Mulan: By-the-numbers.
Disney’s 2020 live-action remake of their classic animated story, loosely based on sixth century legend of a daughter who takes her father’s place in the imperial army and saves all of China, has dropped on Disney+ (for an additional fee).
The cast, led by Liu Yifei as the titular Mulan, does a great job carrying the atmosphere and action of the film, the locations are sweeping and stunning, and the art department has built a world true to the period and source material.
But the entire time I couldn’t help but be nagged by something. Something just didn’t seem right.
While there are odd editing choices and more than just a few half-hearted references to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, I still felt like I hadn’t really hit on what was bothering me. That is until one scene.
Mulan has revealed herself as a woman and has been expelled from the army. While travelling home, Mulan is met by Xian Land (played by Gong Li), a powerful witch who serves as a lackey to the Rouran invaders. Xian gives the typical “We’re not so different, you and I” bad guy speech (literally word for word), and invites Mulan to join her, since they’re both outsiders.
Consider this; by this point of the film Mulan has been shunned by her society, by her family, by the army, by her comrades. This is a big deal. All indicators point to one of two outcomes. Mulan accepts, or one character defining trait stops her. Maybe something her father thought her about the importance of being good or maybe it’s her strength of character at forgiving those who turned against her and not letting it turn her bitter, or maybe it’s just knowing that saving China will in turn protect her family.
We don’t even get that.
We just get her saying “nah, catch me later with that shit”, turning around, returning to the army and telling them about the Roaran invasion of the imperial city, who, despite ousting and threatening her with death literally minutes before (hours in story), just decide “okay” and join her to save the day (but not until after Xian taking an arrow for Mulan because something something you changed my mind something something).
It suddenly hit me. I realised what I was feeling this entire time. Nothing.
Nothing actually happens in Mulan, or at least, that is to say, nothing happens to Mulan. Mulan has kind of a luke-warm sense of motivation. She joins the army so her injured father doesn’t have to but there’s no real internal motivation. She’s not trying to prove herself or gain honour. We’ve seen honour doesn’t really affect her apart from a feeling of letting down her. As a child in the opening sequence she’s a rough-and-tumble child but “brings dishonour”. The next time we see her she’s now a rough-and-tumble horse-riding martial-arts parkour bad-ass. You can’t show someone going ten plus years of their life as not caring about honour and then say “okay they now care” without something drastic and character changing affecting them. This was achieved in the original animation film by her father scolding her. Apparently villagers who quietly shake their heads disapprovingly do the trick in this one? Why? Why does she care? Why do we? Why is this even a thing?
Because it bridges one part of the film to the next. That’s it.
We have a vague sense of what’s happening and how each scene links together, but there’s nothing driving the characters other than “okay, we need to put these people here now”.
This carries across the entire film.
Mulan, while signing up for the army, is accidentally knocked over by Li Shang replacement Chen Honghui (Yoson An). When Yoson offers Mulan a helping hand, she’s needlessly aggressive. Why? Oh, it’s so when they’re friends it feels like an arc. So the kind, outside-the-box Mulan we saw earlier is now hot-headed.
During the main battle, Mulan, who by this point has grown a bond with her fellow soldiers, just abandons them mid-battle to chase a small group who just killed her entire flank? So now she has a death-wish and thinks she can take on several archers, leaving her friends to possible die in battle? Why? Oh, so she has a one on one with Xian.
Which is weird, because apparently fighting Xian, one of the antagonists trying to kill the army with sorcery, inspires her to reveal herself as a woman (the reason given in the film is that by lying she’s blocking her Chi (plot armour), despite the fact taking this advice is the reasons she gets kicked out of the army, so the film inadvertently proofs it was a bad idea). Why? Oh, so there’s a reason for her to get kicked out and threaten to kill her if she returns.
Even other characters suffer from malleable motivation. Xian, within the first ten minutes, meets the Emperor (Jet Li), the target of the Rourans. She’s literally feet from him. She has magic! She helps to kill hundreds of men. Oh, but we need the inciting incident. Oh, of course. Well at least she didn’t have the same chance twice…
…She literally has the same chance twice.
She disguises herself as his the Emperor’s Chancellor, tells him “hey, go here”, and he does. Why? So the Rouran can try to kill him… after she was literally inches from him… with all her magic…
This is the entire film. Characters don’t so much react, resist, and change to events as they just do whatever is needed to get back to the “cool” action and give the impression something’s happening.
Mulan isn’t a bad film. It would be unfair to expect everything to be a life-changing films. It’s okay for a film to be okay. But 2020’s Mulan is already stretching what it means to be a film. It banks heavily on you knowing at the very least the original to avoid the heavy-lifting. It also seems to be catering towards the Chinese film market, which Disney (and other studios) are desperate to appease. I can’t shake the feeling that by not dwelling or exploring motivation Disney have made it that much easier for themselves now only to translate the film into Mandarin (helping by awkward L & J cuts that hide dialogue in cut-aways) but also to market the film apolitical action period piece with a domestic story (a genre both popular in China and heavily encouraged by the Chinese government).
Mulan isn’t bad. It’s a good film to glance up from your phone for. I promise you won’t miss anything plot-wise, but only because there’s barely anything to risk missing.
