KY Guo

I feel a lot of reviewers seem to have missed the point of what this film is. Mulan should not be benchmark on its storytelling but its evolution from the disney version and finding a balance to its original tale. For Disney, i find the 2020 Mulan still finding its footing and still achieving a reasonable balance between its two tales. Additionally, it is remarkable how Mulan has successfully evolved its traditional depictions and thematics. In Mulan 2020, the woman is no longer just a pretty vase rebelling to be strong. Instead, the theme anchors on self-identity pushing past the talking point of just basing on gender. The emphasis of the role of the father was extremely poetic in the film as well. *Spoiler* The final scene where Mulan asks for forgiveness from her father is impecabbly performed by actor Tzi Ma who in my opinion single handedly proved himself as the best casted in his role in the scene. Even the especially good and stable Liu Yifei was outshone. The film also tried to infuse the influence of Chinese values and history. This is however a double edged sword for the film. On one hand, this served extremely well in helping to pivot the whys in the film. On the other hand, having certain traits like trying to over explain and also serving an english audience, loses and also cuts the otherwise poetic scenes in the film. In some extremes, such as *spoiler* the part where hua zou dies and mulan embraces who she is, has clumsy dialogue that made the scene rather hard to swallow.