All about the new ‘Mulan’
Hua Mulan was a female warrior from Chinese history, many hundreds of years agp. According to the legend, Mulan takes her aged father’s place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as a man. After prolonged and distinguished military service against nomadic hordes beyond the northern frontier, Mulan is honored by the emperor but declines a position of high office. She retires to her hometown, where she is reunited with her family and reveals her gender, much to the astonishment of her comrades.
The live-action Disney film of Mulan (2020) came under intense scrutiny from the moment plans for the film were announced over concerns that non-Asian actors might be chosen for the roles. An online petition to choose an Asian actress to play Mulan received more than 100,000 signatures.
On October 4, 2016, Disney announced a global search for a Chinese actress to portray the title role. A team of casting directors visited five continents and saw nearly 1,000 candidates for the role with criteria that required credible martial arts skills, the ability to speak clear English, and star quality. Chinese-American actress Yifei Liu was chosen to play Mulan.
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, praising the “fine cast, exciting action and spectacular visuals” and writing, “This is such a great-looking film, with amazing set pieces and dazzling action and colors so vibrant they would dazzle a Crayola factory.”
Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a “B+”, calling it a “remarkable action epic that carves its own path” and wrote, “Mulan is perhaps the best example of how to marry the original with something fresh.
Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ and described it as “a classic hero(ine)’s tale, exhilarating in its elaborate set pieces and large-scale ambitions even when the smaller human story within it sometimes falls short.”
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Throughout Mulan, there are shots of such visual splendor that viewers will catch their breath. In one, the morning mist clears and reveals an army in the distance, with its flags and colors, a frightening yet strangely beautiful sight.”
