| Capt. Sage's Review of the Film: Mulan (Live Action) |
“Mulan”, one of the latest live action remakes of Disney animated movies, provides stirring performances and fight scenes, despite being rushed.
The main relationships continue to provide the movie's heart: between the title character Mulan and her father, and the rest of her family, and also between Mulan and a new character, Honghui. Also, a complex performance from Li Gong as a new character, Xianniang, fuels a new subplot. However, the other characters receive even less characterization and screen time than they did in the original, so though you end up caring about them and want to care more, they feel passed over.
Yifei Liu's performance as Mulan feels right, with both emotion and stillness. Her strength is not portrayed as domineering the other characters, nor does she appear browbeaten. Liu handles well a new subplot in the movie: guilt over her deceit. Sadly, the result is rather unsatisfactory (see the spoiler section below. 1.)
Similarly, Xianniang's subplot uses well the ability of the actress, and plays well into Mulan's guilt subplot. For better and for worse, Xianniang's subplot is sometimes show-stealing. It could've been more compelling still if the film had decided to characterize differently the main antagonist, Bori Khan, which would also have strengthened the entire film (see the spoiler section below. 2.)
Though the fights are generally good, with a style apparently inspired by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" which makes for good visuals, only in a few instances do the outcomes appear in enough doubt for a great amount of tension or deep interest. When they are though, they are very much so.
In summary, the movie is touching and entertaining. The new subplots on the whole didn't work out, but the actors did - and that's apparently a lot of what you need in a movie anyways.
| SPOILERS |
1: Though Mulan has guilt over her deceit, many other characters quickly come to not only completely accept her, but completely trust her warning, even though she herself has only an enemy's word to back it up. This is a warning about a major threat to the empire, true, but no one even asking her to present evidence is highly implausible. Also, with the other characters not having to work though emotional consequences of her actions, the movie unintentionally minimizes Mulan's guilt after the movie worked hard to make it important, and robs the other characters of a place in the subplot. This also leaves the subplot nowhere to go, so it has to quietly expire as the movie rushes on to the next point in the main plot. It's an unfortunate end to one of the more interesting divergences from the previous movie.
2: As was pointed out to me, if Khan and Xianniang had mutual respect, then both could've been far more interesting antagonists. With a unified front, they would've been more credible threats. This would also have clarified the theme that Mulan and her comrades had to forge good bonds based on good character to defeat them. It also would have made it possible for Mulan to envy the respect Khan had for Xianniang, and made Xianniang's offer to join their side far more appealing.