Customer Reviews

Saga of Mulan

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I have not actually purchased this movie, I did see it on PBS and I have to say that the reviews given by the critic did not fully reveal how stupendous this movie is. Granted, one would need either a great love of art and theater, or a good amount of tenacity to stick to this film through its' entirety, as it is a good three hours long, nevertheless it is a very action packed production and the singers voices sound completely gorgeous. Also, the movie is very much in line with the historical ballads and legends, and in regards to the acting, well, there are just not enough good things that can be said about the Chinese Opera. Suffice it to say that giving this film something as simplistic as a rating of five stars, is just no where near a good enough critique of it.
It is perfectly beautiful.

During a recent trip to China, my husband and I were exposed to enough Chinese opera to become curious about it and want to see more. I bought this DVD for him as a gift. As Chinese opera goes, this is pretty approachable. The subtitles, although kind of hokey English, help you understand what is going on. Without them it would be very hard to figure it out just from the onscreen action. Surprisingly, our 6 and 7 year old granddaughters have decided that it is a good DVD and have actually requested that we play it for them. This does involve someone reading the subtitles to them and explaining some of the action, but they find it interesting. Just to be clear, this is definitely NOT Disney (in spite of the tags that were suggested by Amazon). The story is a tragedy. It is a pretty adult theme in spite of my granddaughters finding it interesting. The music is not at all Western. If you are curious about Chinese opera and willing to read the subtitles, this may be a DVD you will enjoy.

I purchased this DVD because I wanted to see a Chinese Opera. While disappointed that it was a movie adaptation of the opera, as such the movie is very well done with good singing, acting and engaging plot.