Review of Mulan, directed by Niki Caro

When I was a kid, my favorite Disney Princess was Mulan. Man, I wanted to be her, as I thought it was so cool that she would go and do the things that were defiant of what was expected of her gender. I think I ended up following that path in some ways myself, as I like to think I defy gender norms whenever possible.

Mulan also ended up inspiring me to take Mandarin classes down the road, as in my local middle school in the US, you have to pick between French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. I took Mandarin, or putonghua, for over ten years, and almost ended up minoring in it in college. I often say it truly changed my life and defined my career.

Anyways, I remember when the remake of Mulan was announced, and then the pandemic hit. Everyone was outraged at the fact they would have to pay extra money, on top of the streaming price, to go and watch this from the comfort of their own homes. I get why they were mad—there was a lot of uncertainty back then.

It was four years after the pandemic that I found a DVD copy of this movie at my local library. I remembered the controversy in the moment, realized there was no reason for me to not to watch it when it’s free, took the DVD home with me, and watched it that night. I then was horrified afterwards to realize it was filmed in Xinjiang.

Here’s my review!

The story of Hua Mulan and how she took her father’s place in the army.

For those of you who are familiar with the original myth or Disney movie, there are some differences in this film that we’re going to see throughout this summary.

We begin with an invasion. Imperial China is being invaded by their nomadic neighbors, which are led by Bori Khan. With the help of a witch who takes the form of other people, they can easily breach enemy lies from within.

Hua Mulan grew up to become an active girl who can be tomboy like in the eyes of Imperial China, which causes some strife with her parents. As a girl’s duty is to get married to a husband, Mulan is going to have some trouble down the road with this attitude and demeanor.

They arrange for her to meet with a matchmaker, who will decide how and if she will be a good wife. As Mulan tries to pour tea in front of her, a spider scares her younger sister.

A series of disastrous events takes place, and Mulan ends up dropping the teapot, destroying it and pissing off the matchmaker. She is declared as someone unfit to marry anyone, a disgrace to the family, much to their disappointment.

The Emperor learns of the new threat in the mean time, and decides he needs to conscript one man from every family to stop the approaching threat. As the soldiers come to Mulan’s village, her father, who is older now, is forced to agree to be the one from their family to go. However, he has a crippled leg, which means he will die in battle.

Mulan steals the family sword and armor in the middle of the night, then rides off with their horse. She pretends to be her father’s son and arrives at the training camp. This one is run by Commander Tung, and her other fellow recruits are just as inexperienced as she is. They are all trained to become warriors, but when Khan comes closer, they have to enter battle early.

Mulan bravely goes after some troops, but is confronted by the witch Xianniang. She knows Mulan is not a man, and when she tries to kill her, Mulan’s armor stops the attack. Mulan takes off of her disguise, then goes back to the battle and stops the enemy. She has a trebuchet fire at a snowy mountain, burying the enemy before they can pick off her comrades.

Mulan goes back to the camp and rescues the soldier Honghui, who she had been friends with. In this movie, he finds her bathing alone in the river, and she has to hide her identity—that was earlier in the film. Commander Tung finds out she is a woman, and she is banished back to her village.

But on her way back, Xianniang finds Mulan and tells her about Khan’s true plan. He is going straight to the Emperor, and Mulan runs back to her comrades and tells them what is about to happen. They believe her, and they take a unit back to the palace.

There, they discover Xianniang tricked the Emperor by taking the image of the Imperial Chancellor. As him, she tells the Emperor to allow Bori Khan into the city, and to remove the guards at the posts. They are then killed, and the Emperor is captured.

Mulan’s unit arrives to save the day, and she sets out for the Emperor. As she approaches Khan, he tries to snipe her off, but Xianniang takes the arrow for her and dies. Mulan then defeats Bori Khan, freeing the Emperor and earning his respect. While declining his offer to join the guard, she prepares to go home.

When she gets back to her village, a unit from the palace arrives. Mulan is given a new sword, and asked to join the Imperial Army.

Overall Thoughts

My general viewpoint towards some of the Disney live action movies is this: if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. Because they change some of the minor details and add characters, this makes this movie less good than the original.

For example, Xianniang’s character kind of just exists for some girl to girl talk and understanding, which doesn’t really make sense to me. Her motivations for taking the arrow at the end are unclear, and it feels slightly gimmicky if we’re going to be honest.

I also don’t understand some of the decisions in general here, but if you like this film, to each their own. Good for you. Truly. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll be returning to this one.

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