Niki Caro
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House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Directed by Zhang Yimou
influenced Mulan (2020)
Visuals Characters Themes
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Director Niki Caro borrows a few elements of upper-tier Wuxia films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers , but it ultimately shows more influence from historical battle epics like The Last Samurai .
Mulan is clearly inspired by the wuxia films that first became become popular on Western shores in the early 2000s — particularly the works of Zhang Yimou, who combined luxurious, intricately detailed costumes and vibrant splashes of color to create jaw-dropping visuals in films like House of Flying Daggers .
The new “Mulan” is more frankly a hybrid of Eastern and Western filmmaking styles, and if it lacks the poetic majesty of the best entries in the genre — Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers,” Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” King Hu’s classics in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Tsui Hark’s 1990s work — it’s solid enough to please family audiences and more than a few jaded adults.
And with Gong Li’s turn as a shapeshifting witch, the filmmakers might have tapped some of the camp deliciousness of Charlize Theron’s similar figure in Snow White and the Huntsman, or mined her instead for an operatic tragedy in the vein of House of Flying Daggers.
The notions of protectors and guardians are also key in a spirited story that’s part fable and part transformation of the original story into Wuxia warrior epic greatly inspired by the films of Zhang Yimou (“Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers,” in particular).
It clearly takes influence from wuxia films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers , along with western war epics like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven , but at its core the film Mulan clearly aspires to be compared to is Wonder Woman .
The action sequences in the new film are an uneven affair, somewhat hobbled by a conspicuous attempt to soften the blow for matinee crowds, or in this instance Disney+ subscribers, but not without moments of splendor that recall Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (“Hero,” “Curse of the Golden Flower”) and Ridley Scott circa “Kingdom of Heaven.”
It clearly takes influence from wuxia films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers , along with western war epics like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven , but at its core the film Mulan clearly aspires to be compared to is Wonder Woman .
Luckily, it seems Disney has managed to hit the bullseye for the first time since 2016’s The Jungle Book , delivering a retelling that perfectly balances respecting its inspiration whilst forging its own identity and purpose.
So far, while most have been OK, the only one that really worked was Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book.” "Whale Rider's" Niki Caro directs the latest and while its story of female empowerment is great for kids, the battle action quite breathtaking (is that wire work or CGI or a combination?
Like 2015’s Cinderella and 2016’s The Jungle Book , the new Mulan , from Niki Caro, wisely sees its reason for being as a chance to explore elements further and, if need be, upgrade them instead of to reanimate and reclothe with assets afforded by a titanic budget.
Unlike “The Jungle Book” (2016), “Aladdin” (2019), or “The Lion King” (2019), the remake of the 1998 animated “Mulan” hasn’t been photocopied and touched up using pixels and/or live actors and then sold to audiences as something “new.”
It’s more The Jungle Book (2016) than The Lion King (2019) in that it’s both quite good and not the first live-action version of the tale to hit screens.
Thankfully, the 2020 live-action update of Mulan is a worthy successor to the original, more akin to 2015’s refreshing spin on Cinderella than last year’s visually arresting but hollow remake of The Lion King .
Mulan , the latest of them, follows in the footsteps of 2019’s Aladdin ($1.05 billion at the global box office) and The Lion King ($1.65 billion), which were less movies than they were recreations, proof that years of film advancements and increased resources could be used to make something so much worse than the original it was attempting to remind you of.
While The Lion King (2019) reboot was nearly a frame-by-frame copy of its predecessor, Mulan deviates significantly from the 1998 animated film.
Back in the day it was called “Hoosiers,” a film that became a beloved classic.
“Hoosiers” fans have nothing to fear from this one.
Others followed, including such fine movies as Hoosiers (1986) and Remember the Titans (2000); the list goes on and on.
The new movie may seem like “Hoosiers” (1986), but it’s nowhere near as pushy with the rah-rah-ness.
For all underdog sports team movies, from Hoosiers (1986) to Remember the Titans (2000), from The Bad News Bears (1976) to The Mighty Ducks (1992), uses it.
Like Gene Hackman’s Coach Dale in “Hoosiers,” Jim White is a flawed man with a passion.
Characters run sideways along walls, flip head-over-heals on horseback, and dodge arrows à la “The Matrix,” with all the dramatic, slow-motion shots you’d expect from a classic martial arts movie.
And in these scenes Mulan borrows a bit from films like The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .
A band of misogynistic but redeemable comrades pile over themselves to devour the showdown, much like during Neo and Morpheus’ first fight in The Matrix .
Storyboarded to within an inch of its life, then translated to screen with stunning energy and attention to detail, the film represents Hollywood’s most enthusiastic embrace of blockbuster Asian cinema tropes since “The Matrix” trilogy.
The work of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa ("Seven Samurai") along with 2002's "Hero" (also featuring Donnie Yen and Jet Li) inspired the massive battle sequences in the film.
The 2020 version of “Mulan” should be commended for not doing an exact story replica of the original movie, which was the biggest criticism of Disney’s 2019 remake of “The Lion King” that basically did a more technologically updated animated copy of the 1994 classic “Lion King.”
