Mulan (2020)
Director: Niki Caro
Watched: 9/25/20
Rating: 1.5/5 stars
“Melancholy Mulan”
During the entire watching, something felt off-kilter. Despite the gorgeous set pieces, the eye-catching costumes, attractive cast of lesser known actors and actresses, it felt discordant and uncomfortable. Those aren’t quite right words, but close. Anachronism, contrived, discombobulated, forced, meretricious,, random- these are all words that come to mind. The tone is confused. While on the one hand it tries to be a dark, grave, respectable “war film” with martial arts prowess and battle scenes included on the one hand, at the same time it strives to be a Disney film that will attract young viewers. Add a third and fourth and fifth motive of promoting female empowerment, emphasizing the importance of family sacrifices and honor, and introducing the Chinese “Qi”, and we have a case of the sun being lesser than its parts.
Lamentably, live-action Mulan is missing any humor, romantic relationships are replaced by inauthentic platonic ones, the absence of music is surprisingly conspicuous, and despite the presence of some gorgeous Chinese faces in front of the camera, Asian influence behind the camera cannot be found. And you don’t need to look this up to know it must be so. A missed opportunity for a culturally and historically authentic portrayal of a treasured Chinese legend. What else? The utterly malapropos addition of a witch. Characters were not believable. It was a succession of what the f*ck moments, nonexist pacing. Felt like watching a flat mishmash of vibrant colors, marvelous set pieces, alluring costumes, and award-worthy cinematography. Oh, this isn’t an exorbitantly overpriced ostentatious art show?
‘Twas Indicative, perhaps, that the most exciting moments were when instrumental versions of songs from the original animated film played- including “Honor to us All”, “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”, and Christina Aguilera’s “Reflection”. Last but not least, audiences will feel the gaping lack of a certain cuddly dog and a loudly hilarious tiny dragon.
Well that was pretty,
Now let’s go find us some fun
with songs and Mushu!