Mulan (2020) [Movie Review]

Mulan is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. It’s definitely in my top five. When I heard the news that there was going to be a live action version, I was over the moon. I knew it was going to be amazing. Then the pandemic struck. The movie was pushed back so many times that I thought I’d never get to see it.

Thankfully, Disney saw the light and released Mulan on DVD, where I was finally able to request it from the library. It was definitely worth the wait!

Here’s the summary from the DVD cover:

In Disney’s Mulan, a fearless young woman risks everything out of love for her family and her country to become one of the greatest warriors China has ever known.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Hua Mulan

The movie begins with a flashback of Mulan (Liu Yifei) as a child. She’s chasing a chicken that has escaped her family’s coop through the village. Mulan is clearly having the time of her life amidst the chaos, showing off her chi skills to the townspeople. Sadly, everyone is only horrified by Mulan’s “unbecoming” behavior.

That night, Mulan’s father, Zhou (Tzi Ma), explains to her that even though she has chi skills like a male warrior, she must conform to a woman’s role in society i.e. get married and have kids.

Zhou’s words haunt Mulan into her late teens. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t quite pull off the “proper daughter” act. She’s still running around with animals, much to her mother’s dismay. Then she has a disastrous meeting with the matchmaker, wherein she causes a chain reaction of accidents that gets the whole family thrown out in disgrace.

Things only get worse after soldiers come to the village to announce the upcoming war. Zhou’s leg, which he injured in the previous war, buckles while he’s collecting his papers without his cane, causing him to fall down in front of everyone. When Mulan later tries to talk him out of going to war, he takes his embarrassment and anger out on her, yelling, “Learn your place!” This tense moment leads Mulan to steal Zhou’s gear and ride off into the night to join the army as a man named “Hua Jun.”

Now, I’ve consumed tons of stories where the female protagonist pretends to be a man. There are movies like Just One of the Guys, She’s The Man, and Yentl; manga/anime like Hana-Kimi, Kaze Hikaru, and Ouran High School Host Club; and K-Dramas like Coffee Prince, You’re Beautiful, and Sungkyunkwan Scandal. I’m drawn to these gender-swap stories because the inevitable hijinks always make for an entertaining story. While there are also deeper, more serious issues of gender identity and sexuality at work in these stories, Mulan included, I’m going to respectfully stay in my lane and only explore some of the questions that come up with this trope.

First question: what is the female protagonist’s motivation for the ruse? In Mulan’s case, she wants to protect her father. Her mother flatly states that Zhou will not come back from the war this time. Between his leg and his age, his chances of survival are slim to none. Since he has no son to go in his stead, Mulan, as his eldest child, probably feels obligated to fill that role. Maybe deep down, she’s also eager for an opportunity to put her skills to use.

Second question: how does the female protagonist operate within her male persona? At first, Mulan tries to act how she thinks men act — you know, walking with an exaggerated masculine gait, talking with a cartoonishly deep voice, and starting fights to establish her manliness. It doesn’t suit her, and none of the guys take her seriously. As she gains more confidence through her training, however, she dials back the John Wayne attitude and her real personality begins to shine through.

The sad thing is that being a man isn’t much easier for Mulan than being a woman was. If anything, she has to keep herself even more contained. She forgoes bathing, wears her armor almost 24/7, and barely sleeps to prevent compromising situations. Plus, she has to weigh her actions carefully. The more she shows off her abilities, the more attention she gets, which in turn raises the chances that someone will figure her out. And getting caught equals automatic execution.

After literally and figuratively getting some sense knocked into her by Xianniang, the movie’s antagonist and another woman with chi skills, Mulan admits the truth to herself: she can’t keep this charade up forever. She sheds her broken armor, lets down her hair, and charges back into the battle as herself, letting the cards fall as they may while she unleashes the full extent of her skills upon their enemies. It’s a truly inspiring scene.

Ultimately, Mulan saves the day and is offered a place in the Emperor’s army. She turns down the position because she’s more worried about her father’s reaction to her exploits. Zhou, however, is proud of what Mulan has accomplished. He’s thankful that she comes back unscathed, though he’s obviously feeling guilty that his words influenced Mulan’s actions that day. They forgive each other.

Mulan wins everything. The Emperor and the soldiers respect her, she lands a job that she never could have dreamed of, there’s a great guy who likes her for who she is, and her family and village support her. Life is good.

Böri Khan

Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee) is Mulan’s adversary. He makes a splashy enough entrance: the wind whisks away his black scarf to reveal his striking face and devilish smile as he rides into the village he’s about to pillage. It’s definitely an intro worthy of a Disney villain.

