Mr. Movie: Suspend disbelief for terrific live-action ‘Mulan’ remake

Mulan

The animated “Mulan” was released in 1998. I wasn’t a fan. The movie was a huge hit and an even bigger fan favorite. It did not resonate with me but most of them don’t. So here I sit a couple of decades and a few years later and I’m also not anticipating Disney’s live version.

Then I watched “Mulan.” Boy did I get that one wrong.

“Mulan” requires the suspension of disbelief. You have to ignore that the film’s star, Yifei Liu looks more like a young woman than a guy. And you also have to pretend not to wonder exactly how a young woman in a troop full of guys manages a bathroom break and not let just about everyone know he’s really a she.

Once you get past that, “Mulan” is a terrific movie.

I say that humbly. For years I have severely criticized Disney for redoing many of its famed animated films and turning them into live action bombs. Until now the only one I’ve thought worthy of the effort is “Beauty and the Beast.”

The others — “Aladdin,” “Jungle Book,” “The Lion King,” “Dumbo” and a bunch more — have been awful. Using the adjective “awful” is me being nice. Most are worst than awful.

You know the story. Mulan is a girl who takes her father’s place in the Chinese army. The army is charged with defending the nation from invaders. Girls aren’t allowed to be warriors and being caught faking sexual identity is a serious crime. Mulan is tough, manages to become a good soldier, and though she’s eventually found out, Mulan becomes the hero of the war.

Her courage and skill lead to the defeat of the enemy.

Yifei Liu (“The Assassins”) stars as Mulan. She is quite good in the role. Liu is athletic and makes us believe she can take on bad guys and win. Her acting? Immaterial. It’s not all that hard to look photogenic when you are and to look like you’re really acting when there are very few lines to deliver.

Liu is joined by Jet Li who stars as the emperor, Gong Li — arguably China’s best-ever actress — and Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma and Jason Scott Lee (“Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story”).

The original film had something like 29 writers. This version has just four including Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver who helped write “Jurassic World” and a couple of the movies in the new Planet of the Apes series. They’re both very good writers and get excellent help from newcomers Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek.

“Mulan’s” directing chores landed at the feet of Niki Caro (“Whale Rider,” “The Zookeeper’s Wife”). Her film pushes two-hours while the original landed at close to 90-minutes. Unlike a few of the other live-action redos, the extra minutes in “Mulan” don’t hurt.

Caro and the writers make a few key changes from the original plot. While purists and fans of the animated flick might complain, those changes are actually an improvement. Most are in the area of character development. She also stretches out the action sequences.

It also appears that Caro has become adept at special effects. They’re excellent and where most directors of this brand of movie exaggerate things, Caro practices restraint. She does the action sequences at a reasonable length. Nothing feels overdone.

Best of all, Caro blessedly resists the temptation to do the action sequences the way they’re done in a lot of Chinese action flicks. You know, they’re the ones with characters doing gravity-defying, tree top tip-toeing and walking straight up walls. They have fights in the air with swords and fists while the characters spin this way and that, feet never touching the ground.

Another change from the original is the rating. The 1998 movie is rated G. This one picked up a PG-13 rating though I didn’t seen anything in the movie that made the “13” all that necessary. It is a little violent in places but it’s not that violent.

▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It can only be seen on Disney+ Premiere Access.

▪ Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

“I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.

A woman — given different names in the script — goes to meet her new boyfriend’s parents. They live on a farm. The trip is a long one but a roundtrip is doable in a day. She’s apprehensive about meeting them because she’s not sure about continuing the relationship. The woman emphasizes that she must return home that night.

Things get weird once they get to the farm. Mom and dad are strange. He gets weird. Her behavior becomes bizarre and from there the movie takes some very odd and sometimes difficult to follow twists and turns. And she keeps insisting on getting home.

I can’t go too deeply into without giving those twists away.

Jessie Buckley (TV’s “Fargo”) plays the young woman. Jesse Plemons — who picked up Emmy nominations for his work on the same TV series — does the boyfriend, Jake. Toni Collette and David Thewlis are mom and dad and Guy Boyd is a janitor at a high school near the farm.

All are exceptionally good.

Buckley and Collette do most of the heavy lifting. Kaufman gives their characters the best lines. What little comedy that exists in the plot is given to Thewlis. Plemons doesn’t have a lot to do except look two-dimensional, emotionless, grumpy or weird.

Most of you know Kaufman more for his writing than directing. He picked up an Oscar for the screenplay of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Kaufman also received nominations for a Golden Globe and for an Oscar for “Adaptation” and for “Being John Malkovich,” and one for the animated feature, “Anomalisa.”

His dialogue and storylines are always original and very, very well written. Actors love working with him for that reason. Kaufman is a clever guy and what actor doesn’t love digging into words so brilliantly crafted.

I’ve always been in awe of Kaufman’s writing skills.

The acting and how the movie is written are the only positives I can give you about Kaufman’s movie. That said, I have no way to explain “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” None. The movie is based on Ian Reid’s 2016 novel. Kaufman’s interpretation of the book is brilliantly and cleverly written. It — and the acting — are why I’m giving “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” an average rating.

My problem with the movie is that the story makes absolutely no sense. From what I know about the book, it doesn’t make a lot of sense either. However, since books give you a lot more detail, I’m sure it makes more sense than Kaufman’s interpretation.

▪ Rated R for language and mature themes. It can be found on Netflix.

▪ Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: Suspend disbelief for terrific live-action ‘Mulan’ remake."