Nikki Phan

If you wanted something that was more like the 1998 animated version than this movie isn’t for you. In its own right it was a great movie, one I enjoyed watching with my friend. The animated movie was more geared towards young girls as most Disney princess movies are however this live action version was for older audiences (it was rated pg-13 for a reason). It is not a remake of the original animated movie, it is a retelling of an old Chinese legend with some added flair. *There are some spoilers ahead* A lot of people didn’t understand the chi and thought that there wasn’t much character development, however a lot of people are forgetting this is based if a Chinese legend. Ancient Chinese were very superstitious, and believed that chi was the life energy of the earth. The fact that she was a girl and has been taught her while life to suppress her chi and not to show it to anybody represented the way society treated women in those days and when she finally broke out of her shell and revealed who she actually was, she became stronger. I love this because this is empowering young girls and women to not suppress their talents and abilities and to instead embrace. The legend of Hua Mulan has always empowered girls to believe that they could do anything that men can do and maybe be even better than men and this movie did that. For those asking about mushu, he wasn’t in the movie and instead was replaced by a Phoenix which once again fits better with the whole Chinese superstition thing. Because while Phoenix is a more western mythology, there is a similar bird called the fenghuang in Chinese mythology (also called the Chinese Phoenix), it showed how she rose up and became better. And while dragons are more associated with Chinese mythology ancient Chinese people never believe that the could talk to humans only looked over them and guide them as guardians do. A small talking dragon is great in a children’s movie not so much in a movie for an older audience. While it wasn’t exactly like the original they did keep some of the more iconic things in movie such as the songs (although they didn’t sing, it was more background music) and the fact that they had the original voice actor for the 1998 animated version be in the movie at the end is a great nod to the original movie. One thing that I personally didn’t like was how blurred out the background was in the ending, I would prefer if it wasn’t so blurry. For those boycotting the movie, please don’t. While the actress that plays Mulan has made controversial remarks regarding the Hong Kong police, it has nothing to do with the movie. There are thousands of movies and tv shows that contain controversial actors and people are still watching it. Please separate the actor from the character. Furthermore this film was shot in 2018 before the Chinese concentration camps were gaining traction in the news and at a time when the Chinese government were still denying and covering up its existence. Do you really think that the Chinese government would really let a Hollywood crew from the United States know about it? This is the second all Asian cast Hollywood movie in two years, with the first being Crazy Rich Asians, which was the first in 25 years. Almost the entire crew, production and writer were Caucasian. If this movie flips it will be blame on the all Asian cast and might possibly prevent more all asian movies from being produced. So please watch it if you can.