Heck, at least some of the appeal of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies lay in how comparatively goofy and over-the-top weird they were compared to other blockbuster franchises at the time.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Directed by David Hand
influenced Mulan (2020)
Themes Characters
Disney’s beloved Princess tales are no stranger to classic mythology, and everything from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to “The Princess and the Frog” have pulled liberally from existing material to craft family-friendly animated outings centered on inspirational women.
I’m almost certain one of Mulan’s fellow recruits—the doughy, comical Cricket—shares some strands of DNA with Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .
Lee’s Bori Khan exudes some of the same bad-guy, scene-stealing star power as Conrad Veidt’s Jaffar from the magnificent 1940 version of “The Thief of Bagdad.” a character Disney co-opted and made the villain in “Aladdin” (creatively dropping an F from his name).
Look also for the legendary Cheng Pei-pei, who was in King Hu's Come Drink with Me (1966) and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
My favourite bit in the animated Mulan from 1998 is the scene in which countless horsemen charge down a snowy hill and are hit by an avalanche, so I’ve no objection to Disney’s spectacle-heavy concept for the film’s live-action remake.
When you combine the hefty price tag, the long-delayed debut and the anticipation of those who loved the 1998 animated version with those who are hoping this live-action version will more truly represent Chinese culture, expectations for Mulan are probably unreasonably high.
First introduced in ballad form in sixth century China, the folkloric figure Hua Mulan has been noodled on ever after – including this film’s direct inspiration, the 1998 animated, eponymous feature.
For her film, Caro has replaced Eddie Murphy’s Mushu with a vibrant, slightly scrappy phoenix as a nod to Mulan’s ancestral roots.
A new telling of the narrative poem, “The Ballad of Mulan,” which also inspired the 1998 animated film, Yifei Liu stars as Hua Mulan, a young woman who risks her life and her family’s honor to save her father from conscription in the Imperial Army.
When Mulan came out in 1998—part of the vaunted Disney animation renascence—critics mainly noted its humor, a result of a chatty red dragon named Mushu, voiced by Eddie Murphy between Doolittle and Nutty Professor films, and cheeky if forgettable songs that referenced “passing” and “cross-dressing” in lyrics that often sounded like Paul Lynde punchlines from Hollywood Squares.
It resembles John Sayles' brilliant The Secret of Roan Inish not only in subject, but also in the understanding that film has the potential to be the most cogent extrapolation of the oral storytelling tradition.
It's amazing, but films on the opposite end of the spectrum are still being made, films like Babe and Babe: Pig in the City, Fly Away Home, Holes, The Secret of Roan Inish and The White Balloon.
Mulan , the latest of them, follows in the footsteps of 2019’s Aladdin ($1.05 billion at the global box office) and The Lion King ($1.65 billion), which were less movies than they were recreations, proof that years of film advancements and increased resources could be used to make something so much worse than the original it was attempting to remind you of.
Unlike “The Jungle Book” (2016), “Aladdin” (2019), or “The Lion King” (2019), the remake of the 1998 animated “Mulan” hasn’t been photocopied and touched up using pixels and/or live actors and then sold to audiences as something “new.”
The 2015 Cinderella and 2019 Aladdin both worked much better, thanks in no small part to their focus on actual live actors accompanied by digital effects, rather than the reverse equation (though the latter failed to reconcile all the colonial and racist tropes of the original).
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Director Niki Caro borrows a few elements of upper-tier Wuxia films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers , but it ultimately shows more influence from historical battle epics like The Last Samurai .
For a more traumatic but arguably more portrait of the trouble women face under misogynist regimes, Siddiq Barmak’s harrowing Osama (2003) more realistically touches upon the consequences of such survivalist tactics by women who defy the patriarchal powers of the land.
There's a scene straight out of Just One of the Guys where Mulan, pretending to be a man because otherwise her disabled father will be conscripted into the army, volunteers for guard duty so she won't have to shower with the boys.
Stories of women disguising themselves as men date back centuries, from Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" to the '80s comedy "Just One of the Guys" and beyond.
In the tradition of gender-bending movies ranging from “Yentl” to “Just One of the Guys,” Mulan must find convoluted ways to avoid changing clothes and showering in front of her fellow soldiers, including the handsome Honghui (Yoson An), with whom she enjoys a verbal and physical spark.
Unlike other live-action takes on Disney animated classics such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, Mulan features no singing.
But those put off by the carbon copy renderings of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin , and The Lion King might be in for a pleasant surprise.
I would compare the intense/suspense/fighting to that of the new live action Beauty and the Beast.
So though there is no real cinematic need for Mulan 2.0 to exist –just as Disney’s updates of The Lion King , Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin could be erased from history with little cultural consequence – Caro offers and accomplishes far more with Mulan than Mulan asks of her.
Recent members in its billion-dollar grosses club, from “Beauty and the Beast” to “Aladdin” to “The Lion King,” all became smashes through careful, hemmed-in strategies of reminding folks, every minute, of the originals.
Make no mistake: Whale Rider is essentially The Karate Kid Down Under.
As Koro teaches the local, giggling boys the warrior ways with a fighting stick (calling to mind Pat Morita in "The Karate Kid"), Pai peeks in through the window and follows along.