This movie has been very hype in the internet since it was officially released on Disney+ few days ago. I was thinking of watching it later but the temptation was too hard for me to resist, so I decided to watch it by myself last night, especially after many comments have been circulating around in various social medias. Anyway let's get on with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei - The Four trilogy, The Return of Condor Heroes 2006 series etc) was the first daughter of an army veteran Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma - Rush Hour, Wu Assassins TV series etc) who had the seeds of becoming a great warrior herself. However, being a woman, she had to suppress her talent and become a common woman at that time. When the country was being attacked by powers from North led by Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee - The Jungle Book 1994 version, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story etc) who was assisted by powerful witch Xian Lang (Gong Li - Miami Vice, Farewell My Concubine etc), the emperor (Jet Li - Fist of Legend, Romeo Must Die etc) decreed that every family must provide 1 man to become part of the army to defend the kingdom.
Seeing her father's condition, Mulan decided to disguise as a man and took his place to defend the family honor. She managed to be part of a new battalion led by General Tung (Donnie Yen - Ip Man quadrilogy, Big Brother etc) where she would be learning military traits with other fellow recruits and befriended some of them, including Honghui (Yoson An). With the stakes so high, Mulan had to hide herself carefully to avoid being found out about her act.
So what would happen to Mulan and how would the story conclude? Find them all in this entertaining movie.
End of Brief Story Line
From the early part of the movie, I could foresee that it would have a great cinematography especially with the beautiful scenery in the background. And apparently my sense was correct as through the entire film, there were countless scenes where you could see lovely surroundings from the large desert to snowy hills and that enormous castle which enhance my desire to see the places by myself.
When young Mulan (played by Crystal Rao) was first introduced, she left me a good impression but the person who totally impressed me was Tzi Ma as her father. He was sooo convincing as this honorable & loving father. Now the adult Mulan herself was actually pretty good. Her portrayal as the martial artist was fantastic, and that part where she finally revealed herself to be a woman was very elegant (I am sure this was the part where my wife became emotional). What she might be lacking in the humorous part, Yifei was able to make up for in the extraordinary fight scenes. Btw, I could not recognize Jet Li in here and only realized him almost at the end. Fun fact: Liu Yifei actually played in the same movie with Jet Li in that 2008 The Forbidden Kingdom (boy that was so long ago). Donnie Yen was a really supporting character and did not show too much of his amazing capability, while the rest adequately played their part.
The story of Mulan has been told many many times, but I think the one that brought international popularity would be the 1998 Disney animated classic. That was the movie that made so many people familiar with her character (except for the Chinese who probably have known the story from childhood). Naturally when a live version was done, people tend to compare it with the animated version, just like in the case of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King or Aladdin. But unlike those three movies, this one was not an identical remake as there were few elements that have been changed, such as the favorite character of Mushu dragon and also the villain, but the main characters and spirit of the story were unchanged. I think this was a bit more like the live version remake of Dumbo.
Unfortunately though, some of the changes might not be to the liking of fans of the animated movie as many audiences reacted negatively, although for me and my wife (who has seen this movie before me) did not really see that as a terrible part. Another thing that was not available in this movie was the singing and thus it was not a musical like the 1998 version. For me, that was a plus side as I am not a major fan of musical. However, the song Reflection (sung by Christina Aguilera), plus the instrumental and Chinese version (sung by Liu Yifei during the closing credits) were available for our enjoyment. The musical score was nice enough during the film. Oh, there was no mid or post end credit scenes at all.
Aside from the above factors, something that I felt a bit missing was the comedy/light part which we would find in Disney movie. There was a bit of funny moment in the early part but I think the interaction between Mulan with her new friends such as Ling (Jimmy Wong), Yao (Chen Tang), Chen Po (Doua Moua), were too brief and was not really convincing that they have developed a really strong relationship. The action sequence here were also pretty abundant with some killings involved (natural in a war), so I guess it is not too kid-friendly. And as a fan of wuxia/Chinese period series, I also found some of the costumes of the villagers a bit weird, but the soldiers' costumes were perfect.
Overall this movie might not win the heart of some people, but for me and my wife, we did enjoy it. Despite having knowledge of how the story would be, but the journey of Mulan was still nice to see. There were some emotional moments as well (that scene towards the ending was truly touching), and I know my wife felt a lot of emotions while watching this. So if you prefer the live version to to be an absolute remake, then I could understand your frustration. However, if you are willing to watch this with open mind and disregarding some of the negative comments and publicity, you would find the movie to be pretty entertaining.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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