 Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 12:49 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, I've learned to just not listen to reviews or critics or people on the internet in general before I watch a movie now. We haven't had new movies in months, and I get the live-actions films aren't popular in concept (although the amount of money these are making would say otherwise), but everyone thinks they're a critic now cause they've watched some dude on youtube you'd never give two seconds of your time to in real life sarcastically tear apart a movie for an hour just to make money. It's exhausting.
I guess with my issue with the chi other than it being framed more like a magic power instead of a spiritual life force is that it prefaces her story that she was already powerful and strong and essentially "special". She was just forced to suppress it until it became part of her training arc where the skills she learned from the military and whatever skills the chi gave her blended in to one. Animated!Mulan was just a girl who decided to take her father's place with little to no idea what she was doing enough to the point where Shang actually sent her home at first. Live action!Mulan didn't know what she was doing either, but we always knew she had that magic chi spin kick move in her back pocket if things really got tough for her so all sense of danger was pretty much eliminated for me. Meanwhile, animated!Mulan was out here fighting the villain with a fan, like come on  |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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| I purposefully avoided other people's opinions before watching it because I really wanted to like it. And I did it like it. I just wasn't moved by it.
I didn't mind the idea of her starting out with strong Chi. It was new, which I appreciate, and it helps explain how she could become so skilled after a relatively short amount of time. It also opened the doors to some really enjoyable action scenes. But it does take away the aspect of her being thrown into a foreign predicament and her need to try, fail, work hard, and succeed. And that's okay, as long as they replace it with a different, just as poignant arc, but I didn't really feel like they did. Rei and other characters start out with strong powers too, but they still have really strong arcs. |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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| With no Disney+ here yet in this part of Europe, I cannot watch this movie legally yet (and not planning to sail the virtual sea now) so I can only say opinion on things I have heard so far. The 2 things I heard from everywhere was how it tried way too hard to find a middle point (so trying to satisfy everyone only to fail in that) and how Mulan is basically Rey 2.0 with being the chosen one and the Chi thing.
Honestly very sad that they did this to Mulan. I get that the Chinese audience disliked the animated version, but it was so much more endearing (and daring to say, actually more of a good role model) to see Mulan actually grow into a real warrior. This whole "oh, she was actually special from the very beginning, but she was limiting herself" just sounds... not as relatable. I know power fantasies are a thing, but really feel like this was a wrong move from Disney. Also that line in the novel is hella cheesy, but meh, I think once in a while it wouldn't hurt. |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2020 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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My response (SPOILERS)
This bothers me a bit too, but maybe it's my childhood lenses that don't let it bug me as much, or maybe it's because I feel like her "yelling" is at least more musical and less just straight-up yelling. Did you listen to the full credits to hear Yifei Liu sing it in Mandarin? I also just rediscovered Jackie Chan's version in Cantonese the other day.
I was more bothered by the whole message that her hiding her gender/sex was somehow a moral flaw on her part. She was doing it for honorable reasons and didn't really have another choice... In the original, her struggle was to figure out how to be herself un-apologetically to both herself and others, and there was a real mappable arc. In this, she was pretty much perfect from the beginning, even basically having super-powers.
and also being overused just in THIS ONE MOVIE. If you drank every time they said the 3 virtues... If you have to say it that much, you're doing a bad job of showing it. Also how many people do you think are gonna go out and get those virtues tattooed on them?
It didn't bug me that there was a little sister, but she was pretty much useless and threw off the only-child aspect that helped make her feel like an outsider. Also (and this is terrible), when they accept that Mulan is probably dead, in 2020 you can be like, "Eh well at least they have a spare."
I think a "little brother" would have been a nice nod to the original, but also would take away from the drama of the family having no sons. Also what was up with the matchmaker scene? It was clearly her sister who messed up, and the matchmaker being angry at the end when Mulan is honored seems kind of out of nowhere. I realize they felt they had to make it be a disaster, but it couldn't be about Mulan's clumsiness because this version isn't clumsiness. But they could have made it Mulan's fault in a different way. And if they wanted the matchmaker to actively root against her, they should have made that scene more personal. Mulan just walks out frowning, and then end-scene. No emotional impact whatsoever. I was very disappointed in the lack of development between Mulan and the guys. Unless I'm forgetting one, there was just a short scene talking about their ideal woman and a short scene before battle. I think it's a really important part of the charm and the story and makes the line, "You trusted Hua Jun; why don't you trust Hua Mulan" a little stronger. I wasn't super convinced that anyone but the general and Honghui had any strong opinion of her until suddenly they did in that scene.
