Mulan

2020 • 115 Minuten

Über diesen Film

Die gefeierte Filmemacherin Niki Caro erweckt die epische Geschichte von Chinas legendärer Kriegerin in Disneys MULAN zum Leben. Eine furchtlose junge Frau setzt aus Liebe zu ihrer Familie und ihrem Land alles aufs Spiel, um eine der größten chinesischen Kriegerinnen aller Zeiten zu werden. Als der Kaiser von China ein Dekret erlässt, das besagt, dass sich ein Mann aus jeder Familie dem Kaiserlichen Heer verpflichten und das Land gegen Eindringlinge aus dem Norden verteidigen muss, geht Hua Mulan, die älteste Tochter eines angesehenen Kriegers, anstelle ihres kriegsversehrten Vaters. Als Mann verkleidet muss Hua Mulan, die sich nunmehr Hua Jun nennt, viele Hindernisse überwinden, Prüfungen bestehen und sowohl eine innere Stärke entwickeln und sie sich zu Nutze machen, als auch ihr wahres Potential erkennen. Es ist eine monumentale Reise, die aus ihr eine angesehene Kriegerin macht und durch die sie sich den Respekt eines dankbaren Volks – und eines stolzen Vaters – verdient.

Bewertungen und Rezensionen

Yeah I loved the original but this one lacked authenticity. Knowing that the main actor (Liu Yifei-Crystal Liu) supported police brutality in HK, I couldn't get past it even though I tried to be subjective. Also the knowledge of butt kissing (Thank you) to the Chinese communist party (Xinjiang) at the end credits didn't sit well with me either. The lovable characterizes from the original brought a lot of warmth and charm that this one is lacking. It looked very fake. Disney has gone down the tube in ethics and good wholesome family movies I used to love growing up. Now all they care about is churning out more movies for particular groups of people so they can make money off them. No more is it just about making great movies for the masses to enjoy.

This rewrite took everything wonderful about the animated film and turned it into a joyless, bland "chosen one" story where the only interesting character (Gong Li's witch) gets killed off for no real narrative reason other than to cement Mulan's importance, which has already been beaten to death throughout the film at that point. In perhaps the most grating departure from the original, Mulan is now born with magic powers that make her a physical powerhouse warrior. This completely negates any sense of character development for her. Sadly, hers is not the only character lacking an arc: they all do, making the characters in this film one-dimensional and unengaging. Xiran Jay Zhao has already clearly described the myriad cultural inaccuracies in the film, so I won't go into too much depth there except to say that everyone should watch Xiran's YouTube video. There were other disappointing choices, especially regarding the music. The score, which used arrangements of the beloved songs from the animated film, felt tonally completely wrong. Because the original's music matched its fun tone so well, when laid over this serious-to-the-point-of-boredom new interpretation, it clashes very noticeably. Lastly, we can't ignore Disney's issues with human rights abuses in the making of this film. The abuses weren't directly Disney's fault, but the company indirectly funded China's concentration camps and other repression of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang province. Overall, this film deserves to be a massive flop due to its writing and production failures.

I, personally, enjoyed this Mulan. I loved the cartoon and enjoyed the music and of course Mushu. But I also know that some things needed to be considered for this one and I believe that it was done very well. As well as can be expected. I believe that there is going to be flack, no matter what. IF you are willing to give the movie a change on it's own merits, I don't believe you will be disappointed. For reference: I enjoyed the live action Jungle Book, I refused to watch Beauty and the Beast because Emma Watson can't sing and just what little clips I have seen breaks my heart, I heard the Lion King soundtrack and wasn't very impressed so I couldn't bring myself to watch that one either, I enjoyed Dumbo (and I am not a huge fan or Tim Burton) and I enjoyed Aladdin, especially Jasmine's solo song.