 years old" on the pillar where Mulan's lifespan is written. Mulan wakes up. (This part is even more ridiculous)

The second prince who schemes for the throne, Yang Guang (Eddie Kwan) has caused a lot of problems for Mulan and Li since they discovered he had abducted and killed many women. In a situation, he had caused Mulan to be crippled but Su Jili turned back the time and saved her. This time, after Mulan revealed the truth of her gender to the Emperor, he suggested Mulan be chosen as the concubine to his older brother Yang Yong, who was a known womanizer. Su Jili encourages Li to not forget the opportunity and escape with Mulan. However, they are caught and arrested, and this time, Su Jili's devotion for Mulan impresses the Thunder God who strikes Yang Guang down when he is about to attack Mulan with a knife. In fear, the Emperor and Empress beg Mulan to save her son, and miraculously when she prays to the heavens, Yang Guang regains consciousness. And, Mulan and Li are free to get married.

The second half of the series concentrates on how much Xu Shi, Li's mother (Cheng Puipui) causes havoc to Mulan and accuses her of being unfilial. Before, she had engaged Li to his cousin, Xu Yiren (Dong Xiao Yan), whom he only saw as a sister as they grew up together. Xu Shi makes her niece do things like pretend to be a man and enter Mulan's army in order to spy on Mulan. Nevertheless, Mulan and Su Jili find out about Xu's plot, and Yiren gets into some funny business with Su while in the army, leading to their eventual love story.

Mulan and Li, though they love each other, often quarrel and get back together. After some time, Xu tries to accept her daughter-in-law but when she asks a fortune-teller, the fortune-teller tells her Mulan will not have children. In fact, Mulan and Li, as generals, do not have the time to have any children as they devoted their life to their country. Xu tells her son to take a concubine, and coincidentally, Li and his mother met a young woman, Zhuang Xiaoqian, who seemed to have a sad past of being betrayed by her relatives, but in fact she was a rebel sect leader from Mongolia seeking Li and Mulan's lives and had caused the deaths of many generals. Slowly, she has Li attracted to her, Su Jili put to death and Mulan demoted…

CrimsonYu's opinion
STORYLINE 6/10
I don't see much of the storyline, especially when Mulan's mother, supposedly a kindly mother in the historical books, was turned into a mean and greedy woman who only cared for sons. She spoiled her husband's concubine's son and often ignored Mulan until she became General. Mulan was supposed to be the oldest daughter, and had a younger sister Hua Muhui, and brother Hua Muli, but they made her the youngest daughter and she did not have a brother but a stepbrother Hua Tianci.

Su Jili's character was not impressive, especially when they actually used the name of a god. Also, they should have used a younger actor to play Su, as a 30-ish old actor and an actress in her early 20s did not match well. His magic weapons, the effect of how he changed Mulan's fate, were not acceptable. Why wasn't he caught earlier on when he wrote the words on the pillar? Why did Mulan immediately wake up? Also, the episodes about heaven and the gods were boring. They should have made Su a normal human.

CASTING
Anita Yuen as Hua Mulan 8/10
Anita is an experienced actress and therefore has no problem in acting, especially when she often acts as rough characters. The only problem was that I didn't really like the blue-and-purple clothes she wore before she was married, and in the beginning her hair was disheveled. They should have given her more sets of clothes like how they gave the other female characters, but then I liked the colors of her clothes and her hairstyle of a married woman.

Zhao Wen Zhuo as Li Liang 7/10
He was new to acting at that time (his acting in Miracle Healers was much better) and so he seemed quite wooden while acting Li. Maybe that was what Li was supposed to be like, but he could do with more improvement.

Sun Xing as Su Jili 8/10
I don't think there is a problem as he is experienced, but he had no chemistry with Dong Xiao Yan, presumably because of the age difference. However, though Su was silly to be difficult to adapt to the human realm and somewhat gluttonish, he made Su hilarious. The one-sided love the Toilet Immortal had for him was also, quite funny, and his one-sided love for Mulan was hilarious, especially when he makes sad faces to us watchers when Mulan married. Also, he was hilarious when he caught a fever and he told Mulan and Li, "I'm going to die."

