Studio - Walt Disney Pictures
Starring - Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Gong Li, Jet Li, Tzi Ma, Rosalind Chao, Yoson An
Writer - Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Elizabeth Martin, Lauren Hynek
Director - Niki Caro
Release - 27 March 2020
I won't compare this to the animated movie because this one deserves to stand on its own. Having said that, however, there really isn't any Disney magic in this one.
Part of that reason was probably because the writers decided, this time, to make Mulan a "superhero" by giving her the "Chi" - much akin to the Force in Star Wars. So much so that when Donnie Yen was talking about the Chi I was half expecting him to go, I'm one with the Chi and the Chi is with me.
The fight scenes, particularly the sword fights, were atrocious. This was made out to be like a traditional Chinese "WuXia" - filled with the legendary swordsman not unlike Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Instead it was a mystical story, and I should have guessed as much just by looking at the names of the writers.
This movie should really have been written by Chinese and choreographed by Chinese to really give it that Chinese flavour.
So when the protagonist started out as a superhero, there was no room for her to grow. All she had to do was tap into her inner Chi and she could do miraculous things. How boring is that?
There was also the nonsensical decisions of putting in a CGI phoenix that really did nothing, and did not even look like it belonged in the movie. And I couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that the moment she decided she was to embrace her true self and ditch her male identity, she also threw away her armour as she charged into battle? Her father's precious armour no less!
But this was not without some merits. It was really good to see Jason Scott Lee on the big screen again, even though his antagonist was close to a twirling mustache villain. Gong Li was another interesting villain that was left unexplored. Donnie Yen shone and we should have seen more of him fighting instead of practicing his gongfu.
The best performance, which I would also argue for a Best Supporting Actor, was Tzi Ma. He felt like the heart and soul of the movie (therein lied the mistake) and he stole every scene. Sitting at the dinner table and slapping it like only a Chinese father could, that was epic!
But what was most disappointing was this movie had a Hollywood budget, with king fu masters Donnie Yen and Jet Li, and they weren't used more in the fight scenes? What's the point then?
This movie should have been written by Chinese, with a Hong Kong fight choreographer. And, a Chinese writer would probably not use the Chinese word for "true" as one of the pillars.
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