Mulan (2020)
An honoring portrayal of collectivism.
I loved Mulan growing up and wore out my VHS of the film from watching it over and over and over again. Even though I was an incredibly uncoordinated child, I so badly wanted to be a tough warrior-chick like Mulan and save the day. What an incredible story for young girls to watch and learn from. Now, as an adult, I understand just how problematic that film as a whole is, but as a kid, it was such a cool story to aspire to. Mulan was a great character for me to look up to.
Recently, Disney has been on a roll destroying many of my childhood favorites (I didn’t need a new version of Lion King or Aladdin in my life, thank you) and I didn’t have high hopes for Disney’s newest remake. All in all, the film was okay. I, honestly expected it to be worse, which probably says more about me and my current opinion of Disney than anything else. While it was an okay movie, I don’t think it was worth the $29.99 price tag, in addition to the Disney+ subscription fee.
One of the things that I loved about the film was all of its textures and colors. It was bright and beautiful and there were some moments that I could almost feel the fabrics, the ground, the snow. Some of the shots were gorgeous and clearly composed with care. And Yifei Liu gave a wonderful and nuanced performance as Mulan. This character could’ve easily come across as cold or…
