Mulan (2020)

Directed by

Niki Caro

Genre

drama film, action film, adventure film, war film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 55m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 7,083 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young woman in ancient China disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army. She joins a campaign to defeat an invading force and must hide her true identity while proving herself as a warrior.

epicstirringdramaticaction-packedseriousvisually granddeterminedbrave

What happens

Mulan is a 2020 American fantasy action drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin, it is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan, itself based on the Chinese folklore story Ballad of Mulan. The film stars Liu Yifei in the title role, alongside Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Ron Yuan, Gong Li, and Jet Li in supporting roles. In the film, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, masquerades as a man to take her ailing father's place during a general conscription to counter the Rouran army in Imperial China. Plans for a live-action remake began in 2010 but the project stalled in development hell for most of the decade. Filming took place in New Zealand and China from August to November 2018. Over the course of production, the film was the subject of several controversies, including changes to the source material and filming in Xinjiang in light of the persecution of Uyghurs in China and Xinjiang internment camps. The film also received criticism for its production team largely consisting of people of non-Chinese descent. This included the hiring of Caro, rather than an Asian director. Mulan held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 9, 2020. The film was originally scheduled for a wide theatrical release later that month, but was cancelled in the United States after being delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the film was released on September 4, 2020, by Disney+ for a premium fee known as Premier Access in countries where the service had launched. The film had a traditional theatrical release in countries without Disney+ where theaters had re-opened. Due to its overall limited theatrical release as a result of the pandemic, the film was a box-office bomb grossing $69.9 million at the box office against a production budget of $200 million. The film received generally positive reviews from Western, non-Asian critics, who praised the action sequences, costumes, and performances, but was criticized for the screenplay and editing. It received unfavorable reviews from fans of the original animated film, Chinese diaspora, and Chinese critics, who criticized the character development, its cultural and historical inaccuracies, and its depiction of Chinese people. At the 93rd Academy Awards and 26th Critics' Choice Awards, the film received nominations for its costume design and visual effects, as well as a Best Special Visual Effects nod at the 74th British Academy Film Awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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