Live-Action Mulan remake.

*looks at cast list*

...wait, this movie's villain is David from Lilo & Stitch?!

...alright. In hindsight, stupid question.

There's Crazy Rich Asians, which I did watch and enjoy for lampooning the typical stereotypes of Chinese and Chinese-Americans (if only because it reminds me a lot about my life).

Still Mulan is the film that most would point out to whenever Chinese films are mentioned.

Rotten Tomatoes rating is out, with 80% after 139 reviews. I'm... surprised with this result.

Well critics usually do favour the films.... Since its let's be fair their not like bad just feel....pointless since their the same.

No reason to avoid a Mulan 2 then. I usually don't listen to critics anyway. Going to see it regardless of how it does.

(3) I still haven't watched that.

Edited by FOFD on Sep 3rd 2020 at 5:56:04 AM

How are you seeing it. I'm waiting for it to come on digital since uh I'm not going to the cinema now and disney plus isn't available in my country ?

...to be honest I hadn't thought that far ahead. I figure there's a drive-in theater somewhere that might show it. That, or I guess I'll just wait for this digital release everyone's buzzing about.

The take away I got from the reviews are:

- Mulan is now the chosen one.

- It have a more patriotic tone compare to the original.

Chris Stuckmann gives his review; stands apart from the positive critical reception. His main points:

The Good:

• Avoids the previous live-action remake pitfalls of being uncreative, word-for-word/shot-for-shot remakes with no changes; actually features some substantial rewrites
• Rewrites remove the most distractingly "Disney movie" aspects of the original (no comedic animal sidekicks or silly ancestor ghosts)
• The "realistic" tone is an interesting direction

The Bad:

• Wooden acting
• Occasionally distracting CGI
• Rewrites inexplicably remove some of the most emotionally impactful scenes
• Attempts to be a more "realistic" take on the tale fall flat due to Bloodless Carnage and everyone speaking english, among other things, such as:
• Mulan being a magical Chosen One who is intentionally hiding her immense chi powers rather than an ordinary farmgirl who must train hard to become a soldier, which is more boring than the original, extremely unfitting for the attempted "realistic" tone, and somewhat undermines the original film's moral about anyone being capable of heroism

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Sep 3rd 2020 at 7:19:54 AM

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist here but either the writers of the remake/Disney are idiots and completely missed the point of the original or they are trying to appeal to the traditional martial art movement that is happening right now in China. Hopefully the former...

Twitter thread of Asian reviewers of "Mulan"

Which remake had this as a pitfall.

And they were just praising it for being creative and having substantial rewrites. I wonder which scenes were removed.

Edited by FOFD on Sep 4th 2020 at 5:37:17 AM

The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast are the most guilty of this, and even then, they have some deviances, some good and some bad.

Reading that Twitter thread there's a lot more cultural and emotional baggage that comes up with this movie than I'd realized.

Edited by FOFD on Sep 4th 2020 at 6:04:32 AM

Considering "Boycott Mulan" is trending on Twitter, extremely so.

X4. Lots of, the remakes changed a lot of things while completely undermine the intention of the original:

- Beauty and the Beast: Rather than Belle fall in love with the Beast because she see how he changed for her, they now bond over their dead moms. Rather than the town people are just simple, shallow country forks who were easy to be influenced by Gaston, they all now been prided and under spell. Rather than the fairy who started the plot just appear in the beginning, she is inserted into the plot. Adding a ticking clock to the servants lives if the B East doesn't turn back( which make Belle run away seem heartless since she basically abandon the whole castle to their doom). This stem from Disney want to address problems that wasn't there from the beginning, but by addressing them it open up whole new plot holes (like he teleport magic book).

- Lion King:This one actually have the least amount of change, however the few thing they add in were unnecessary or make the scene inferior to the original.

- Aladdin: Let see, Jafar back story which is unnecessary and just there to make him more similar to Aladdin for some reason. Jasmine subplot about wanting political power( while it a nice idea, it just does't go well with her character arc or the main theme of the story).

Edited by BattleRaizer on Sep 4th 2020 at 8:56:52 PM

I'm... definitely interested in this.

Part of it is that I just watched Abominable and I'm curious if there is a movie that's more overtly appealing to the Chinese market and part of me does genuinely want to see it. I have very little nostalgia for the original; I didn't see it until the late aughts but I recognize its significance there.

... unless someone on my Disney Plus buys it, I'm waiting for December, though.

(2)

Well I meant "which ones had the pitfall of being uncreative [since apparently it's a pitfall of remakes that they don't change enough, which I disagree with and think most people who want that sort of thing will be endlessly disappointed buuuut anyway].

I like some changes, like making Jafar "wise to Aladdin" and giving him a similar backstory (unnecessary as it was).

I can't speak to the changes made in Beauty and the Beast or Lion King, but giving Jasmine a song and Jafar a backstory I didn't mind.

Edited by FOFD on Sep 4th 2020 at 7:42:54 AM

It gave Shenzi the Adaptational Badass treatment while downplaying Banzai and Ed into interchangeable goons, that's a change I know off the top of my head that doesn't have to do with the animation change.

They aren't bad ideas, however they also still keep the tone, theme and the story of the original, both parts don't go together since the original already carefully plotted, adding more plot in hurt the flow and the general theme of the story. The point is that they make change but not enough, choose to keep too close to the original which make additional elements standout even more.

I don't mind the changes to Jafar. I hate the portrayal though as the dude is boring. Like could they have not have a more Chasriamatic actor. Yeesh.

"Lots of, the remakes changed a lot of things while completely undermine the intention of the original:"

And you see this with Mulan. In the animated movie, she never yearned to fight. She was not even trained. She sacrificed what she wanted to save her father. She never wanted to be a perfect bride but she seemed to just want to find her thing. This new one has her like a tiny soldier on day 1...and that's a problem, because it makes me, the audience member, question her true motives for fighting in the first place and makes a "scary sacrifice to save her family" more into a "YA! I get to go do this now!"

It would be like if Simba, as soon as he reached puberty, was like "I KNOW SCAR IS BAD! GONNA GO KILL HIM NOW! NO EMOTIONAL GROWTH NEEDS TO HAPPEN!" completely skipping several intermediate steps along the way.

I think making Mulan more like her original tale counterpart actually hurt her character. Because in the original poem she was The Ace. She knew martial arts from her father from the beginning, ranked up in the army easily, was able to pretend to be a soldier for ten years, and in the end when they found out she was a woman everyone is okay. Again this is a case of Adapational Wimp is needed because you want to see a character who has to earn their place instead of already being it. It makes for a more interesting story. Also it's interesting they keep the sister character for the live action remake, while still adapting out her brother.

Also her having special chi powers was cheesy. And the witch character being a Tragic Villain didn't cut it for me, because if I remember I think witches were really accepted among the invading nomads.

...ok if they took out anything resembling I'll Make A Man Out Of You this might be the first thing to make me consider skipping this. :p