I had no problem remembering Hua Jun, but I struggled with Honghui. I'm glad they didn't keep Ping because it was kind of a joke in the first movie.
NGL it took me out of it when they did that... But you know they had to
I agree the songs would have felt out of place here.
I frequently YouTube that scene for the feels. It might be the #1 tear-jerker moment for me in all of Disneydom. tbh, I was disappointed in the 2020 version, and it's hard to say why. Maybe it was too heavy-handed, and maybe 2020 dad was too flip-floppy. Similarly to the washing-machine scene in 2017 BatB (which you may not have seen still?), the whole "She's a woman and she is breaking gender norms? LET'S BE REALLY ANNOYINGLY OBVIOUS ABOUT IT." He's cool with it, until he's not cool with it. And then he's cool with it again, and then he's not. And then he's cool with it and gives this whole flowery speech, like LOOK AT ME I'M A LOVING FATHER. I didn't really get the vibe that Mulan had much of an internal struggle with honoring her family, besides her just saying it out loud a few times. I got more of a general annoyance with arranged marriage putting a cramp on her freedom. So when her father took her back, I didn't really feel like it was something she had been craving. I hate to say it again, BUT IN THE ORIGINAL, he clearly loves her but doesn't always know how to show it. He says that line about the last bloom, but even it is veiled. And she clearly craves his approval. SO when she comes home and tries to honor him with STUFF, he throws it aside and finally EXPLICITLY SAYS that having her as a daughter is #1. And the fact that he was waiting for her under their tree, and the last bloom falls in his lap *dies crying* Even the moment she decided to leave for the army, there wasn't really a moment. She was just like, "k guess I'm going to war then" and casually suits up and dips. Compared to the original, when she has that really emotional scene, where you can see her decision, grimace as she cuts her hair, and sadly look away as she leaves.
That went right over my head - cool!!
Agreed on all accounts.
Agreed. I was like pleasedontkiss pleasedontkiss pleasedontkiss
omg I love it |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Christina has that same problem as Idina for me in that they like to yell to hit those high notes and everyone praises it as being "powerhouse vocals", but I heard the song when the end credits played and it was better than I was expecting.
[spoilers] I thought it was okay or at least didn't match up to the type of movie it was selling me in the trailers so I was super underwhelmed. It wasn't even the changes that got me cause I didn't mind those at all and they made a lot of sense. My main problem stems from it's not American enough to be interesting to American audiences and not Chinese enough to be interesting to Chinese audiences. That's how you end up with this new weird focus on her breast and long hair being symbols of her femininity that she subsequently has to hide or let loose when the story line calls for it (like the guys in the film have the same length of hair as her and as Lea Salonga once said "you don't need big boobs to save China", so why was that moment of her emerging from the mist with her hair down and her binder removed after literally being broken free to show she has titties the big reveal to her fellow soldiers? The scene where she cuts her hair and they find out she's a woman because of the injuries to her chest in the animated film have less to do with her gender and more to do with what she did to keep safe for as long as possible. Here they're used in a way that would really only make sense to Americans that don't understand the cultural significance of her cutting her hair to the Chinese and subscribe to our horrible "if you have boobs you're considered a woman" mentality)
chi/qi being used like a superpower she's suppressing (which got on my nerves pretty quickly cause at no point should I watch Mulan and feel like I'm watching the opening to Frozen with Elsa's parents telling her to hide her powers. I think people have been comparing it to the force in star wars and that's probably a pretty accurate depiction of it when contrasted to the witch and her Chi/Qi), not enough diving in to Chinese culture (I mean, yeah you got rid of Mushu as her guardian and replaced him with a more respectful Phoenix since that was one of the things Chinese audiences hated about the original, but that's really the only taste we got. I know there's more to the Chinese than family swords), and overused themes of family and honor and bravery and loyalty used for the 1000000000000th time in Chinese films produced by Westerners (which, yeah was in the original film, but you can talk about something else in addition to that cause actual Chinese films certainly do and that was supposed to be your goal in remaking this in the first place. the other live action films that aren't beat for beat remakes managed to do the same.) As a result, you get this feeling they were guessing what Chinese audiences wanted and what American audiences wanted without trying to offend one and get the other to like this new version knowing how much they had to change it from the animated film. It just felt safe, overall, when the changes they made and the tone they went for kind of demanded they be bigger and bolder. It feels like a lot more time went in to the action sequences, which were the kind of mix I was looking for between American and Chinese inspired, than anything else honestly. Other things: Y'all could have kept her name Ping cause I don't remember what fake name she used in the film AT ALL
I didn't miss the songs, but boy were those leitmotifs referencing the originals huge teases. Also, when they LITERALLY SPOKE SOME OF THE LYRICS AS LINES, like come on. It's bugging me they didn't give Mulan a "little brother" but instead a little sister, yet Cri-Kee was turned in to a solider . I get this is a dude-centric film and they needed more women but it's like right there.
