Mulan (2020)

Mulan is a 2020 American fantasy action drama film and is the live-action adaptation of Disney's traditionally-animated 1998 film of the same name. It was directed by Niki Caro and written by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin. Plans for a live-action remake began in 2010 but the project stalled in development hell before filming finally began in August 2018.

The film held the world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 9, 2020 and was scheduled to have a wide theatrical release, but it was delayed multiple times as a result of the currently-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; it was ultimately released on Disney+ on September 4, 2020.

Contents

 * 1Plot
 * 2Bad Qualities
 * 3Good Qualities
 * 4Reception
 * 5Videos
 * 6Trivia
 * 7References
 * 8External links
 * 9Comments

Plot
When the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she's tested every step of the way and must harness her inner-strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey that will transform her into an honored warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation... and a proud father.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The huge problem with this film is it is trying to please all sides of the coin within the audience. (e.g The Chinese who want an accurate version of the story, SJWs who want the story to be politically correct, and the Nostalgia Fans who want the story to be like the original) but in the end it ends up pleasing no one.
 * 2) * Also, the film was poorly received by Chinese critics and audiences alike. You know you mess up badly when the audience of your target country hates your film.
 * 3) Specific story elements from the original film are absent here, which can lead to people having to rely on watching the original film in order to understand what is going on.
 * 4) * Several iconic and memorable scenes are also absent, including when Mulan prepares to join the army the night before; as a result of the absence of these scenes, the film feels less impactful than it should be.
 * 5) Numerous characters from the original film are missing, specifically the spirits of Mulan's ancestors, Cri-kee and, most infamously, Mushu and fan-favorite Li Shang.
 * 6) * Mushu, a dragon (a symbol of masculinity), on the other hand, is replaced with a Phoenix (a symbol of femininity), whose only purpose is to guide Mulan as to where she needs to go. As a result, the phoenix only exists just to advance the plot.
 * 7) * Mulan's grandmother is also pointlessly replaced by her younger sister, who only serves to advance the plot.
 * 8) * In what is seemingly a desperate attempt to appeal to political correctness, Li Shang was split into two separate characters, Commander Tung and Chen Honghui, as a response to the #MeToo movement.
 * 9) ** The worst part that Jason T. Reed who is the producer of this film removed him by saying "having a commanding officer that is also the sexual love interest was very uncomfortable and we didn't think it was appropriate". But he later said that Li Shang would become a "LGBTQ icon". You can't just remove him only to make him an LGBT icon.
 * 10) ** And what's worse is that's also not knowing that some army commanders in real life even today can have a love interest. This shows Jason T. Reed's lack of faith in telling an accurate story or showing a serious matter in real life.
 * 11) * Additionally, Shan Yu and his falcon Hayabusa were replaced by Bori Khan and Xian Lang.
 * 12) The film is also far less cinematic than in the original at times: for example, in the original film, when Mulan leaves home to join the army, the scene is set in the night and it is literally stormy, and Mulan is shown suiting up in her father's armor and cutting her hair before leaving, moments before her family discover that she has left during the middle of the storm, which heightens the tension, but here, it immediately cuts to Mulan already wearing her father's armor and later her family wakes up in the morning only to find that she has left.
 * 13) The story is inferior to not only the original film but also the original Chinese folklore:
 * 14) * Unlike in the original film, Mulan herself is rather overpowered from the get-go; as a result, she is harder to relate to and her character arc is ruined, and thus she comes more across as woke pandering than an actual character.
 * 15) ** For example, she is able to climb the mountain without any apparent effort or talent; one could excuse this as her Chi abilities manifesting, but it still makes her less relatable.
 * 16) ** Another example is when Chen Honghui finds her in the lake, she says he is not her friend and he just goes away without their relationship breaking as a result; she also never struggles with what she did and she also doesn't have to pay the price. However, the next time they see each other, they are somehow good as friends as before, which serves as a problem. For a film being about the obstacle of a woman in a man's world, the movie sure doesn't try making such a claim into an obstacle; as a result, everything that Mulan takes is free and easy, which ends up feeling like two hours of forgettable vanilla.
 * 17) * Idiot move: During the snowfall battle, Commander Tung has his troops hold still during the battle, which would get them killed easily.
 * 18) * Bori Khan, compared to Shan Yu, is intentionally sexist, ending up as more woke pandering, as he horridly treated his right-hand Xian Lang and once dismissed Mulan as a "child." He also feels like a generic warlord who wants to take over a kingdom as revenge for wronging him.
 * 19) * Xian Lang suddenly redeems herself out of nowhere without any real build-up whatsoever.
 * 20) ** Her redemption, followed by her expulsion, means less when her companions do not know the value of her deeds; no one saw her actions to bring down an avalanche, saving all of them (but physically only saving one).
 * 21) ** Her sacrifice to protect Mulan is also rather pointless, as she could turn into a thousand bats or ravens to catch the arrow heading towards Mulan.
 * 22) * In the beginning of the film, Mulan is forbidden from using her powers during the battle, but ultimately decides to use said powers later on; this plot element about her being forbidden from using her powers is never brought up again afterward.
