The latest version of the popular story of Chinese folk hero Hua Mulan (best known to Western viewers via the 1998 Disney film) stars Vicky Zhao as the titular heroine, who is regarded (whether it is actually true or not) as the first woman to attain the rank of general in a Chinese army. Jingle Ma's take on the tale falls into line with the majority of his output -- it's entertaining enough for a popcorn picture, but it's nothing you're going to remember fondly down the line, if you even remember anything specific about it at all.

For those of you not familiar with the base story, it takes place approximately in the year 500 A.D., when China was split into a series of warring kingdoms, each vying to unify the nation under one rule. Mulan is part of the Wei kingdom, which is currently battling the nomadic Rouran. Her father (Yu Rong-Guang) is drafted to fight, but he is in ill health, so Mulan disguises herself as a man to take his place.

Along with other members of her village, including Tiger (Jaycee Chan), Mulan heads to the front. Her exploits enable many victories for the Wei troops and a quick rise through the ranks for Mulan, but this comes at the loss of several of her friends, and she considers heading back home until a tragic event re-instills her fighting spirit.

If you haven't seen another version of a "proper" Mulan story, chances are that you've seen some variant of it before, and Jingle Ma breaks no new territory here. Even the most naive viewer should be able to spot the twists in the story and its' final outcome a mile away. A major portion of how much you might enjoy Mulan is how much you're able to switch off your brain.

Namely, you'll need to get around the fact that there's really no attempt to disguise Mulan as a male at all. The whole gimmick of a woman being able to hide out as a man simply by putting up her hair is well-worn territory in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema, and Mulan takes it to a new level, as there is absolutely no attempt to butch up Vicky Zhao at all. Sure, she's not really a "girly-girl", but really, you would think that more than two people in an army of hundreds of thousands of guys would be able to look at Vicky's manicured nails and glossed lips and surmise that she has two X chromosomes.

If you can get past things like that, as well as head-scratching elements like the casting of the creepy-looking Russian opera-pop star Vitus (yes, just Vitus), and aren't in a nit-picky mood, then you'll probably find that Mulan offers enough action, drama, and romance to make a viewing worth your while.

RATING: 5