Iiiiiii wasn't expecting Mulan to drop as many bodies as she did, but she was really out here kicking daggers into her enemies. I didn't get why it had the PG-13 rating until then cause the war itself was pretty tame despite the obvious deaths. Mulan's dynamic with her father here is so beautifully underrated. "The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter" is one of those classic tear jerker Disney lines, and while that's never said here you can feel it when she returns back home and she has to face him. It's the only time I wanted to cry. (Also her wanting to die rather than go home and face her family is somehow a mood )
The most interesting character was by far Xian Lang the witch (who is HELLA queer-coded so my disappointment in her ending is mixed with anger cause it's such a horrible trope), I might have squeaked a little when Ming-na appeared as the esteemed guest introducing Mulan to the emperor, and this is probably an unpopular opinion but I'm really glad they split Shang's character between the general and Honghui. It made his pseudo-bisexual awakening that much more enjoyable without the weird power dynamic between a commanding officer and his solider like in the animated film (he's also a cutie so >_>)
Speaking of which, I know the kiss between them tested negative with audiences so they cut it from the film (thank god), but the film novelization makes me want it back if only for this line: 
LET HIM SAY THIS LINE, YOU COWARDS |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| I watched it.
If anyone cares my thoughts in a nutshell (no spoilers)... I rank it up there with the live-action Aladdin. Good visuals and sequences, good casting, decent score, wasn't a scene-for-scene remake, made a lot of changes that work really well on paper. But I felt that the "heart" and the "message" were being spoon-fed to me, instead of establishing things and letting them grow. Not a lot of character development in any characters. The only interesting character was the witch, and I wasn't satisfied with her resolution. I probably won't watch it again, but I did enjoy it. |
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| Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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| It's out, as of yesterday!
There is a 0% chance that I WON'T crack and watch it. |
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| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:28 am Post subject: |
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| Just seeing this now, but they got Christina to sing 2020's version of "Reflection."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNprQYHenNI It's very extra, but also very good IMO. I love that it's totally orchestral, and tbh I love that they asked Christina to do it. She outdoes her younger self. |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, there's quite a few changes from the cartoon. It looks a lot more like a version of Mulan I watched years ago that was made for Chinese audiences. It was beautiful and sad. |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, cause there was nothing else to watch for kids stuck at home But you know what, we might be so starved for new content people will go for it, but I don't think it's going to be that billion dollar mark they want, especially when you have to buy Disney+ on top of that.
But they can afford to lose this year after making AT LEAST 7 billion on films last year. |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Also I just looked it up and Mushu won't be in this one, which is disappointing but I looked it up because a relative doesn't like long-bodied dragons due to the "resemblance to a snake" | |
| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Universal charged $20 to rent their latest Trolls movie for 48 hours and made a killing. So I guess they're taking a page from that book?
I guess they figure it will be watched by families, and $30 is less than it costs in most theatres for a family to watch a movie? Sounds greedy to me, but they've also lost a lot of money during the pandemic. But so have families. Soooo... |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, it's rated that for "sequences of violence". She's in a war so I'm gonna assume it's about as violent as, say, Pirates of the Caribbean. |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I think it's just rated that due to the action
Also thanks for the date, better get FandangoNOW ready |
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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| It comes out September 4.
The article calls it an "exceptional family friendly film," so it can't be that bad? |
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