Dong Xiao Yan as Xu Yiren 8/10
Xu Yiren had a character, which was, sad to say, underdeveloped by the scriptwriter. She is from a wealthy family and is well-learned about the arts. To add on to this, the actress, who also played a main character in Miracle Healer, and also having a "love" thing for Zhao Wen Zhuo in that series, is pretty and has a nice figure. However, it was the fault of the scriptwriter for making Yiren's character shallow. Dong has the potential to become a better actress, and she is also quite funny when she and Su quarrel, and when they ridicule each other. Her love with Su is totally different from her love for Li, and she revealed a different side of her character when she was with Su. When I was surfing a Mulan forum, many users from different Asian countries liked Yiren and wanted to know more about the actress. Also, I liked her clothes, simple as they were. However, the bun hairstyle they used on her was similar to that of Zhuang Xiaoqian, perhaps they could improve on that.

Cheng Puipui as Xu Shi 8/10
The character may be overly exaggerative but she did her part well. Mothers in the past had these kinds of feelings towards their daughter-in-laws, especially when the daughter-in-law was such a tomboy! However, they probably could improve by giving her better jewelry. She was supposed to be wealthy.

Li Zhi Xi as Yang Yong and Eddie Kwan as Yang Guang 7/10
The characters were copied from THE GRAND CANAL, a TVB serial of the 80s starring renowned celebrities like Tony Leung, Lau Ching Wan, Lawrence Ng and Idy Chan. Yang Guang, played by Lawrence Ng in that version, was evil and would do anything to get the throne, but proved a useless ruler and that was the end of the Han dynasty, overthrown some time later by rebels. Just like Lawrence Ng, Eddie Kwan played his character well. He could express the evil stare and act innocent in front of his father. Yang Yong trusted people too well and was sort of weak. He didn't even realize his own brother planned to get rid of him. Li Zhi Xi often plays weak characters so I don't think there is any difference.

Qu Zhong Heng as Liu Xiang Zi 7/10
The same actor played as Li Qiang in a drama, Ma La Gao Xiao Sheng (Spicy High School Student), the second part to Ma La Xian Shi (Spicy Schoolteacher). Liu is a calm and renowned fortuneteller who can smile and act funny. He deserves to act more of the main characters, but he seemed to be more of a guest in this part of the series, like Niu Cheng Ze (Li Yilong in Taiwan's SAY YES ENTERPRISE, Qiu Hun Shi Wu Suo), who acted as a soldier of Mulan who died in the battle.

Chen Baoguo as the emperor 6/10, Zhang Tielin as Yu Di, emperor of heaven 8/10
Chen's emperor was boring and only made decrees. Also, he let the generals see him too easily. And what was with an Emperor not wearing a dragon outfit but instead, a brown shirt in the palace?

Zhang Tielin has the comical look on his face, and the funniest part was when Mulan defied him and said it was his fault. Yu Di has not much screen-time, of course.

Liu Zi as the Masked Assasin, aka Zhuang Xiaoqian
It is ridiculous that Li or the Crown Prince Yang Yong would even like her. She isn't even pretty enough for the role. Her hairstyle had an even bigger bun than Yiren's, and two huge flowers adorned her hair. Her hair didn't even suit her face, and when she glares at her enemy she really looks ugly. I didn't know why Young Pei Pei, the director, chose her for the role when there are better actresses like, for example, Chen Hao who played Ah Zi in TLBB and for Taiwan, even Xiao Qiang would have done better.

FAVORITE CHARACTERS
Xu Yiren, Li Liang, Mulan and Liu Xiangzi

LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTERS
Zhuang Xiaoqian, and the Empress (Find her annoying).

OVERALL
The series wasn't really that good, but the main actors and actresses made up for it. The ending was rather rushed but the suspense of Zhuang being the serial killer was rather good. However, I didn't enjoy watching Anita's Mulan like how I enjoyed watching Marianne Chan's Mulan in a Tough Side of a Lady by TVB. There, Marianne, though tomboyish, had a pretty side, and expressed how she really worked hard in making the man she loved love her, though she failed. Mulan, due to screen time, seemed to only fall in love with Li only after Yu Chengen left. Their love scenes were too hurried and they married too early.

Overall, I feel the series focused too much on love relationships all along and less on martial arts. I prefer the TVB version as it contains a good mixture of both. A fairly good series.