The much-anticipated "Mulan" was finally released, but the result was unexpected.
First of all, foreign theaters changed to network broadcasting, and first-line large-scale productions became network movies.
Then there is the word of mouth cliff, foreign evaluation can also be explained by divergence, but the domestic fell all the way to 4.7 points, enough to prove how many slots there are in the film.
Disney has devoted so much effort to a large production, and it is quite rare to get such an undignified score in China.
What is the problem with "Mulan"? Let's take a plate today.
This article contains spoilers.
1
First of all, the most obvious and most direct, the story is too bad.
Supposedly, we know the story. Hua Mulan joined the army for her father, and the other soldiers traveled together for twelve years, not knowing that Mulan was a girl, and finally Mulan refused to be an official and returned to her hometown.
The basic disk is placed here, how to change, it is impossible to have a big problem, right?
But this "Mulan" is a Disney movie, it is placed in the Disney Princess sequence, and it is not the Mulan image in our hearts at all.
The vein of the clues has not changed, the same is the conscription, each family has a man, the father is old, and the Mulan woman dresses as a man and goes out on the expedition for the father.
But the way the specific story is told is completely different.
Nomadic people invade the Central Plains, the army plus witches, witches can also transform into a flock of birds, magical powers.
However, Mulan is not easy to mess with, she has something called "qi", which can be understood as internal force, or superpower.
Mulan's "qi" is very strong, but because she dresses as a man and is not honest enough, "qi" is suppressed. When she recovers her daughter's body in public, the powerful "qi" returns, and after a fight, destroys the villain BOSS.
Originally folklore, Mulan did not recover her daughter's body until the end, after all, the identity was revealed, it was a matter of losing her head. But this film, almost halfway through, Mulan proved herself as a woman.
This is the biggest change in addition to the addition of fantasy elements to the film, which directly affects the direction of the story.
The story magic change is also counted, the key is that the plot is flat and not nervous at all.
What is more dramatic is that the motivation of the characters who advance the plot is what is the family glory, not to shame the family, and the Western-style thinking that is not different.
This makes the film unable to move people, watching the actors tear their hearts and lungs, great joy and sorrow, the audience has no waves in their hearts.
The story and plot are the first mistake, and "Mulan" makes people have no empathy and sense of substitution.
2
After telling the story, let's talk about the actors and the characters.
Disney did not spare much effort on the actors, the heroine auditioned a lot of people, and finally chose Liu Yifei, who is well-known at home and abroad.
Liu Yifei's fame and audience popularity in China mainly come from the TV series she starred in in her early years, such as "Tianlong Babu", "Divine Eagle Hero", "Legend of the Paladin Sword" and so on.
The Legend of paladin
There are not many film works, there are many bad films, and what "To Youth 2" and the like is not mentioned. But one thing, she has acted in "The King of Kung Fu" and has experience in Hollywood action scenes.
The King of Kung Fu
This time "Mulan", her various fighting training is not ambiguous, there is no so-called goddess baggage, it should be dirty and ugly, quite hard.
Although the male protagonist with her emotional line is less well-known in China, Gong Li, Zhen Zidan, and Jet Li, who play the role, are all first-class big coffee.
There is nothing wrong with the cast, but the role is a big problem. The character behavior is very confusing and unreasonable.
Zhen Zidan's general and Jet Li's emperor are two tool people who do not say, basically no big use.
In order to enrich the image, the movie adds a lot of details to Mulan, which makes Mulan even stranger.
Before joining the army, Mulan danced with a gun and got a stick, and was urged to marry at home, so the plot was designed, as if Mulan just took the opportunity to run away from home?
The little emotional drama added to Mulan is made up for the sake of fabrication, and the emotional advancement cannot stand at all.
Even the protagonist, let alone the supporting characters. Gong Li's witch role is extremely high in combat, and one person can beat an army to the point of not daring to fight back.
But such a fierce man was actually controlled by a khan? Finally sacrificed her life for the savior? Do you do this because you're looking for some identification? That's sloppy.
The audience can not appreciate the realism of the characters, coupled with the fight action design, war scenes are also quite dramatic, the whole film presents an unusually cheap.
Characters and production, is the second fault. Don't have to think deeply, "Mulan" is not even glamorous enough on the surface.
3
Finally, and at the deepest level, the cultural and core level, fundamental disagreements.
Movies are dreams, and Disney is a master of dreams. Offline parks, peripherals, animations, movies, ip in hand from Mickey Mouse to Star Wars, control half of the popular culture, only one hand to cover the sky.
The Disney Princess series is an inexhaustible IP library, "Sleeping Beauty", "Rapunzel", "Frozen"...
But Disney Princess, in fact, is not completely original.
For example, "Snow White", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", etc., are all adapted from classic fairy tales, legends and fables around the world. "Mulan", too.
But after Disney made animated movies, it packaged them as its own IP and enshrined them as a guideline.
This has created a huge gap in the perception of Disney and domestic audiences.
For Mulan, we can compare the image, too much. From literary works (including ancient poems read and memorized in textbooks), to movies and TV series. In our hearts, she has presets.
2009 edition of Mulan
The "Mulan" in our hearts is not a beautiful dream in the distance, but a heroic story with a strong sense of reality and baptism of blood and fire.
But in Disney's eyes, this is a Disney princess film, and the general direction should fit the animation "Mulan".
Therefore, even if there is a female director Nikki Caro, she spares no effort to add some feminine elements, female awakening, and female independence. Or not, Mulan's image, thin.
For Disney, mulan, which focuses on the "princess", is not important whether the ancient Chinese culture is credible or not.
The whole point of the palace, the tulou, the whole point of "loyalty, courage and filial piety", put the Chinese elements that they think they are in a pile, feel in place, and look almost complete.
Why did Disney overturn this time, and the reputation was so low?
It is not because there are so strong psychological expectations in the early stage, Disney, who could have imagined that it would finally collapse into this?
As everyone knows, disney and even the whole of Hollywood into other cultures to make films, is a simple and gorgeous fool.
Those non-local stories are a combination of spectacle and stereotypes, and then the core rises to the common emotions of all mankind, love, family affection, friendship and other old ways.
But the story of "Mulan" for us, is not the kind of "Aladdin" magic lamp, we do not know enough about the local culture, to see a hilarious finish.
This is our story, and seeing a little inadequacy is like sitting on a needle felt. What about this Hollywood perspective, full of arrogance and scrutiny, completely untrustworthy ancient China?
Disney in "Mulan" is bold, wanting to make epics and family fun. But before we reach the kernel level, the shell, we can't accept it.
The audience is not a fool, really want to shoot something, please spend some thoughts, don't mess around, okay?
The reason for watching "Mulan" now is either to satisfy curiosity, or to be a fan, simply want to see how beautiful Liu Yifei is on the big screen.