Disney, it appears, just cannot do right when it comes to remakes. No one would accuse the remakes released so far to be great, though some of them, such as Maleficent, attempt going off the beaten path. In case of 2019’s The Lion King, the main complaint was that it’s too slavish in its dedication to recreating the original shot by shot. The new Mulan, at least, is different enough from the original 1998 film that watching both doesn’t feel entirely redundant. However, it lacks the heart and charm of the original, despite featuring a more ‘grounded’ take with spectacular action scenes.
Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei) has possessed great chi from a young age, making her extremely nimble and suited for battle. However, as a girl, she has been forced to hide her talents and try her best to be a dutiful daughter. When war reaches her town and the emperor demands that a man from every family should enlist, her father (Ma Tzi) is forced to volunteer himself. Late at night, she sneaks out with his armor and bravely volunteers herself, disguising as a man. Eventually, she goes into battle against the dangerous rouran invaders, who also have a deadly witch, Xianniang (Gong Li) in their ranks.
The best thing about the new Mulan is that it looks crisp and beautiful. The fights are tightly choreographed and give off strong wuxia vibes. Clearly, Disney made an effort to make this film more appealing to Chinese tastes and echo the vibe and tone of chinese military epics. The addition of Xianniang also allows for inventive use of magical powers. While there is plenty of visual spectacle, the core of the film feels empty, despite trying to drive home a powerful message. There is a moment where Mulan chooses to embrace her true self and stops disguising herself as a man, shedding away her chest and shoulder armor. While that sounds like a risky thing to do when riding into battle, it’s sure to strike children as inspirational.
However, the film compromises this message by having Mulan be a gifted chi wielder who’s capable of superhuman feats from the beginning.
The message thus ends up being that, yes, women are equal to men in battle, but only if they are special and have magical powers.
Of the characters, Mulan herself feels more confused, and key parts of her transformation are muddled or skipped entirely, such as her cutting her hair and donning her father’s armor. Gong Li’s Xianniang seems a more complex character, but she’s mainly used as a foil to Mulan and later to display a moment of solidarity between women. There’s no Li Shang in this remake- his character has been cut into two, Mulan’s commander Tung (Donnie Yen) and Honghui (Yoson An). There’s not much meat in these two characters that makes them stand out, although Donnie Yen does try his best.
Mulan has faced a lot of difficulties heading into release. First, it ran into controversy when star Liu Yifei expressed pro-police sentiments regarding Hong Kong. Then the pandemic happened and the film was ultimately released on Disney+, where subscribers have to pay an additional $30 on top of the subscription price to see it. Maybe all these troubles weren’t worth it: this is a film that will quickly fade from moviegoer’s memories. Here’s to hoping Disney learns from its mistakes and applies their learning to future remakes. It’s probably a slim possibility, but one can hope.