Böri Khan is essentially Shan-Yu, the Hun villain from the animated movie. He looks virtually identical to his cartoon counterpart, but he has a more fleshed out background. Basically, he’s pissed that the Emperor (Jet Li) killed his father, Böri Khan Sr., and “stole” the Rourans’ land. He has gathered an army to set things right. In fact, Böri Khan’s so desperate to redeem both his people and his father’s name that he enlists the help of Xianniang.

Böri Khan and Xianniang’s relationship is…complicated. On the surface, Böri Khan is the boss and she is his secret weapon. She creates diversions that allow his soldiers to ambush the Emperor’s troops. In return, Böri Khan gives her somewhere to belong since women with chi skills are viewed as “witches.” He even tells the clan leaders, “Make no mistake, the witch serves me and therefore all of us. She knows who her master is.”

In reality, the power balance isn’t that clear cut. There’s a scene early in the movie where Böri Khan calls Xianniang a “scorned dog.” Offended, Xianniang grabs him by the throat and says, “I could tear you to pieces before you blink.” Böri Khan is visibly shaken. Despite his big talk, he knows that she could smoke him at any moment. So, he takes a page from the abusive boyfriend playbook — is there a more intimate relationship between the two, BTW? — and tells her that no one else will accept her but him. Jerk.

By the last third of the movie, Böri Khan has taken over the city. He has killed or detained a big chunk of the Emperor’s army and taken the Emperor himself hostage inside an unfinished palace. Böri Khan talks smack as he flicks flint sparks at the Emperor. For his part, the Emperor is totally unimpressed. He shows zero fear and won’t so much as look at Böri Khan. Such utter dismissal, mixed with the fact that he’s being denied the satisfaction of the Emperor’s defeat that he’s worked so hard for, infuriates Böri Khan.

Xianniang’s sudden appearance doesn’t improve his mood. She flies in and taunts him about Mulan: “A woman leads the army. And she’s no scorned dog.” She takes great joy in throwing that insult back in his face. It’s like she can’t wait to see his reaction when he learns that someone like her is about to do what she couldn’t (or wouldn’t).

In retaliation, Böri Khan shoots an arrow at Mulan. Xianniang transforms into a hawk and flies ahead of the arrow, taking it in the back before it can reach the other woman. She dies in Mulan’s arms. Based on how proudly Xianniang talks about Mulan, I think Böri Khan correctly guesses that Xianniang will sacrifice herself for Mulan. This also conveniently gets Xianniang permanently out of his hair. Again, jerk.

Enter Mulan. Up until now, Mulan and Böri Khan haven’t directly interacted with each other. The final showdown has the two of them chasing each other around the frame of the unfinished palace. The fight has a very David vs. Goliath feel to it. Böri Khan is physically so much bigger than Mulan that, despite her chi skills, it raises the question of whether she will be strong enough to fight him. And she does struggle a bit at first — she loses her father’s sword to a fire pit when he smacks it out of her hand. But as they run around, Böri Khan’s size begins to work against him. He struggles not to fall off the beams while Mulan nimbly skips about for the most part.

After Mulan cuts and grabs hold of the rope that’s holding up the beam they’re both standing on, Böri Khan falls down to the bottom of the building’s frame. Even with what I assume is a broken back, he shoots an arrow at Mulan and/or the Emperor. He’s determined to take one of them with him. The Emperor catches the arrow and throws it in the air for Mulan to kick back at Böri Khan. There’s a moment when Böri Khan thinks he caught the arrow in time, but nope — it’s already embedded in his heart.

The fact that Böri Khan dies by his own arrow, powered by Mulan, both fulfills Xianniang’s prediction and becomes the perfect karmic revenge for her murder. Bye bye, Böri!

Xianniang

Xianniang (Gong Li), as I’ve mentioned before, is a woman with chi skills whom Böri Khan uses to help him fight the Emperor’s troops. She starts as an enemy to Mulan, but she eventually becomes more of a passive ally because she sees echoes of herself in Mulan.

Xianniang’s biggest claim to fame is her ability to shapeshift. Several times in the movie, she picks a target that’s somehow advantageous to her plans — like a street peddler who can get her into a village without arousing suspicion, or a royal advisor who can get her close to the Emperor — and steals their identity. Exactly how she does this is never fully explained. Needless to say, the target doesn’t survive the encounter.

