I went into Mulan with zero expectations of enjoying it. So far, Disney had mostly flopped on converting my favorite animated films to live-action. Lion King was too much of the same as the original. And Aladdin was just…weird.
Mulan surprised me though. It presented me with a retelling of the story that paid some nice homages to the animated version, while largely being its own version of the story. The 2020 version was more of a healthy dose of magical realism, rather than the animated version’s clear fantasy. Mulan was also filled with tons of detail involving ancient China that as an American I’m not used to seeing in movies. The wardrobes, the architecture and — to my surprise — the geography, were all stunning to see.
Also, to my surprise, was how much funky kung-fu Mulan leaned on. A quick Google search educated me that the term “wuxia” is the wild, jumpy, they-definitely-are-using-acrobatic-wires-for-their-stunts martial arts seen in movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. In this regard, I feel like 2020 Mulan was more animated than the 1998 Mulan.
The Mulan remake has some absolutely ridiculous stunts that I verbally groaned at. Off the top of my head, I don’t recall any absurd stunts in the actual animated movie regarding sword combat or martial arts. For the sake of being thorough, I just rewatched the final fight at the end of 1998 Mulan and there honestly wasn’t anything too absurd as far as the combat goes. There was the bit where Mulan disarmed Shan Yu with her folding fan, but that was so badass and fluid that it was such a cathartic moment!
I can appreciate the cultural influences that brought the wuxia genre to the film, but I find it overkill and tacky. That filming style and the way the scenes were edited made the combat feel cheap and weightless. When everyone is a god of war, it’s hard to have an entertaining fight sequence.
While there are no talking dragons, musical numbers or self-aware insects (it was a nice break to get a live-action remake without any talking animals!) the movie does feature a witch and a Force-esque “Chi” power. The movie absolutely glosses over what Chi is, but seeing Mulan kick enough projectiles out of the air lets us imagine it’s essentially the Force.
Really, that’s my biggest disappointment with the movie: the glossing over. Mulan needed to be longer. I wanted Mulan to be longer. Give me a bit more character growth with the Witch and show me WHY Bori Khan is evil…don’t just dress him in all black and give him a scary scar on his face. Emperor Jet Li killed Khan’s father, and part of me found myself sympathetic to the villain because of the unexplained situation. In the animated film, the antagonist was pure evil and we saw it again and again in snippets all the way through the end.
Overall, if you can look past some absolutely cheesy Wuxia martial arts battle scenes, Mulan is an entertaining retelling of the ancient legend.