 * 23) * The romance and chemistry between Mulan and Chen Honghui feels rather forced.
 * 24) * At one point during the battle in the mountains, Mulan baits the villains into shooting the mountains themselves to cause the avalanche, which makes them seem incompetent and thus less threatening.
 * 25) * The film ultimately ends up being another generic fantasy action film; as a result, it also becomes unnecessarily intense, compared to the comedic tone of the original film.
 * 26) ** It even feels more like a European fantasy film more than a Chinese one.
 * 27) Very poor editing throughout the film, even from an experienced film editor, with one notable example being several of the action scenes repeatedly zipping to different shots just to cover up the botched action scenes.
 * 28) * Another example is in the scene where the soldiers are called up to bathe, in which Mulan ends up as inherently different from every other soldier, which creates a big problem. Instead of using the inherent potential of this scene in the film and forcing Mulan to overcome the challenge of not physically fitting in with others, the film skips over the whole thing, effectively wasting whatever potential the prior scene tried to set up; it also seemingly never makes Mulan's physical difference a problem that the viewers have to overcome.
 * 29) * Because of this, whenever there is a new opportunity for the story to try out something new and worthy, it suddenly gets skipped over and when the story actually has new opportunities to try out, there are far and few between. Ultimately, the film ends up as a watered-down rehash of the original in which we always know what is going to happen and how it would happen, and as a result, the film is less interesting and more needlessly boring.
 * 30) ** One example is the commander interrogation scene, which was built on the threat that he would find out Mulan's identity as a woman. Even if there is such a threat (when there is none), the scene still doesn't work, because there is no conflict or dread or anything in it, since the viewer knew that Commander Tung hasn't found out Mulan's identity because it doesn't happen until after the avalanche and the only way to fix this is to give the viewers something new.
 * 31) Poor choreography and stunt-work during the action scenes which makes it feel like the characters are having a dance-off then fighting.
 * 32) Out-of-sync sound mixing; an example is when Xian Lang throws her shuriken to kill a soldier, you can hear the sound of it hitting before it could actually hit the soldier.
 * 33) The movie blatantly copy-pastes the final line of The Ballad of Mulan involving two rabbits running side by side, while missing the whole point of the metaphor.
 * 34) The pacing of the film is often too fast, with certain sequences and scenes being suddenly skipped, which can throw viewers off and force them to think quickly about what happened in order to catch up with what is going on.
 * 35) * One notable example of this is that was hinted that Mulan would be executed if her identity was revealed, but nothing happens to actualize such a threat; as a result, nobody is ever executed, even when Mulan reveals her identity as a woman.
 * 36) The action sequences were filmed using a higher-than-usual frame-rate to help in making visually impressive slow-motion scenes; while this sounds like a good idea on paper, this results in unrealistically erratic character movement, such as soldiers or horses moving too fast.
 * 37) Overuse of computer-generated imagery, which results in specific shots and many of the action scenes feeling less realistic than they should be.
 * 38) Many of the morals in this film feel rather forced, as they are mostly shown through scenes in which a character realizes their mistakes or wrongdoings and tries to change their ways for the better.
 * 39) * The film's main theme of female empowerment ends up as being powerless because it was handled in a flat and two-dimensional way.
 * 40) ** One notable example is when we happen to hear a young Mulan as a rowdy little girl and then her parents begin to overhear the problems her rowdiness is causing, so they want her to grow up and become a real woman before it is too late. However, it turns out that said message is actually the anti-theme, whereas the true message is that a woman should grow up to be who they truly are. In the movie, the viewer actually learns the answer to the core question for five minutes in, but it gets prolonged waiting for the viewers to get it and when they finally do, it does not carry much impact.
 * 41) * It was also explicitly stated in the film that if anyone tries to bring a female to the camp, it results in death. There was also the constant threat of Mulan's identity being discovered, but unfortunately, they fail to work, as none of the viewers would buy the commander to hurt Mulan just because she is a woman as there is no logic behind that, even if it was real at the time.
 * 42) Despite trying to be much more realistic than the original film, there are still plenty of unrealistic bits, such as the questionable grasp regarding Chinese culture, beliefs, and folklore, battle sequences lacking blood, the unrealistically small set pieces, or the fact that everyone in the cast speaks perfect English despite the film taking place in Imperial China, which, at worst, comes across as self-contradictory.
 * 43) * The setting is unfaithful to the source material. The original folklore was set in Northern Wei, where Mulan is a servant of a Khan, not in modern Northwest China.
 * 44) * The phoenix here is portrayed as a Western one instead of an Eastern one, as Western phoenixes can return from the dead. Also, the Phoenix is also portrayed as the emperor's guardian instead of the dragon.
 * 45) * Xian Lang feels out-of-place for a film set in ancient China, as witches canonically do not exist in Chinese folklore.
 * 46) ** As Xiran Jay Zhao pointed out, while there are women in China who can do magic, such as shamans and soothsayers, those women are respected and generally hold high positions in court. The only way someone would be criminalized for magic-related crimes would be for trying to use their power to harm someone (e.g. using a voodoo doll on someone). Therefore, Xian Lang being ostracized by society simply for practicing magic would make no sense.
