Besides Jin Yong/Louis Cha’s Heaven Sword and
Dragon Sabre, there is only one other series that could make me watch all its
remake. That series is Hua Mu Lan.
Hua Mu Lan is like an answered prayer for the haters
of damsel in distress and her ilk, an extremely attractive heroine who is
impossible to resist.
A girl who doesn’t cower in front of daunting
prospects? Check. A girl who kicks ass? Check. A girl who lives in a man’s
world and climbs to the top of the hierarchical ladder? Check.
It doesn’t matter whether Hua Mu Lan is a real
historical figure or not. It doesn’t matter if she is only a myth/folklore.
What matters is the fact that her story stays and withstands the passage of
time.
For me Hua Mu Lan’s biggest appeal lies in its
romantic prospects. I want to see her love story that is just as epic as her
bravery. Or half epic. Or a quarter epic.
Alright, I’ll stop asking for the moon. Let’s
leave epic alone and just give me good.
If asking for a good love story in a supposedly
war drama is too unreasonable I want to see chilling war scenes, lots of
strategizing, jaw dropping martial art skills, and memorable war theme songs.
Still too much to ask?
In that case at the very least I want my female
general to be badass. No? *sigh*
Honestly, I don’t understand why the most
famous female general China
has ever had couldn’t be an awesome badass.
With all those not happenings what do I have
left? Let’s see there’s still cute and funny. Okay, just give me cute and funny
so I could giggle and laugh out loud. That should be enough to keep me happy.
What? No cute and funny thing in a war zone?
Okay, I’ll take silly and bad (NOT that bad) as
long as there is a happy ending. That’s all I want. No, on second thought, it’s
not a happy ending but an ending that makes ME happy.
I’m very easy to please. Why some drama still
fails to deliver that very low requirement is beyond me.
Let’s have a look at some Hua Mu Lan’s
adaptations.
There are quite a few Hua Mulan’s adaptations
for the big screen, but to my knowledge there are only four Hua Mu Lan’s
adaptations for the small screen. Two in the late 90s and two more quite
recently.
The oldies are a Taiwanese’s Hua Mulan in 1999
and a Hongkong’s TVB’s A Tough Side of a Lady in 1998. The newbies are a
mainland’s Female General (巾帼大将军) or Jin Guo Da Jiang Jun and a Taiwanese’s
Legend of Hua Mu Lan/Hua Mu Lan Chuan Qi (花木兰传奇).
Out of these four I’ve only seen the 1999 CTV’s
Hua Mulan and the mainland’s Female General Jin Guo Da Jiang Jun (巾帼大将军).
The 1999 CTV’s Hua Mulan casts Anita Yuen (袁咏仪) as Hua Mulan, Vincent Zhao Wen Zhuo (赵文卓) as General Li
Liang, and Vincent Jiao En Jun (焦恩俊) as Yu Cheng En (Mulan’s childhood’s friend).
For you who are not familiar with Hua Mu Lan’s
story, particularly on the romance side, the most common version of the story
is that there are two significant men in her life.
The first one is of course the general (the one
she meets in the army) and the second one is the childhood friend (the one she
has known long before she joins the army).
Mind you that the producers, directors or
writers could create their own version regarding the men in her life but this
is my favourite version.
For the sake of fairness, I have to let you
know that my biggest bias towards this series is my love for its casts.
I love Anita Yuen a lot. As an actress I don’t
think she is that beautiful but every time she appears on the screen she
outshines other more beautiful women.
And as if her presence alone is not enough, the
show has two Vincents in it. The two guys who are also my favourites.
At the beginning I was torn between rooting for
Vincent Zhao or Vincent Jiao. Both of them are great actors and have enough
presence to burn your screen, especially Vincent Jiao.
He has something that makes me want to cheer
for him in whatever role he takes. And as I look at his old photo I just notice
something about him and Mike He.
If there is no generation gap they could be brothers
or twins with their uncanny resemblance.
This is Mike He:
Don’t tell me I'm the only one who sees the
similarity.
My first instinct when I watch Hua Mu Lan is to
ship Vincent Jiao. I want him to be the man who gets the girl.
The problem is, although I want to root for Yu
Cheng En the story doesn’t allow me to because he doesn’t love Hua Mulan. Not
the way she loves him.
His jealousy when Mulan starts to side with Li
Liang doesn’t stem from love. It comes from his jealousy of Li Liang himself
and perhaps from a sudden realization that he is no longer the number one man
in Mulan’s life as he used to be.
