Mulan (2020)

(Disney Streaming, February 2021) I’m not sure when Disney’s recent rage for live-action adaptation of its own work will taper out — We’ve reached diminishing returns a few movies back already, and there’s presumably only a limited catalogue to suck dry before risking dicier sequels. The live-action Mulan certainly doesn’t help make the case that the live-action remakes are a worthwhile artistic endeavour: As with many of its live-action predecessors, the conversion of an animated tale to live actors produces something technically impressive but generally inert, and culturally risky that the project is doomed to criticism before even the first frame of it is seen. The anthropomorphic animal sidekicks are gone, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but in sticking close to the rest of the original film, this remake opens itself up to accusations of repetitiousness. Mulan’s best sequence is probably a down-to-the-ground training sequence that needs none of the special effects making the live-action version possible. There are plenty of battle sequences, but they don’t add much to the film. For a narrative so concerned with gender-bending, the transition to live action doesn’t really help: There’s only so much that you can do to Liu Yifei to make her look like a man, and the film isn’t particularly credible on that point. I’ll leave to other better-informed commentators the task of commenting on the film’s cultural authenticity, but I’ll note that anything related to China and pop entertainment at this point is so fraught with points of contention that Disney deserves whatever it gets from courting dollars with this project. All in service of what? A visually polished story already done to good effect, which is roughly the capsule summary of the half-dozen previous Disney live-adaptation projects so far. I struggle to remember at least half of them, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out, in a few years, that I have similar issues in even remembering this version of Mulan.