Mark Reviews Movies: MULAN (2020)

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | September 3, 2020

The original Mulan, the animated film from 1998, always felt too short for the potential of its rich characters and epic story. Now, as has been the recent trend with Disney's animated library, the story receives a live-action adaptation, based on one of the many versions of the folk tale from China. This new Mulan is longer, for sure, and also quite different. That's mostly because the screenplay (written by the quartet of Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Elizabeth Martin, and Lauren Hynek) has excised the songs and the comedic sidekicks (a talking dragon and a lucky cricket), while also expanding the battles and introducing a new villain—a witch, who like our protagonist, is seen as different and cast aside by society.

These are smart changes, not because they're "improvements" on the story of its predecessor (Despite its succinctness, it's still a strong film), but because they take the tale in a noticeably different direction. Hua Mulan (Yifei Liu), born and raised only to become a proper wife and forced to hide the spirit that could make her a powerful warrior, has a series of choices to make on her journey to self-realization.

She will join the Chinese army, of course, in her father's stead and disguised as a man, but the ruse cannot last. At that point, will she accept the established social order, try to change it and face the possibly fatal consequences, or, frustrated and taking the example of her opponent, attempt to destroy what has limited her potential in life?

Obviously, because this is a tale of both empowerment and heroism, the character's decision can be accurately assumed from the start, but the presence of a legitimate choice—of giving in to defeated acceptance or bravery or anger—certainly elevates the heroism of our protagonist's character.

She has to fight, because that is what the folk story tells us, but her battle here isn't simply a physical one. It's also one against a system and against the temptation of absolutely demolishing that system. In this version, Mulan's skills on the battlefield and in more intimate combat matter, but her internal battle to announce herself and to declare her proper placement in this world is just as important.

After a brief prologue, showing a young Mulan being scolded for a very public display of the strength of her qi (the life energy that, in this story, can give a person almost preternatural strength, agility, and reflexes), the story begins as we recall it from the animated version. Mulan is to meet with her town's matchmaker, be declared polite and pleasing marriage material, and be set up with a husband whom she will serve.

Elsewhere in China, Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee), leader of a nomadic tribe seeking vengeance for a previous defeat (and the killing of his father in battle), has begun attacking towns and fortresses across the country. He has the aid of Xianniang (Gong Li), a shapeshifting sorceress with a grudge against those who cast her aside.

In response, the Emperor (Jet Li, in an act of casting that takes on some major cultural and cinematic significance in the third act, when our young woman hero has to save him and receives his wholehearted approval) orders the army to be raised. Each family in the country will provide one man to join the ranks.

As the father of two daughters, Mulan's older and frail father Zhou (Tzi Ma) is the only candidate in his family. In the middle of the night, Mulan takes her father's sword, armor, and horse to join the army in his place.

The remainder of the story is mostly familiar. Mulan trains, while also maintaining her disguise as a man, in close quarters with other men and facing death or dishonor if she's discovered. There's some fine humor here, as Mulan keeps up the ruse (avoiding the showers and dodging the roaming arms of her sleeping comrades). We get a collection of supporting characters, none of whom stand out as a potential romantic interest (a nice change, which, through absence, asserts the character's actual desires and goal), who come to admire the disguised Mulan—and whom our protagonist tries to teach a thing or two about women. Donnie Yen plays the unit's commander, who eventually sees the great potential in his new recruit.

That potential is portrayed in a series of action sequences—huge battles (In this regard, the film matches the scope of the original's art and animation with the spectacle of natural landscapes and masses of extras on horseback—not to mention trebuchets launching fiery boulders), assorted skirmishes, and one-and-one fights. Director Niki Caro may have a tight focus on Mulan's personal journey, but she certainly doesn't skimp on the spectacle or the imaginative choreography (A second-act fight between Mulan and Xianniang has those two modes collide).

In the tradition of so many martial arts epics, the fights here often challenge or outright defy physics (There's a clever sequence of events, as opponents use the ground to jump facing backwards on the horses—only for Mulan to pull off an even more impressive trick on horseback in the same vein). Characters leap across rooftops, run along walls, and flip-kick arrows back toward the enemy who fired the projectile (For those curious, the film earns its PG-13 rating, if only because the violence, as fantastical as it may be at times, does become a constant).

Mulan is just different enough in terms of storytelling that it stands apart from its originator. On its own, the film tells a fine, rich, and empowering story, respectful of its characters and a tradition of filmmaking that matches its tale quite well.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products