I can understand why he doesn’t like Li Liang.
He hates people who use their connection to get what they want, and he thinks
Li Liang is one of them. But deep down inside I think he is jealous that Li
Liang could become a general at such a young age.
But the thing is Li Liang is great without even
trying to be great. I fall in love with him long before Mulan does. I jump from
Vincent Jiao’s ship to Vincent Zhao’s ship.
I never jump ship before. Had I not like the
OTP that a show is forcing on me I simply stop watching.
However, there are shows that don’t show you
right away which guy is the Mr. Right. Sometimes you end up watching it just
because you want to know the answer.
The Female General Jin Guo Da Jiang Jun is one
of them.
If I knew about the final OTP in the Female
General, I won’t waste my time finishing the series.
I may sound like I’m pissed because my heart is
broken when the heroine ends up with the wrong guy. The irony is I’m not in
love with the other guy either.
But what worse is that I don’t love the female
lead.
Considering the fact that this drama is touted
as the large scale period drama with a year long preparation, how could I not
love the three main characters in this show?
How could I not love Hua Mulan?
Jin Guo Da Jiang Jun is directed by Tian You
Liang and supported by Ellane Kong as Hua Ruo Lan, Chen Si Cheng as Prince Yang
Jun/The General and Yuan Hong as Zhao Yu (Ruo Lan’s childhood friend).
The big scale screams big budget. The year long
preparation promises greatness. What I get is a disappointment.
The first time I saw Yuan Hong as Zhao Yu I was
asking myself whether they really want to set him up as Hua Mulan’s, oops, Hua
Ruo Lan’s husband for real.
Yuan Hong is very easy on the eyes but Zhao Yu
is definitely not the kind of guy I envision for the great Hua Mulan. However, since
the Hua Mulan in this show is not that great either perhaps I should give them
my blessings instead.
I find it hard to fall in love with Hua Ruo
Lan. Not because I have such high standard for my female warrior – well,
actually I do – but I would already be
in heaven if she has the slightest clue of how to do a decent kick and throw punches.
But, this girl.....this girl cowers and hides
like a genuine damsel in distress. And although later on she gets a great
martial art teacher she still sucks at fighting.
While watching Female General I secretly wish
for a scene where a sword or an arrow would strike and mortally wound her.
How a girl that weak could survive years of
fighting a horrible war is a question that the director/writer of this show
needs to properly justify.
Anita Yuen’s Hua Mulan doesn’t duck when she
sees a sword or a fight coming her way. She doesn’t run and hide from a
villain. She chases and fights the great General Li Liang one on one when she
thinks he is a law breaker.
Her fighting skills are at a level that would
make any male soldiers under her leadership proud. Nobody would raise their eyebrows
when they learn that she wins battle after battle for regardless of her gender
she’s a good warrior.
Although unfortunately despite its very capable
Hua Mulan CTV’s also attributes her successes to the interference of Su Ji Lie
the kitchen God.
Unlike Ellane Kong’s Hua Ruo Lan who is clueless
of the goings on around her (apparently her little sister is the one who is
blessed with the wits and the guts), Anita Yuen’s Hua Mulan is wise enough to
see what’s behind other people’s actions.
When she leaves the war zone and marries
General Li Liang, she uses her wits in a domestic battle against Li Liang’s
mother who hates her guts. She makes me laugh and proud just watching how she
deals with things that come her way.
Hua Ruo Lan? She makes me want to stop watching
the moment I saw her. But you know how it is with your favourite series, you
keep praying that it’ll get better, so you keep on watching until the bitter
end.
Okay, I know it has a happy ending. If that’s
what the director wants to call it. But I beg to differ.
I want Hua Ruo Lan to end up with Prince Yang
Jun. Not because I’m madly in love with this couple but because he loves her
and she loves him. Or at least I think she does.
And that my friend is another bone that I have
with this show.
CTV’s Hua Mulan doesn’t fill with cute romantic
scenes where we could see a lot of skinship. The chemistries between the characters
are not sizzling either but compare to the Female General’s what they have is
perfect.
If you want to ask me about the romance in Jin
Guo Da Jiang Jun I’ll say what romance?
And as a sucker for a romantic story, that’s
the final blow against this show.
ps.
If romance is the least of your concern you can
enjoy so many other things in both dramas. CTV’s Hua Mulan is quite funny while
Female General has more court’s intrigues.
