Mulan (2020)

Review

115min

Genre:     Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Director:   Niki Caro

Cast:       Yifei Liu, Li Gong, Donnie Yen…and more

Writers:   Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Elizabeth Martin… and more

-Synopsis-

Determined to prove her worth in traditional dynastic China, a young woman disguises herself as a boy to take her ailing father’s place when the Emperor’s army come calling for recruits in the realm’s defence against fearsome Northern invaders, as she embarks on an epic formative journey to fulfil her potential by unleashing her inner force and claim her place in a man’s world—in this latest Disney live-action adaptation of their classic animations.

After a six month globe-stopping pandemic which ravaged its release slate, the “House of Mouse” is back with its latest live-action version of one of its beloved animations, an epic Hollywood ode to ancient Chinese tradition and a lavish overture to the all-important box office of the world’s most populous nation—taking a path forced by circumstance which sees a $200 million blockbuster circumvent all but select Chinese theatre audiences to be available only on Disney’s recently launched streaming service Disney+ . . . for a hefty premium. A risky makeshift strategy designed to test the waters of a COVID-19 landscape and post Corona brave new world, and a move which should send chills down the spine of anyone who loves cinema where it belongs—on the biggest screens.

Yifei Liu stars as ‘Hua Mulan’, the headstrong eldest daughter of ‘Zhou’s’ (Tzi Ma) humble provincial family in ancient imperial China, more comfortable honing her martial arts skills and harnessing her Qi (Chi) powers than dressing up or taking tea, yet resigned to a future of arranged marriages and social expectations. But when her ailing father is unable to answer the Emperor’s (Jet Li) call-to-arms and the family’s honour is at stake; tradition goes out the window when the naïve Mulan disguises herself as a boy to join the local garrison under ‘Commander Tung’ (Donnie Yen), alongside fellow young recruits like ‘Honghui’ (Yoson An). Plunged into a man’s world where she must do her duty while hiding and learning to unleash her full potential, to protect the realm from fearsome Rouran invaders led by ruthless warrior ‘Böri Khan’ (Jason Scott Lee) and powerful witch ‘Xianniang’ (Li Gong)–Mulan heads towards great deeds that become the stuff of legend.

It’s fair to say that Disney’s current strategy of lavish CGI-laden live-action remakes of their beloved (and often adapted) animations—which began auspiciously with 2015’s ‘Cinderella’ and 2016’s ‘The Jungle Book’ but has gained pace in the last eighteen months—has offered up a mixed bag in terms of quality and box office results. From a monstrously lucrative almost shot-for-shot remake of ‘The Lion King’ which hardly qualifies as live-action, through a risky but vibrant version of ‘Aladdin’ to Tim Burton’s underwhelming take on ‘Dumbo’.

But with ‘Mulan’ the entertainment giants and Kiwi director Niki Caro are taking a step into left field with their take on this ancient Chinese ballad and poem, abandoning their popular 1998 animation for the intricacies of Wuxia filmmaking tradition and ‘martial heroes’, introduced to the West in 2000 with Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and taken to a new level by Zhang Yimou with films like ‘Hero’ and ‘House of Flying Daggers’. As such this is a more brooding version of the tale which centres around the making of a chosen warrior, stripping much of the family and fun aspects from the animation, not to mention the musical elements, but still trying to deliver a message of female emancipation and being true to oneself among the traditional themes of honour, duty and honesty. A film which might not sit well with those who grew up with the animation, but one which Disney surely hopes strikes a chord with Chinese audiences—the only major market to have returned to anywhere near normality.

Yet this concerted effort to do justice to the Mulan legend does result in impressive production designs from Oscar-winner Grant Major and vivid photography from cinematographer Mandy Walker which help to faithfully re-create the dynastic China of the time from which the ballad comes, including an awe-striking imperial city, and provides some stunning landscapes with New Zealand largely doubling for rural Northern China. It also ensures that crucial Chinese traditions and social norms like the importance of strength, commitment and family honour are central to the narrative, while trying to infuse them with more modern (and occasionally contradictory) Western values of individuality, equality and staying true to oneself—all while weaving them into a timely female emancipation story.

And it’s all delivered by a cast which blends Asian-American actors like Jason Scott Lee and Rosalind Chao with Chinese screen legends like Donnie Yen, Li Gong and Jet Li, the latter curiously being the only distractingly dubbed actor in this English language feature. But it’s the film’s younger titular star who has to carry the weight on her slender shoulders, and Yifei Liu makes good use of her extensive martial arts and stunt skills honed over the last decade or so of Chinese cinema, albeit occasionally proving a tad too impassive during more dramatic moments.

In their quest to move the Mulan legend away from family animation and towards a more mature female coming-of-age story, ode to Chinese tradition, and warrior’s tale, Caro and Disney seem to have sucked the adventure, wonder, and frankly the fun out of what could have been. Instead we get a film which has little of the beauty, passion and poetry of the Wuxia films which so inspired it, and only musters glimpses of the truly intricate and striking ballets of wire-work and martial combat which helped to re-define cinematic spectacle in the early 2000s.

There’s also little character development for a film which postures, at least in part, as a coming-of-age tale, and unlike the animation Mulan doesn’t really earn her twists and triumphs and instead just seems to be born with powerful gifts which she abruptly decides to unleash—as Disney lean heavily towards a ‘chosen one’ paradigm so popular in myth and film, including in one of its own properties ‘Star Wars’ with which this film shares so much. And it doesn’t sit well in a plot which takes sudden uncultivated crucial turns which not only feel unconvincing but also undermine the sense of a real journey for the characters.

The result is an underwritten epic which certainly looks the part and ticks all the social messaging boxes, but trips over clichés while failing to really capture our imagination or really connect us to the characters, and god forbid even flirts with being a tad dull at times, despite not having many lulls in the story. It’s not like you can explain it all away by claiming it’s a kids film not aimed at more critical adult eyes either, and it seems clear (to us anyway) that Disney was never really sure what they wanted to do with the story—leaving us with a made-for-cinema IMAX blockbuster confined to the small screen, not the worst Disney live-action remake of its classic animations . . . but pretty far from the best.

For many in the West, and for a ravenous press, ‘Mulan’ seems destined to be defined by the many political controversies surrounding it. Which include its star’s open support for the Hong Kong police during the fiery pro-democracy protests there, and the shooting of some of the film in the province of Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities are accused of mass systematic oppression and even “cultural genocide” of the Uyghur people. So the question must be, was the quality of the film worth all the trouble? And the answer is a resounding no. But only time will tell if Disney’s plans to take a big bite out of the Chinese film industry make it all worthwhile.

The Bottom Line…

A big shiny blockbuster which never takes flight and tries but fails to cover a distinct lack of character, narrative intricacy and fun with epic scale and spectacle. With ‘Mulan’ Disney have kept their eye too focused on the Chinese film market and tried to be all things to all people, but the result is cold and not much too anyone—a moderately entertaining addition to the multimedia giant’s growing stash of live-action remakes, but sadly relegated to content filler for their streaming service.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

In 18th century dynastic China, a young woman defies tradition and expectation to become a powerful warrior when she takes tutelage from a dark master, begins a forbidden love affair with an outlaw, and steals a fabled sword, only to be confronted by the sword’s master and the consequences of all her actions in a life-defining odyssey.

Directed by Ang Lee and starring Ziyi Zhang, Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh among others.

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