Thoughts on the Mulan Remake from a Chinese-American Weirdo · 3:49pm Sep 5th, 2020
Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Okay, I don’t know how, but the new Mulan remake spoke to me on a more personal level than the remake of my favorite Disney movie. For those who do not know, my favorite movie is the original Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Let me attempt to explain my thoughts more coherently.
I related so much to Belle from the original Beauty and Beast because she was not only intelligent but also kind, and like me, she was a bit of a misfit. Her existence gave me hope that girls like me existed. The remake version of Belle made me feel as if I had to chose between my brains and my compassion or else, I wasn’t a “real” woman. 
In the Mulan remake, Mulan is born with a strong connection to the world’s life energy giving her a natural affinity for martial arts which is considered gravely inappropriate for a girl. This affinity makes her a bit of a misfit in her community and is a source of both pride and concern for her father.
In my previous blogs, I had mentioned that I was recently diagnosed with autism. I’ve always had it, but up until now, I never knew it was there, and in retrospect, the autism has been both a blessing and a curse. Autism looks different in everyone, but mine gave me a natural affinity for academics. Unfortunately, the autism also made a lot of things difficult for me like knowing the right time to speak up or shut up or being able to adapt to sudden changes quickly among other things. Like the new Mulan, I knew what it was like to be different from other girls. I also know what it’s like to want to find a place to belong where I didn’t have to force myself to be someone else. 
Furthermore, Mulan’s interactions with her parents, particularly her father, reminded me a bit of my own relationship with my father. My father has always taken pride in my academic achievements and supported my dream of becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, partly because of my social handicaps, we don’t always understand each other, and our relationship became even more complicated after my social handicaps caused my medical school dismissal.
I’m sure every child wants to make his or her parents proud or, at least, avoid making his or her parents disappointed. I’d like to think that this is especially true in Asian families, particularly Chinese families. I might just be projecting, but I think the remake captures that piece of my reality painfully well. 
There’s so much more I want to say about it that have nothing to do with my personal life. For example, one scene contains a reference to the original ballad that the story came from which I greatly appreciated. The whole movie also felt like a wuxia film or a Chinese costume drama which I also greatly appreciated. Granted, to those unfamiliar with either, the acting can feel a little wooden and the dialogue can feel a little wordy. Yeah, the characters engage in a lot of posturing and formality which could be misinterpreted as a lack of emotion.
Furthermore, the side characters don’t get as much focus or as many chances to show their personality. As much as I loved the side characters from the original movie, I don’t think this bit is worth complaining about. Besides, the decreased focused on the side characters resulted in an increased focus on the movie’s central conflict, which made the movie feel a lot more personal to me.
Lastly, I just love the new song that the movie plays in the credits. I could hear the influences from classical Chinese music in the melody and the backup instruments.
I know the live-action remakes have consistently failed to capture the charm of the original animated movies and that many Disney and animation nerds have reviled the remakes because of this. Maybe this movie may not be any different in that regard, and maybe I’m just biased because of my heritage, but I’m glad that my family and I watched this movie.
On a completely unrelated note, according to my sister, casting for this movie required the actors to be bilingual so that the actors could play their characters for both the English and Chinese dubs of the movie. My family and I wanted to rewatch it in Chinese with subtitles, but unfortunately, the Chinese dub, if it even exists, hasn’t been released on Disney+. 
Glad you found something to like about this remake... myself... not gonna spend anything on it, (you'd have to pay me to watch it), it looks so much like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and similar kung fun movies from that time I am left baffled as to why they use that obsolete filming style, if his came out say during the time frame of the first 3 Pirates film that would work... as for the whole chi/qi thing... yay the original Disney animated adaptation was better because it just made or rather kept Mulan a simple black sheep.
It should be noted that I pretty said 'F#ck you, Disney!' after I saw Maleficent and haven't seen a Disney live action remake sense and proad of it, the original animated films for every one of those films are universes better, and I am not counting Jungle Book or The Lion King, because save for the character Mowgli in the former they were both animations... I didn't and will not see either (lest I am paid to do so) ...
But I may say one more thing, this one concer ing Beauty and the Beast, the only Belle is Pagie O'Hare, unlike Emma Watson, you can actually hear Pagie smile when she sings... and she doesn't need auto-tune... okay I am done, Pax Te Cum.
I was thinking of watching it on Disney+ when I had the chance. It looked like it could be fun.
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I feel like I should warn you regarding that. Don't go into this movie expecting something whimsical and fun. Granted, the movie does have it's humorous moments, but they're a lot more subtle than what we got from the animated film. That being said some of the early internet synopses of this movie were very misleading.
I have to wait for a few months until it's available to rent on iTunes.
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Please tell me you didn't look at the spoilers.
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It would be impossible since there's no Disney+ where I'm from.
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I meant the stuff I covered in black bars on my blog post.
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I can't avoid it, but I don't mind spoilers.