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Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
LET me start off by saying it took every fibre of my being not to completely ignore Disney’s latest attempt at a remake.
Personally, I found this re-creation of the 1998 animated classic “Mulan” to be lazy film making at its best.
It lacks substance and, quite frankly, a total waste of a hugely talented ensemble of Asian talent.
I solely blame Walt Disney.
However, we will get to that later.
“Mulan” is part remake and part live-action adaptation.
It tells the story Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei), an actively adventurous girl.
She decides to secretly replace her elderly father, Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma), when he is called to join a war to defend China.
The film is based on the Chinese tale “The Ballad of Mulan.”
In the north-western regions of China, an outpost is invaded by Rouran warriors under the leadership of Bori Khan.
Khan is working closely with a witch by the name Xianniang (Gong Li), who can shapeshift to infiltrate towns and take hordes of men single-handedly.
After he scores a couple of key victories, the Emperor (Jet Li) comes up with an edict that mandates every household to send at least one male into the army, where they will be trained to defend all of China.
Unfortunately for Hua Zhou, a now-retired soldier, he only has two daughters and decides to enlist himself.
In ancient China, it was taboo for women to enlist.
However, Mulan decides to steal her father’s gear, leave home disguised as a man and enlist in his place.
This, in time, leads to the legend of Mulan after she successfully leads the army to victory.
Now, at face value, there is absolutely nothing wrong with both the plot and the talented Asian ensemble.
The film copies a plan from the animated original and pastes it onto a live-action film.
They erred by failing to add anything of substance to the “new” production.
Above all, some of the things that made the original film tick were left out.
Among these are the songs and the dragon that was originally voiced by Eddie Murphy in the animated film.
The PG13 rating is arguably the film’s biggest weakness.
Yes, this story and film is largely for a younger audience, but in strictly adhering to the age restriction, it took away the spectacle from the visuals, turning what could have been an epic display into something average.
Nothing about these scenes (battles) is a true representation of war or conflict.
Instead, they put way too much emphasis on martial arts and slow-motion camera work.
I believe that in making this story a live-action remake, they wanted to play around with visuals, but the age restriction just spoiled everything.
The cast is wasted as Rick Jaffa and his team made no attempt to add anything new to the characters and dialogue.
Except for Yefei’s Mulan and Jason Scott Lee’s Bori Khan, it is hard to care for any of the characters in the film.
And this is despite the presence of esteemed thespians like Jet Li, Xian Lang, Tzi Ma and Donnie Yen.
Online Reporter