 * 47) * The appearances of Tulou, which are supposed to exist only in Southern China, not only do not fit the movie's setting, but it causes more plot holes regarding the distances. The Rourans, who come from the north, would have to go six hundred miles to attack the South. Not helping matters is that Mulan somehow got this far just to catch up to them without resting.
 * 48) * The inscription of "Loyal, Brave, True" on Mulan's sword doesn't make sense, because truth, in general, is not considered as one of the core morals of Chinese beliefs. A Chinese person also wouldn't have random characters inscribed onto their sword, which would normally have some sort of saying like "Devotion to my country" or simply the name of the owner. The calligraphy also looks like a font created by Microsoft.
 * 49) There is a lack of music from the original film; as a result, several scenes are much less impactful, leading to a lack of depth.
 * 50) The inclusion of Chi, which is barely anything more than a carbon-copy of the Force from the Star Wars franchise. It goes off with little-to-no explanation near the end, as Mulan is not physically manifesting her Chi.
 * 51) * Also, Chi is not a magical power, as depicted in the movie; it is actually a traditional idea in martial arts and Chinese medicine concerning the life force of a person. It is the basis of a form of treatment known as acupuncture.
 * 52) Laughable and monotonous dialogue, notably "I'm truly blessed to be in the presence of such enchanting women," as well as "Join me, we will take our place together."
 * 53) The actors sound extremely emotionless whenever speaking; Liu Yifei's performance as the titular character was also stale for the most part.
 * 54) Given that the film demonizes Tibetans and the Uyghurs, it makes itself a pro-China propaganda film, regardless of whether or not this was actually what the writers intended.
 * 55) * An example is that the villain, Bori Khan, makes a passing reference to his conquered homeland. The implication, perhaps, is that his father was a leader of the now colonized Northwest China before the reigning emperor killed him. He "unites the tribes", where in reality he plans to displace the colonists and is served by black-clad elite guards who are heavily coded as Middle Eastern assassins, giving out a dash of Islamophobia.
 * 56) * The film's imagery is such that when Mulan takes up the sword to fight, she does so to suppress a revolt in recently conquered border possessions and defend her empire’s economic dominance of the Silk Road.
 * 57) * During the end credits, the film infamously thanks an organization that allegedly imprisons Muslims in concentration camps.
 * 58) Anachronism: The name 'The Silk Road' dates from the end of the 19th century and was of European origin. This is far later than when this film takes place.
 * 59) Overall, it feels more like not only a rip-off but also steals elements of Memoirs of a Geisha, although they were set in different countries.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Unlike several of the previous Disney live-action remakes whose plots are simply carbon-copies of their original counterparts, this film's plot at least tries to be different from the original and bring something new and fresh, whilst giving itself a more realistic and darker tone.
 * 2) The action scenes are passable, despite their issues.
 * 3) Bori Khan's motives of his intentions to take over China was fleshed out, and his motivation for all of this was that his father was executed by the Emperor, whereas Shan Yu only wanted to take over China in the original film due to a lust for power.
 * 4) Despite the phoenix being a rather unnecessary character, the idea of a phoenix being Mulan's guardian is amazing symbolism for her character and matches her personality perfectly.
 * 5) The scenery and environments are visually spectacular whenever the computer-generated imagery doesn't heavily get in the way.
 * 6) Aside from Liu Yifei and some specific actors, several of the other actors, specifically Gong Li, Yoson An, and Jet Li, give great performances.
 * 7) Despite her acting coming across rather mediocre, Liu Yifei was a decent casting choice to play the titular character.
 * 8) Great musical score by Harry Gregson-Williams, who composed for the Shrek films.
 * 9) The new Christina Aguilera songs "Loyal, Brave, True" and the brand new arrangement of "Reflection" are great.
 * 10) Some of the new characters are quite interesting, such as Chen Honghui and Sergeant Qiang.
 * 11) Ming-Na Wen's brief cameo was one of the very few decent things about this movie.

Reception
Despite Mulan received positive reviews from critics, who praised the action sequences, visuals, and performances, but criticized the screenplay, it received negative reviews from audiences as well as Chinese audiences, who criticized it about the character development, acting, editing, pacing, choreography, morals and the handling of cultural elements as well as the absence of Mushu, Li Shang, and songs. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film receiving an approval rating of 74% with an average rating of 6.81/10, and a 50% audience score. The site's critical consensus reads, "It could have told its classic story with greater depth, but the live-action Mulan is a visual marvel that serves as a stirring update to its animated predecessor." On Metacritic, the film has a Metascore of 66/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", and a user score of 2.7/10, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On IMDb and Letterboxd, the film has an average score of 5.6/10 and 2.8/5 respectively.

Chris Stuckmann gave the film a rating of C-, stating that the film is inferior to the original in every aspect. Angry Joe and his friend, Alex, gave the film a rating of 3/10, while Other Joe gave the film a rating of 4/10, with all of them agreeing that the film is inferior to the original.

Sci-fi/fantasy author Xiran Jay Zhao, a Chinese woman, criticized the movie, describing how inaccurate it is to Chinese culture and how it "spits in the face of the culture."