She can transform into different kinds of birds, too: a hawk for general travel and crows for attacks. Whether she chose birds for herself or things just turned out that way, it’s a sad coincidence. Birds represent freedom. They can fly anywhere. Xianniang, however, is far from free. She is a prisoner of her circumstances, both as a woman with chi skills and as a woman in service to Böri Khan. In the same way that Böri Khan offers her the illusion of inclusion, becoming a bird offers her the momentary illusion of freedom.

Why a hawk and crows specifically? They both fit Xianniang’s personality perfectly. Hawks are apex predators, deadly yet majestic, like every graceful movement Xianniang makes. Crows, on the other hand, are scavengers, like how she takes whatever scraps of acceptance she can find; bad omens, like how she always precedes Böri Khan’s army into battle; and vicious, like how she uses her crows to batter Mulan’s comrades.

That brings me to another trope question: who discovers (or suspects) the truth about the female protagonist’s identity? Xianniang is the only one in Mulan. She instantly realizes that Mulan isn’t a man when they meet on the battlefield. She is intrigued by this woman who’s like her. At the same time, Xianniang is irritated that Mulan has assumed a male persona. Xianniang doesn’t hide who and what she is, even though it has made her life difficult. Yet here’s Mulan, purposely folding herself and her talents into this fake identity. It’s a slap in the face. As they fight, she demands that Mulan knock it off, saying, “Your deceit weakens you. It poisons your chi.”

And yes, it’s a tad hypocritical for Xianniang to chide Mulan for pretending to be a man when she has assumed so many fake (male) identities herself. Perhaps her disdain stems from the fact that even though she has these awesome powers, she, too, keeps having to become someone else (men) to get things done. She tells Mulan, “I was a girl like you when people turned on me. You don’t think I longed for a noble path?” Her words smack of, “Do as I say, not as I do.” She wants Mulan to do and be better.

To that end, Xianniang dies saving Mulan’s life. In a bit of foreshadowing, she tells Mulan the reason for her sacrifice in a previous scene: “They accept you, but they will never accept me.” “They” covers a lot of ground. If Böri Khan wins, he’s not going to give her a place amongst his people. The Rourans don’t trust her. If Böri Khan loses, she’s still out in the cold. Even if the Emperor and his army could overlook her many crimes, they wouldn’t trust having a “witch” as powerful as Xianniang around. Things haven’t changed that much. In saving Mulan, Xianniang symbolically gets to live the life that she never got to have through Mulan.

I wonder if Mulan will ever manifest powers like Xianniang’s. Maybe Mulan’s male persona is her first step towards manifesting that power. Maybe Mulan will be able to become a phoenix like the one that protects her. That would tie into the whole bird transformation thing, as well as explain the way the phoenix seems to embody Mulan’s spirit towards the end of her fight with Böri Khan.

Honghui

Honghui (Yoson An) is a fellow soldier in Mulan’s unit and her love interest. He’s one of the first people she meets when she gets to the army campground. When Mulan gets knocked down by the other soldiers, who are horsing around, Honghui offers her a hand up and says, “Need a hand, little man?” Mulan thinks he’s making fun of her, which leads to the two of them clashing swords.

The love interest in these stories is very important because the female protagonist tends to spend a lot of time with him. Therefore, Honghui raises two more trope-related questions: 1) how does the love interest treat the female protagonist when he thinks she’s a guy? and 2) how does the love interest react when he finds out she is actually a woman?

As to the first question, Honghui treats Mulan like a close friend. He confides in her, sharing his fears about his imminent arranged marriage. He’s always interested in hearing her unique take on things, like when she lists the traits that she thinks make a desirable wife. Even though Mulan is often rude to Honghui in an effort to hide both her true identity and her budding feelings for him, he continues to treat her kindly.

There are also some more-than-friends vibes coming from him. In one scene, Honghui catches Mulan taking a rare bath in the lake (with her back turned so he can’t see anything incriminating). He immediately strips and jumps into the water with her! Who does that?! Nobody goes skinny-dipping with someone in the middle of the night unless they have an ulterior motive, okay? And how does Honghui know she’s out there in the first place? Is he following her? No matter how you slice it, Honghui is attuned to Mulan in a way that supersedes mere friendship.

As for the second question, Honghui’s reaction to Mulan’s reveal is mild. He’s surprised as hell like everyone else, but he doesn’t condemn her for making him question his sexuality or yell at her for lying to him, which are both things that I’ve seen happen in other stories. The former wouldn’t happen because this is a Disney movie, and the latter doesn’t happen because they don’t have a proper moment alone before Mulan is banished from the camp.

