Not your Disney's Mulan
After watching this minutes after watching Disney's live-action version, I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was different from anything that I have seen for Mulan (that would only be both of Disney's versions) and to me, feels more realistic than the others.Story
I really liked how in this story, Mulan actually has people from her village in the army and they know she is a woman and decides to help her. It makes it more believable that she was able to become a solider without people noticing. I also liked how the plot was made up of different smaller missions. And the ending was great. Really liked that they even left it a bit ambiguous to the viewer to decide.
I think that the only thing I didn't like was the story felt rushed. We only see Mulan as a woman for a few minutes in the beginning and then she was a great soldier from the start.
Acting
This is the first Chinese film that I see and I thought the acting was good. I would like to see more films the leads and see them act in different situations.
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The better "Mulan"
After being disappointed by Disney's live action"Mulan", I started searching for other Mulan movies and came across this one. And I wasn't disappointed.For starters, the costumes and scenes were more historically accurate. The script was well written and gave depth to the characters. This also gave the actors the ability to let their acting skills shine. The starting massacre scene gave the story its backdrop of situation the city faced.
The choice of using relatively unknown actor and actress to play Li Liang and Hua Mulan was good casting.
Overall, this movie is worth a 2nd watch.
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Good but unfinished movie
Good movie. Most of the characters are well made(the character development is good except for that one scene where mulan defied her mantra to not kill, felt rushed). Actors can act, drama is on point, and music and sound effects are good (Except for that one delayed SFX but overall, it's good.).The transitions sucks tho. You can see the rushed edits, there's even a clip with timestamp on the side. The ending kinda ruined it for me (rushed edit so maybe it is still unfinished?) Or maybe they stopped the film there because the war wasn't over yet(12 yrs)? Even so, they could timeskip to the end scene of the Ballad(original)...
But overall, it's a good movie. Tons better than "that" Mulan.
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another multiverse Mulan bites the dust
this is an action adventure film adaptation of a female heroine from ancient traditional folklore. this film re-imagines the character, re-imagines her ordeals, and re-imagines the universe/arc she lives in (like amultiverse of sort). this film is suitable from teenagers segment and above. it has decent quality filmatography, lighting effects, and film quality shooting techniques accompanied with generally enjoyable background sound/music arrangements and selections.there is nothing fresh/original and outstanding about the storyline and the plot. this film offers a generous employment of natural environment, but there are a few goofs (for example, the same scene from 2 different angles show the moon differently, one with a full moon while another with 3/4 of a moon). some of the actors' performances are decent, but not enough to make them endearing. martial arts choreographies are accompanied with string-fu and they are arguably enjoyable. the casting, actors, and performances are decent, but nothing outstanding. there are minor inconsistencies with the dubbing (voice over) but overall it's passable.
from the ending, it looks like the producer and/or the director planned for a sequel.
the film starts to go downhill fast for me starting from the battle scene midway through the film. the chronological order of the decelerating enjoyment goes like this = observable issues with the battle scene -> dancing-singing Mulan -> drunken Mulan revealing she is a woman -> the shaman/witch segment -> etc.
//turnoffs//
- translation is mediocre. for example, come on, (Thai) baht? we are talking about Northern Wei dynasty in the 4th century AD here.
- the realism aspect of the fighting scenes can at times be lacking and inconsistent. it's the same issue with the battle scenes, the design/setup and choreography are nice, but the realism aspect is inhibited. i am not fully certain if this is entirely the director's fault, the editing's fault, or both. a few examples, i) the killing of captured prisoners segment. there is no way anybody will get hurt by the way the sword is moved to cut the throats; ii) the battle scene midway through the film. there is a segment of 2 soldiers thrusting their spears towards an enemy. thing is, the enemy vomits out blood when the tips of the spears barely touched the surface of his armor; iii) at the battle scene midway through the film, when the two opposing armies rushed towards each other, you can actually observe a few of the extras halting and waiting (for something). it's battle, doing that will get you hacked and killed instantly; iv) the actor playing Mulan fumbles with the sword grip; iv) sometimes the actor playing Mulan's sword swing looks low-energy and slow, and there are a few instances that the way she holds the sword could easily injure her wrist; etc.
- sometimes there are editing effects that can get distracting and annoying, like the flashes of light, blurring effect, etc.
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Honor & Responsibility
Once again, I watched this film during my Mulan adaptation movie weekend and this one was my second favorite.I liked this one a lot because it was a very smooth plot with an obvious goal - an ode to the Chinese Military.
This movie was less about the story and more about the hardship that soldiers face when they are protecting their motherland, but the passion they have for their country.
This movie started up right away, minute 12, Mulan taking the place of her father in the military, but the new bit of information we have is that her father and mother are told, by a shaman, that she will reach greatness, but go through trouble beforehand. Mulan is a headstrong woman that is loved by the people in her village but also feared due to her impressive fighting skills. Due to this, she is found out right away by two village men who feared her, when they sign up for the military but decide to befriend her and help her out. This movie also focused on Mulan's "misfit" group of soldiers and how they advance in the ranks after saving PrinceTuoba Shuo from the "mongrels". There is 0-1% romance in this film, but it was more of a respectful relationship between Mulan and the Prince. Mulan has one goal, and one goal only - to fight till the very end. And due to the film mainly being about Mulan and her group of soldiers, it hurts when soldiers start to die one by one. They try to add some comedic relief through some characters, but Mulan is serious 100% of the time, except for the one time she got a little drunk and danced.
My favorite thing about this movie would have to be Mulan's dedication to her homeland. Originally, she joined to save her father, but in reality, she also joined because she knew her love for her country would help lead them to victory. Mulan never gave up or thought about giving up and it made her into a wonderful general and leader. Even if it was just her against an army of 100, she would still fight. Logically, reckless, but passionate, telling the viewer that she would rather die fighting for her country than run away.
But if there was going to be a romance in the film, def Mulan and my boy Li Liang. Even though friends from the same village, they would be literally, a power couple.
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