Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: December 31, 1998
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1893634043
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #366,477 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Mulan means "wooden orchid" and symbolizes beautiful strength or power. Mulan quan was designed specifically for drawing out women's grace, power, and confidence. The video starts with helpful tai chi tips and breathing instructions from a male teacher. Then instructor Angela Wong-Douglas leads you in a mulan quan warm-up and moving qigong. Next she teaches the mulan short form, which becomes about five minutes of continuous movement when learned. Instruction is in 17 lesson segments, a few movements at a time, and you're advised to practice each lesson for a week before going on. At the end, the instructor puts all the movements together in an exhibition/practice session. Once you've learned them individually, you can fast-forward to this section and practice the whole routine.

The warm-up and practice session are performed in a picturesque outdoor lake scene, ducks swimming in the background. But the tips and lessons take place in an unattractive setting with white drapes covering the walls and ending in piles on the floor--quite a disconcerting contrast to the lovely lake scene. Wong-Douglas is a mature woman who glides through the movements with the gracefulness of a cloud skimming across the summer sky. --Joan Price

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Complicated... Rather Enjoyable, August 23, 2000

By 

Andrades (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: T'ai Chi: The Mulan Style (A Feminine Art for Power, Grace & [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I guess I'm on the middle road when it comes to this video. It was helpful and fun but I can understand some of the objections too.

For me the exercizes did increase my balance, flexibility, and grace. I even lost a bit of weight after a month or two. The flowing movements were a joy to preform... after I had decided how they were to be performed- which was no easy task the farther I progressed in the course.

There weren't enough camera angles to really show how a movement was to be executed and to make matters worse, the instructor added her own flourishes after the basic move had been run through two or three times, further confusing me. This was even more evident when you ran through the full form up to the move you'd just learned. Some of the moves were almost unrecognisable.

I fully agree that this form should be taught by a live instructor. Some of the moves near the end of the course are best learned where you can ask questions.

In the explination of the video- this being a feminine art form, I believe she was trying to say that this form of Tai Chi would help make the balance of Yin and Yang within a person be best suited for a female. I can't say I felt any more " feminine " after my lessons, but I did feel better about myself.

I too was wondering about the breathing, since breath control is supposed to be very important in Tai Chi. The instructor only starts you off with the breathing pattern at the very beginning and then leaves you to decide just where you are to hold your breath and where it is necessary to breathe through the move.

It was fun but it could have been better.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Tai Style -- Unlike any other, almost dancelike, September 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: T'ai Chi: The Mulan Style (A Feminine Art for Power, Grace & [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A lovely Tai Chi style that is almost etherial in its beauty. This Mulan Tai Chi style is very unique. In my years of experience in Tai Chi and martial arts I have not seen anything like it. The liquid flow seems to be a very healthful way to practice T'ai Chi, and its ability to develop yin energy is something sorely needed in this day and age. I highly recommend this video program!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graceful, August 23, 2002

By 

Seeking Health "baker95" (CALIFORNIA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: T'ai Chi: The Mulan Style (A Feminine Art for Power, Grace & [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This tape teaches balance and grace. I work with seniors. People don't realize that balance is a major problem with older people. The moves in this tape look for easier than they are. I am still working on this tape. It takes a lot of strength to be this graceful. I hope they follow up with more of this type of tapes.