Mulan (2020)

When a beloved classic film is remade, the filmmakers must always toe a line. A line between fidelity to the original and presenting something new altogether.

In the past few years Disney has trotted out a handful of remakes of some of their classic animated films. All to great financial success, but very few to critical claim. Part of the reason these remakes are not well loved is that Disney has skewed more towards the fidelity side of that line I presented above. It is certainly the reason that I have not really enjoyed any of the recent remakes.

But Mulan (2020) looked different. It appeared that the movie would swap the musical genre for the wuxia epic. And that captured my attention. It actually made me excited for one of these bloated vanity money-traps Disney has been selling us for years. Maybe it wouldn't be so shameless, so tired, so cynically profit-driven?

And so, after many delays, some controversy involving Hong Kong protests and the lead actress, and a world-wide pandemic, Disney finally released Mulan on its Disney+ streaming platform.

I. What Is It?

This is the story of Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei), a young girl gifted with an incredible chi force, but forced to suppress it because "girls don't do that." When an invading force requires military conscripts from her village, she steals her father's sword and armor and heads off to serve in his place. You know the rest.

II. A Remake With Flair

I love the 1998 musical. But I'm kind of glad that we aren't getting over-produced vanilla remixes of songs I'd rather listen to from the OG soundtrack. Here, we have traded the trappings of an animated musical with the visual flair of a wuxia epic. Both genres are highly stylized, trading realism for a kind of heightened, performative quality. I think the trade-off works because it allows this new iteration of Mulan to be its own thing, without suffering under the shadow of its ancestor (see what I did there?).

Mulan is still a badass. In fact, she is probably more so here, because of her chi-based super powers. She is capable of more feats of strength and elegance than many of the people, especially the men, around her. 

Mulan's gender reveal is handled differently, here, than in the original. She is allowed agency and empowerment when she presents her real, genuine self, and I really liked that. It is a moment that underscores the film's thesis on feminine power, and the idea that we are all more powerful when we are our real selves than when we pretend to be something we aren't.

III. Absolutely Visually Stunning

This movie is absolutely gorgeous. The costumes are vibrant and colorful. The sets are detailed. Mandy Walker's photography is stunning: the shot composition, lighting, and colors make every frame a painting indeed. This is a film you could watch with the sound off and still be suitably entranced.

I particularly was in awe of the way the film presented Mulan "girling up" for the village matchmaker. The make-up is jaw-dropping, and the silk robes and wraps are stunning. Every little detail, down to the tea sets are absolutely beautiful.

The fight choreography, when they allow it to, is exciting. When Mulan straight up chucks a spear into the air, does a flip and chi kicks a spear at a sparring partner, it sets up a moment of true bad assery, one the film indulges in later in a proper battle. While the film doesn't reinvent wuxia, it does sort of act as a sampler platter for American audiences: it borrows and picks excellent visual bits from better, more poetic films, but the production team pull of the visual flair nimbly. I would have preferred the action become more balletic, but the film wants Mulan's chi to be unique, and so we get some ho-hum battle situations sprinkled with wuxia poetry, where I wanted full-on battle dances from the drop. Still, when the film goes there, it goes there and is visually stunning. Mulan and Bori Khan's fight in the film's climactic battle is suitably epic; rife with camera tricks and fun choreography.

Harry Gregson-Williams' score is wonderful, too, with flashes and motifs of the original musical popping up here and there. I think it stands as a nice concession to the original while also striving to make his own statement.

IV. Undertones? Still Under Toned

This movie is stuffed-to-the-gills with missed opportunities and false politics.

The movie opens, strangely, with narration from Mulan's father, Zhou (Tzi Ma). He says something to the effect that there are many Mulan stories, but this one is his. And that is kinda fucking weird: the film opens a bad-ass female's story by couching it in the experience of her father. Mulan doesn't even get to own her own film. What the fuck? Disney can't even be bothered to let a strong female own her own story.