The separation gives Hongui time to fully process the situation. The next time we see him, he firmly defends Mulan. When everyone doubts her info about Böri Khan, Honghui says, “You would have believed Hua Jun. Why do you not believe Hua Mulan?” His words imply that his feelings for Mulan haven’t changed. Man or woman, she’s the same person who single-handedly saved them from the Rourans.

The way that they part when Mulan decides to go home is so cute. Honghui reaches for her hand but Mulan hesitates to give it to him. He says, “You still won’t take my hand?” Swoon! It’s a nice callback to how they met, though the context is very different now. Moreover, Mulan’s shyness when she finally does give him her hand is a reminder that even though she’s a proper warrior now, she’s still very much a young woman in love.

As Mulan rides away, Honghui vows that they’ll see each other again. I’ll hold him to that!

Commander Tung

Commander Tung (Donnie Yen) is the leader of Mulan’s army unit. He breaks up Mulan and Honghui’s first fight with some impressive sword techniques. From that moment on, he makes it crystal clear what he expects from the troops in terms of ethics and personal honor and what the corresponding punishment will be for breaking those rules.

Tung initially extends Mulan a certain amount of respect because he knows her father from the previous war. Later, he comes to respect Mulan for herself. He becomes impressed with her skills and encourages her to show off more. He even offers to introduce Mulan to his daughter as a potential husband. Mulan soaks up Tung’s praise, but she hates having to lie to him. The guilt builds to the point that she nearly comes clean to him.

Predictably, Tung doesn’t react well when Mulan’s secret does come out. He’s shook. How could his top soldier be a witch? How could she have fooled everybody for so long? And yet, Tung doesn’t kill Mulan for her deceit. He simply banishes her, threatens to kill her if she comes back, and heaps tons of shame on her head. I think it’s his way to acknowledge Mulan’s talent and repay her for everything she’s done for her fellow soldiers.

Eventually, Tung grudgingly accepts Mulan. Saving the Emperor from Böri Khan trumps the drama. He can’t deny that Mulan is the best soldier he’s got, so he puts her in charge of the rescue mission. The fact that he has that much confidence in her despite everything must make Mulan feel pretty good.

In the end, Tung travels all the way to Mulan’s village to present her and her family with a fancy new sword and other honors on behalf of the Emperor. I like to think of this as another way that he makes up for his initial harshness towards her after the reveal.

Conclusion

While the live action version of Mulan isn’t quite as good as the animated version, I enjoyed it a ton. I wouldn’t mind a sequel, as long as it’s better than the abysmal Mulan II.

I still have a couple of unresolved issues, though.

First, why is Zhou the narrator? He says at the beginning of the movie, “There have been many tales of the great warrior Mulan. But, ancestors, this one is mine.” That makes no sense to me! The whole movie is about a woman taking control of her life and growing into herself. If there had to be a narrator — and I don’t think there needed to be one — it should have been Mulan herself.

Second, the whole concept of chi is explained badly and executed inconsistently. For example, how come we never see a man display any powers like Xianniang’s if chi is supposed to be a guy thing? Tung is the strongest man around and he doesn’t have any flashy tricks. I don’t get it.

On the upside, I was mostly okay with the changes that they made from the animated version.

As much as I missed Mushu, there really wasn’t a place for him in this serious setting, nor would it have made sense to turn him into a human character like they did with Cricket or Xianniang (who I’m pretty sure is a version of Shan Yu’s evil bird). I just wish the special effects for the phoenix had looked better. It looked like a glorified kite.

Even though I grumbled hard about how they separated Shang into Tung and Honghui, it wasn’t that big a deal. Honghui has all of Shang’s smolder — that smile! — while Tung embodies Shang’s commanding presence and overall attitude. I half expected a surprise twist, like Honghui being Tung’s son. In the animated movie, Shang’s dad was the original commander of the army before he was killed in battle. That would have been a fun way to give a nod to the original movie while still maintaining some kind of connection between the two characters.

Lastly, Mulan’s family lineup changed. They swapped out her hilarious grandmother with a younger sister named Xiu (Xana Tang). I think Xiu is there to represent the “traditional” woman. She doesn’t have chi skills (as far as we know) and she’s perfectly happy to become a wife and mother. They needed to make it clear that neither Mulan’s nor Xiu’s version of a woman is right or better than the other. Each woman must choose — and be allowed to choose — the path that best suits her.

And that’s the movie’s entire message in a nutshell.

*Mulan DVD cover © Disney*