Mulan (2020) [PG13]

All Image Credits : Disney

After several delays due to the COVID-19 situation, Disney latest live action movie “Mulan” is finally out in the movie theatre!! Woohoo!! For those who don’t follow Disney movies, there’s actually an animated version of this movie, way back in 1998. Between these 2 movies, the animated version of Mulan movie is more family friendly and funny to watch while the live action version of Mulan movie focused more on the fights and is rather serious for a kid to watch as per say. I have a 4 year old niece and it does not appeals to her at all. Despite the differences, the storyline of these 2 movies remain the same but with a change in some characters. Let’s get down to the movie review, shall we?

Storyline

I believed most of you guys out there have probably heard the famous Chinese folklore “The Ballad of Mulan” about a fearless young woman, named Hua Mulan, who disguised herself as a man to battle Northern invaders in China and saved her ailing father from serving in the Imperial Army. Wow! I can’t believe I just summarise the whole story in just one sentence. My apologies for those who have yet to hear about her story. While I hope there’s a small twist to the story, some stories are best kept as it is in order not to create the wrong impression about Mulan and ruined the entire heroic story.

If there was an ambassador for women empowerment in a male dominant society back then, I think Mulan would be the most ideal candidate to lead the women. Her story has been told many times in many various different media platforms, from storybook to the big screen, which just shows how iconic and famous this story is. I’m not sure if I would need to actually tell the story here once again but for the benefit of those who has no clue what I was talking about up till this point, I would just provide a short version of the story.

In this version of Mulan, the Emperor of China (Jet Li) has received news about the invasion of Rouran army, led by the Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) and his mighty ally Xian Lang (Gong Li), who was a powerful witch with shapeshifting abilities. The Emperor decided to mobilize his troops via the conscription of one man from each household. Mulan’s father Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) was selected to fight on behalf of his family despite his frail health. Now comes Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei) who stepped up and took her father’s place to fight the Rouran army. She faced many setbacks along the way but she managed to overcome these challenges and defeat the Rouran army.

Disney’s MULAN..Mulan (Yifei Liu)..Photo: Jasin Boland..© 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s a pretty standard storyline which was easy to follow and provided a glimpse of the rich Chinese history and culture to the audience. However, in terms of the storyline, I don’t feel Mulan was having such a hard time in this movie. She has martial arts background since young and possessed chi (气) , which is a circulating life energy that in Chinese philosophy is thought to be inherent in all things. She was already skilled and well-trained in the beginning of the movie, which made her stands out in the army when she joined the army. In addition, her gender troubles doesn’t seemed to be of a big issue for Mulan either as she did a wonderful job in disguising as a man. Overall, I felt that the story focused more on the fights and promoting Chinese Martial Arts rather than the hardship which Mulan been through.

Characters

Even though the story may not look attractive for audience who knew the story, the all asian cast filled with some big movie stars such as Jet Li , Donnie Yen and Gong Li, would definitely appeal to some of their fans. While their performance in this movie were top notch as expected, Liu Yi Fei’s performance as Mulan stood out the most among those movie stars as she made big sacrifices such as behaving as a man and performing impressive stunts. This may be her breakout role in her acting career thus far, as she joins the Disney family as one of the princesses.

From Left to Right : Emperor of China (Jet Li), Xian Lang (Gong Li), Mulan (Liu YiFei), Commander Tung (Donnie Yen)

Special effects

In the animated movie of Mulan, there is a cute small dragon named “Mushu”, who was Mulan’s guardian throughout her journey. However, in this action movie, Mulan has a guardian in the form of the Phoenix, who flew past her several times and providing her the emotional support she needs. The Phoenix was very stunning as it looks and the credits will definitely go to the special effect team. Other than the incredible looking Phoenix, the ice mountain in the middle of a dessert was also equally incredible looking as the Phoenix. Yes, there is a ice mountain out of nowhere but just remember, it is a folk tale. In conclusion, the fight scenes were great and stunning animations by the special effects team, which makes the movie more interesting to watch.

Memorable Moments

There wasn’t much memorable moments to pick out of this movie, as there wasn’t any plot twist in this movie. Therefore, I pick some interesting scenes that you can look out for when you go watch the movie.

1. Matchmaking scene for Mulan, (Capturing the Spider)
2. The invasion of Rouran Army (Xian Lang vicious attack)
3. Sword display performance by Commander Tung
4. Landslide scene during the battle between the Rouran Army and the troops of China
5. The rescue of the Emperor of China

Overall Movie Rating : 3.5 / 10 ( Simple storyline supported heavily by big movie stars and wonderful special effects. Too much emphasis on the actions and fight scenes which doesn’t brings out the hardship that Mulan was going through. Mulan was already a skilled woman before joining the Army to fight the Rouran, which gave her huge advantage and respect from her fellow army buddies and commander. Hard to tell if this was a Disney movie without the initial introduction as it doesn’t seemed to cater for the younger audience.)

Movie Duration : 2 hours

#Disney

#Mulan