Mulan, in Live Action

Somebody urged me to watch this movie yesterday, and I loved it!

There were lots of hints in the media that the live action version—let’s call it Mulan 2020—was different from the animated version, Mulan 1998.  I didn’t know what to think of that; I had already fallen in love with the animated version, and I could not imagine how different the live-action version could be, and still be the same story.  Also, I was going to miss the little dragon a lot; not just because I loved Eddie Murphy in that role (though he was so not Chinese), and I thought that all the unbelievable stunts would make more sense in a sort of fairy-tale feel of an animated version.

Well, the first thing that happened is that the actress who played Mulan in the new movie just waltzed right in, and made believers of us all.  Her name is Yifei Liu.

(I was amazed at how well she was acting, but just a few seconds ago I learned that she had been trained in a Chinese acting school, and was already famous in China and neighboring countries having starred in a couple of top-ranking features, including a major motion picture.)

Yifei—assuming that’s her personal name!—and the actresses who played her younger selves, were brilliant at capturing the essense of Mulan's sense of humor.  I guess that means that the humorous aspect of the character as envisaged by Niki Caro, the director and creative force of the movie, was well transmitted to both acresses.  The writing was also excellent; the dialog was funny without being clumsy.  I guess Disney writers are good at that game!

In the end, the absence of the family Dragon mascot didn’t make much of a difference; somehow Mulan absorbs the lessons that she needs to pull off her deception.

For more than half of the movie, these strengths were enough for me; Mulan learns to deal with the crude fellows in her squad, without revealing that she wasn’t a guy.  But then, we arrive at the Martial Arts part of the show, and here the editing became far too self-indulgent.  There were lots of quite unnecessary slow-motion segments showing Mulan in a wild airborne roundhouse kick, and now we’re in the Martial Arts Universe, with all it’s momentum-destroying fan service, I think it’s called.  But normally, the editing in these Martial Arts movies are brilliant; in this movie, it's just a little too plodding!  Overall, though, I think it is a lovely movie.  (I'm sure someone could tighten up the editing before it’s released on BluRay.)

Kay