Mulan (2020)
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Mulan Movie Review
Mulan is a 2020 war action film directed by Niki Caro and starring Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen and Gong Li. It’s a solid movie that should have been so much better.
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“Loyal, brave, and true…
it is my duty to protect my family“
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Among the many Disney remakes produced up until this point, this one is probably the one that is the most different from the original movie for better and worse, but ultimately I respected their decision to change many things more than I lamented it as after all a rehash like ‘The Lion King’ is the worst thing possible that you can do while remaking a classic movie.
When it comes to the film’s overall tone, they opted to make a historical epic war movie in the fashion of the great Chinese wuxia films instead of honoring the original by making a fantasy musical. Thus, gone are the musical numbers, Mushu and most of the humor as well. I liked the musical cues that were present throughout the movie, and although I sorely wished to hear the classic songs themselves, it was ultimately a good choice for this particular movie to cut them. The Reflection cues are the most beautiful and effective of the bunch.
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But what was somewhat puzzling to me was the exclusion of Mushu that should have led to a realistic historical movie, but ultimately they did not do that as the end product is fantastical in its own right, but adding new fantastical elements not present in the original. I will talk about the witch later, but the phoenix itself was not needed. It led to a lot of great visuals, but still I wouldn’t call its inclusion all that necessary per say.
Overall, the film was a missed opportunity for a great wuxia epic as the action sequences and the overall spectacle, though good, are not truly great. The whole film plays out like that – everything is solid without ever reaching true strength. The weakest action scene is the last duel between Mulan and Bori Khan. It was badly filmed and ridiculous in its conclusion. It should have been much better. The best scenes are the war scenes, which are actually very well executed and especially memorable in the very well orchestrated, intense score.
Yifei Liu is actually quite good as Mulan. I do not agree with those calling out her performance flat and bland. She is certainly not amazing, but she is serviceable and she did a nice job for sure. Unfortunately, the character herself has one main issue that really presented a hurdle that the movie never overcame. She is basically a Mary Sue.
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In the original film, Mulan became stronger throughout the course of the movie, thus serving as an inspiration to all female viewers that through harsh training they can all become warriors. But in this remake, she basically has Chi, which made her all-powerful and magical even. I find that change terrible and rendering the movie’s feminism totally pointless unfortunately. I do realize that they wanted to add the additional mystical elements of Chinese culture to the film, but this was not a way to do it as they cheapened the protagonist’s plight quite a bit.
What I did like about the main character, however, has to be the emphasis on deceit. That led to a particularly strong moment where she finally went into battle as her true female self in what is inarguably the most powerful scene in the entire film that was mostly devoid of such singularly great achievements.
Donnie Yen is per usual excellent as the commander and I liked all of the scenes between the two. I also liked the camaraderie and amusing dynamics in the group of men, in particular Yao and Honghui are quite memorable. The parents were well realized, the sister was endearing and all of the villains are great with Bori Khan being quite memorable. The highlight, though, has to be the newly introduced powerful witch played so effectively by the great Gong Li. She looks cool, her turning into an eagle and a murder of crows was super intriguing and her interactions with Mulan are very well written. The character simply works and is the finest change from the original source material by a mile.
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It’s also interesting to note that the film is by far the strongest case so far for why the 23rd season South Park episode Band in China has already become a hugely relevant classic. Yes, the traditionally Chinese values such as respecting and honoring your family above all else and following and fighting for your nation are on full display in what is one oddly patriotic movie coming from Disney.
As for its technicalities, Mulan is terrific undoubtedly. The score is great, the cinematography is quite strong, though the fight choreography is sometimes clunky, and the overall production values are excellent, especially the sets, the costumes and the way the film made this period of Chinese history look eye-popping and colorful was great. The pacing is also good and the film flies by how entertaining it is. It is overall quite good, but the lack of memorable humor hurt it in the long run and so did some questionable choices here and there.
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