MULAN
***
Dir: Niki Caro (12A, 120 mins)
Another remake from the Disney back catalogue. Thankfully, this isn’t a shot-for-shot CGI folly (like the immensely successful but pointless The Lion King), but a reworking of the 1998 cartoon into a live-action epic. Disney seems to have taken the basis of the original Mulan story to create a martial arts extravaganza. Liu Yifei plays Mulan, a young woman who joins the Imperial army pretending to be a male warrior to save her ageing, infirm father from fighting, after the Emperor calls up all able-bodied men to war against a dynastic threat. Mulan is whipped into shape, the only woman warrior, ready to do battle against Gong Li’s evil sorceress and the dastardly Northern generals, led by Jason Scott Lee. Donnie Yen is on commanding duties putting the raw recruit through her paces, whilst another martial arts legend Jet Li plays the Emperor. Kiwi director Niki Caro is at the helm, bringing the sensibilities behind her excellent Whale Rider to the fore and hopefully adding dimension to the Crouching Tiger action. Whether there will be a CGI dragon version of Eddie Murphy’s Mushu and the occasional power ballad is open to question, but hopefully this will be more than that, with the female empowerment message front-and-centre amidst some well-choreographed mayhem.
Opens Mar 27
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