Mulan

I recently watched the Mulan remake.  I don't care about most of these remakes, but I really liked the trailer the first time I saw it. The movie itself I didn't feel strongly about.

Though I bet they nailed all the cultural stuff. It's great that Disney is putting in the effort for that. Cultural accuracy was not a priority in some of their other movies, though I must admit I love some of them despite that. This is one of those cases. I'm just too attached to the original Mulan. 

The phoenix is beautiful. And it makes more sense for its role in the movie. The dragon is masculine, and the phoenix feminine in China. (I can't find any pictures of the phoenix that aren't blurry! ) I think a lot of people were upset that Mushu was replaced, but I liked that part. 

Also, that circular village she grew up in caught my eye. They had the same thing in the movie "Big Fish and Begonia." I must look into these.

One main thing confused me. In the animated movie, there were no magical humans. And yet in this one there was a shape-shifting witch. They must have done that to highlight the gender stuff. 

But the main thing that bugged me was how they made little Mulan a warrior. It took a lot of the power out of her story. In the original, Mulan was useless when she began soldier training. But then she used her brains and worked hard to became a war hero. But in this new version, they gave her these magic chi powers.

Chi is important. I know that from similar concepts in aikido and yoga. But they focused on that so much that it took away the original story of Mulan getting ahead because of her brains and perseverance.