Disney's Mulan (2020) - Crystal Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Yoson An, Jason Scott Lee, Gong Li

[DrNgor]

23 minutes ago, laagi said:

Things just seem to be getting worse for Mulan. Not only did it bomb at the chinese box office

I find this part a lot more fascinating than the boycotts themselves. Despite all of the attempts to make the production "China-friendly," the government wasn't very friendly to the production. They only allowed marketing to be done in the last two weeks or so before it came out, banned all critics from talking about the film save a single government-sponsored periodical, and that particular review was pretty negative. I wonder if there was some sort of cultural uncanny valley, in which it stars Chinese people, they play Chinese people, there were a lot of Chinese/Asian people behind the scenes, but it doesn't feel right and is ultimately rejected.

It makes me wonder, if China were to produce a live-action adaptation of some very-Western animated feature...let's use Pocahontas for example...if the result would be similar.

[DrNgor]

1 hour ago, DrNgor said:

I wonder if there was some sort of cultural uncanny valley, in which it stars Chinese people, they play Chinese people, there were a lot of Chinese/Asian people behind the scenes, but it doesn't feel right and is ultimately rejected.

This article sort of answers my own question:

https://us.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-china-hates-disney-mulan-120057404.html

[mpm74]

People need to separate movies from whatever views they have. And actors and actresses need to STFU. Everyone wants to be John Lennon, that's the problem. 

I mean, seriously, it's a movie. 

This world needs a reboot. =)

[laagi]

1 hour ago, DrNgor said:

This article sort of answers my own question:

https://us.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-china-hates-disney-mulan-120057404.html

The irony... great stuff! And yeah I couldn't agree more.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

The star is a dreadful actress. I'm pretty sure they created the character Emotionless in the Four series because she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. Politics aside, pouting isn't acting. She has good skin though, I mean she's 33 playing a young girl, so I guess that's impressive. Haven't seen it, but I don't usually bother with Disney or the PRC, both reprehensible.

[Secret Executioner]

I recall seeing a (rather short) trailer at the theater when I went to see Harley Quinn before all the lockdown mess, and I found it promisisng.

[thundered mantis]

On 9/10/2020 at 1:35 AM, DiP said:

I wasn't expecting much of this movie despite the movie having Donnie and Jet in there. Still, I was underwhelmed as a whole. Not a bad movie like so many people have said but still a movie that could've been much better. Jet was alright (his action moment in the end was cool) and Donnie could've been given proper fight scenes instead of proper demo scenes (which were still good to see). Overall, the 1998 animated movie crushes this one.

Could you please elaborate @DiP? With Donnie's scenes being demo are you saying that their fighting displays here are just him doing his thing to helpless unreactive foes? Say, like it was mostly on Chen Zhen Legend of the Fist? I always like Donnie's business, if his highlights are long enough and show some physical prowess an not simply bad wire work, I'd may give it a go. How many minutes do we have here of Donnie fighting? 

[DiP]

On 9/28/2020 at 11:06 PM, thundered mantis said:

Could you please elaborate @DiP? With Donnie's scenes being demo are you saying that their fighting displays here are just him doing his thing to helpless unreactive foes? Say, like it was mostly on Chen Zhen Legend of the Fist? I always like Donnie's business, if his highlights are long enough and show some physical prowess an not simply bad wire work, I'd may give it a go. How many minutes do we have here of Donnie fighting? 

No, I meant that he has scenes where he does sword forms. The only fighting he ever got in the whole movie was in the battlefield scene and the ending against Jason Scott Lee's henchmen, which was disappointing considering the role he was given. Weapon forms are cool but I wanted more figthing, tbh.

Edited September 30, 2020 by DiP

[JackieRome]

I didn't have the courage to see him. see Asian stars bent to the system of American productions, misused and with ridiculous characters, I really don't want to. The experience of Forbidden kingdom was enough for me

[Killer Meteor]

If anyone was buying this for Jet Li, not only is his role miniscule, but he seems to be rather poorly dubbed.

I actually enjoyed this a lot more than the other recent Disney remakes, though it plays much more as a new version of the original story than a revival of Disney's romantic/comedy/musical classic formula. The film has come under a lot of flack for having Mulan gifted with martial arts prowess from the get-go, which I understand is something from the original tales.

Ultimately this feels rather retro, NOT for being based on a 90s cartoon, but because it definetly feels like a Crouching Tiger cash-in  from 20 years ago. Cheng Pei-pei is even in it!

 

7/10

[reason108]

Hollywood wastes another opportunity here. They just don't know what to do or how to handle kung-fu ideas. It takes some special talent to mess up a pairing of Jet Li and Donnie Yen. My girl and I sat down to watch it a couple of weeks ago. I think she liked it more than I did. Though, the movie was decent; extremely cliche though. It seemed to deviate from the Mulan story a bit from what I remember of it. This was more of a sci-fi flick with people using chi like in the old HK black-n-white days with energy shooting out of their bodies and flying around, running up the side of walls, etc. More like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Superman. Donnie had a couple of cool little parts and Jet did zilch; and like said previously, horribly dubbed. Why bother? Guess everyone has to speak English too since we all know (rolls eyes) that everyone everywhere that English is their native tongue. As long as you go into this with the mind-set that it is a little fantasy flick, of sorts, with some typical situations and a Hollywood moral message, then you should be entertained enough. Otherwise, the waste of talent as anyone could have played Donnie and Jets role. They were just there cause Hollywood thought it would sell more tickets with known names attached.

[DiP]

I'm currently on sick leave so I have nothing better to do but to watch movies and play video games. I scrolled through movies on Disney Plus yesterday and came across the movie, and decided to rewatch it.

I remember being underwhelmed by the movie the first time I checked it out. I think I liked it better this time around. I still think Donnie was underused in terms of action scenes, and the 1998 animated movie is superior.