And, while I am excited that Disney allowed a woman to direct this film, I am still disappointed that neither the director nor any one of the four writers (FOUR!) are Chinese. When are we going to let Chinese people tell Chinese stories? I am so glad that the film has women telling this story. But I guess it was just too much to let any of those women be Chinese.

Mulan's story has, since the first animated feature dropped in 1998, had LGBTQ+ undertones: Mulan's story has shades of a trans journey; the romance between Mulan and a male soldier has strong homosexual themes. That Disney has offered itself a second shot at this story and still shunts these story elements into under-tone and subtext is frustrating. As if Disney doesn't understand that they have LGBTQ+ fans. That maybe those fans don't want the "suggestion" of stories relevant to their lives. Honghui comes to love and respect Mulan in her disguise as a man, and the film just never comments on that at all. I suppose it's better than having him react in abject, homophobic terror. Baby steps, I guess.

There are other moments where the film trips over its own left foot. Some of the dialogue is stiff; the poetry of proper wuxia is blunted and swapped out for standard, PG-13 American action; the film could easily use another fifteen minutes of character beats, but rushes madly through standard storytelling beats leaving many characters and plot turns a bit hollow.

V. Bury Your Bad Bitches

Li Gong's big bad, Xianniang, very nearly breaks the Disney mold. And the film disappoints majorly by giving her short shrift. She is a villian that makes a good point about the world she lives in: she must necessarily play the villain, because society has cast her in that role without her consent. She "serves" Bori Khan because no man would ever willingly follow a woman. Even though she could literally decimate Khan's entire army by herself. Her bad ass credentials, then, are immediately hamstrung by the fact that the film's most powerful villain is chastised and belittled by an angry man, and never gets a proper moment to capitalize on her own inherent power. Then the screenwriters tossed her aside in a downright silly "heroic sacrifice" at the film's end. And it was insulting. Bad guys, or bad women, are never allowed to break good: they must pay with their villainy with their lives. Even when society bears an equal share in their villainous turns in the first place. 

And this is the point I was trying to make earlier: Disney has plated up wonderful discussions of femininity, female power, and male hegemony, but then refuses to allow its audience to eat. For fear of insulting anyone. And that is just infuriating.

Why You Should See It

- Disney finally got a little bold and allowed one of its remakes to reinvent itself, while honoring enough of its predecessor to assuage the worries of die-hards.
- The art and production design are jaw-dropping. This is a shoe-in for awards season for a variety of technical awards. Look upon its majesty, and salivate.
- Mulan still remains Disney's most bad-ass "princess."

Why You Shouldn't See It

- The LGBTQ and trans undertones remain thoroughly undertones, which is disappointing. Disney has an opportunity to explore real, weighty subjects, but refuses to do so, beholden by the buying-power of much of their conservative base.

- It lacks some of the poetry of an actual wuxia film. It gets blunt and heavy-handed for American audiences, and diminishes its own power. In many ways it suffices to be a remake with flair instead of an innovative piece of art. And that's a shame.

In Conclusion

Look, it probably looks like I didn't like this movie. But I did. I had a great time watching it. I also believe that movies can be fun and interesting and worthy of critique, at the same time. And I think this movie is worthy of quite a bit of critique, even while I admire it for its technical prowess and beauty. This is the best of Disney's live-action remakes by far, and hopefully an indicator of the studio allowing filmmakers to be less precious with the source material going forward.

And ya know what? I'd actually like to see a sequel to this Mulan. A sequel where the production is allowed to stretch its wings unfettered by a previous film. I can't say that I feel the same about any of the other remakes Disney's plopped out into the world.

Miscellany

- Yifei Liu does about 90% of her own stunts: bad ass.
- The production changed the invaders from Huns to Rouran to be more historically accurate.
- Jet Li originally turned down the role of the Emperor. When his daughters reminded him how important it was for Disney to be shining a light on Chinese culture, he relented and joined the production.
- This is the first of Disney's live-action remakes to get a PG-13 rating.
- Ming-Na Wen, who voiced Mulan in the original film, cameos as the woman who presents Mulan to the emperor after the final battle.