Distinguishing itself from just about every other remake that Disney has produced in the last few years, the live-action Mulan makes a satisfying case for its own existence. Unlike 2019’s slavishly faithful (and thus completely unnecessary) Lion King adaptation, or 2017's oddly lifeless Beauty and the Beast, director Niki Caro’s take on the iconic Chinese warrior is determined to tread new ground, even while taking care to hit many of the same emotional beats as its 1998 predecessor. This results in a film that, like its titular hero, seems comfortable in its own skin, rather than relying on the audience’s nostalgia to carry it.
If you’re a fan of the original Disney film, the basics are still the same: The headstrong Mulan (played with believable steel by Yifei Liu) impersonates a man to enlist in the Imperial Army and prevent her ailing father (Tzi Ma) from being sent to a war he won’t return from.
But the update makes some clever deviations from the original to keep Disneyphiles guessing - focusing far more on the action and fight choreography, dispensing with the comedic sidekicks and musical numbers, fleshing out the motivations of the villains, and rooting Mulan’s impressive physical abilities in the concept of Ch’i (or qi). In this tale, Ch’i is an energy that “pervades the universe and all living things” (sound familiar?) and can be harnessed to grant the wielder heightened reflexes and almost superhuman abilities - but it’s a force that can traditionally only be used by men.
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While this change gives Mulan a juicy source of conflict - she’s spent her life trying to hide her power for fear of bringing dishonor to her family, until her deception allows her to embrace who she truly is - this mythical force also undercuts Mulan’s position as a hero who succeeds based on courage, determination, and natural ability, as she did in the original. That has the unintended consequence of turning an inspiring underdog story into a kind of superhero origin tale - which isn’t a dealbreaker, per se, it’s just a story we’ve seen many times before in many iterations (a lot of them from Disney’s corporate sibling, Marvel, in fact).
Still, the upside of using Ch’i as a kind of superpower is that it paves the way for much more dynamic action sequences, filmed with confidence and flair by Caro (who should be handed the reins to a superhero movie immediately, based on the creativity on display here). It also makes room for the inclusion of a new villain, Xianniang (Gong Li), a shapeshifting sorceress designed to be a darker reflection of Mulan’s abilities. Jason Scott Lee’s Böri Khan assumes a similar role to the animated film’s Shan Yu, as a blunt force warrior seeking revenge on the Emperor (Jet Li, who’s pretty underutilized).
The script, credited to Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin, attempts to flesh out the villains to a much greater degree than the original, with varying results. Böri Khan is no more compelling than Shan Yu was, even with added motivation for his grudge against the Emperor, but Gong Li is effortlessly magnetic every time she’s on screen, providing an unpredictability that raises the stakes in the final act.
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The film certainly doesn’t suffer from the loss of Mushu or any of the animated film’s other comedic elements. It finds plenty of humor in Mulan’s attempts to hide her identity from her fellow soldiers, and the camaraderie between our hero and the other recruits is every bit as charming and believable as it was in animated form, especially when it comes to her chemistry with the unwitting Honghui (Yoson An). Putting Mulan on equal ground with her prospective love interest is a much smarter narrative choice than a flirtation with her commanding officer Li Shang in the animated version, allowing for a competitive rivalry that believably keeps the two in each other’s orbit.
And speaking of the dragon in the room, Eddie Murphy's Mushu was a controversial element in China when the original was released, so the film has chosen a more traditional manifestation of Mulan's ancestors in the form of a graceful phoenix that appears during pivotal moments. It's certainly less chatty, but basically serves the same purpose - offering Mulan motivation in times of adversity - although the concept is never fully explored, so its presence doesn't really add the intended emotional weight to those scenes.
The only aspect of the 1998 original that is conspicuously absent is the music. Caro smartly deploys an instrumental version of “Reflection” during certain scenes to evoke Mulan’s growth, and the script uses lines from “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and “A Girl Worth Fighting For” as dialogue. But it would've been nice to hear a few more auditory cues from the original, even if Caro rightly decided not to undermine the drama of what is essentially a war film with characters bursting into song at inopportune moments.
Still, the animated version isn’t going anywhere, and it feels far more impressive for this version of Mulan to take some big swings and differentiate itself from its predecessor than to attempt a beat for beat remake of a story we already love. For that alone, Mulan feels like a breath of fresh air.
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from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3h2X7Kw
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