Honoring Chinese New Year - Step Up: Year of the Dance (Step Up China)

Yuehua Entertainment/Lionsgate Films, 2019

Starring SuperDino, Meiqui Meng, Bobo, and Kim Sung-joo

Directed by Ron Yuan

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's head to modern-day China to celebrate the Year of the Horse and one of the most internationally popular musical franchises. The original Step Up debuted in 2006. It wasn't popular with critics who found its class war story to be too formulaic, but the incredible dancing made it a hit with teens and young adults who loved the moves and the rebellious characters. It was such a success, it led to four more unrelated Step Up movies that were all hits in their own right and a TV show that lasted for three seasons. 

One of the reasons it continued to do well was its enormous popularity in international markets, especially Asia. Even when the fifth film, Step Up: All In, didn't do well in North America, it still made money elsewhere. China took notice and made a Step Up film exclusively for their country in 2019. It came over here as a streaming exclusive in 2020. Is it as good as the other titles in this franchise, or should it be left on the streets? Let's begin with a young Chinese man (SuperDino) right before a big dance battle and find out...

The Story: Tie Hou (SuperDino) landed in prison after a bar brawl two years before, right as he was about to tell his crush Xiao Fe (Meng) he loved her. He's able to reunite with his old dance group the Iron Crew, but she hasn't forgiven him. Wealthy young He Chaun (Bobo) is trying to audition for a major international dance competition with the Black Tigers, but fellow dancer Dai (Sun-joo) kicks Chaun off the stage and injures him. They both get the trophies, but Dai isn't happy when it turns out the judges were paid off. 

Meanwhile, Tie Hou has tried to get a job working with everyone from strippers to kids, but his tougher style of street dance doesn't work with poles or children's classes. He even dances when he works at a construction site. Chaun sees him and tries to get him to join his new dance crew. Hou refuses at first, until he sees Chaun's elegant dance battle with the Black Tigers that even works the cane in. Fe is impressed and flirts with him. She's out of place at Chaun's birthday party, until she shows up the snobs there with a few great dance moves of her own.

Chaun has started a dance team of his own, Sky Crew. Even with Chaun pushing them hard to practice everywhere, they still lose in their first dance battle with the Black Tigers. They come up with the idea of filming their combination dance and Kung Fu moves. That gets them the dance battle invitation, but it also gets them recognized. Hou loses his best friend Tie She when the gang he fought in the bar tries to get him back. Now they really have a reason to beat the Black Tigers, and then take on the American team the Phantoms.

The Song and Dance: And the dance, along with some decent cinematography that makes the best of this film's low-budget origins, is the lone saving grace here. It really is exceptional. Director Yuan was normally a stunt man and martial artist, so he at least had the right instinct about how to shoot the choreography, both for the fight scenes and the dance scenes. Some of the dance scenes, especially the dance battles, are excitingly choreographed and not badly edited for something this cheap. I also appreciate that there's no hard feelings at the end. None of the dance teams indulge in bad sportsmanship or put down the others. Even the Phantoms, who were built up as the villains, bow for their fellow competitors. 

The Numbers: We open with Tie Hou, Tie She, and Xiao Fe doing their own robot moves at the bar before the gang war breaks out. Tie Hou has his solo number as he interprets the fight through dance. There's a chorus routine at a club when he gets out that includes some pretty sweet breakdancing. Hou tries to explain his feelings to Fe during their robot dance duet to "Honey Honey." They even dance with metal poles that he uses to play drums on trash cans at one point. The Black Tiger's slick number in white suits is going great, until Dai gives Chaun that fatal kick.

Next up is our first montage, as Tie Hou first tries to teach dance to strippers, then fan dancers, then children. None of them are there to learn the street dancing he favors. He even dances briefly at a construction site. Tie Hou starts dancing at an outdoor ring, until the same toughs who attacked him at the bar make nasty prison jokes. Chaun out-dances them even with a cane. Fe gets her big solo at the party when some of the snottier girls call her a "street bum," and she dances to show what a street bum can do. Chaun joins her, to the consternation of Tie Hou. Chaun and Hou have a stiff-kneeded dance off to rap music later that night at the party. 

The Sky Crew start off briefly "dance battling" each other before Chaun reminds them that they have their own unique style. The next montage shows the Sky Crew training everywhere - even over a grill and while bench-pressing a fire extinguisher. They're still arguing during rehearsals, until they realize that they do better when they come together as a team. The next montage shows different dance groups - even a black group and an all-kid team - competing at a club. When the Black Tigers are the winners, the Sky Crew film their moves - dance and Kung-Fu - and post them online. The Phantoms rise to the occasion at the competition with their genuinely excellent hip-hop dance. The Black Tigers are more athletic, often dancing on their knees. The Sky Crew start out with traditional Chinese music before getting into their own rap dance.

What I Don't Like: First of all, the dubbing on the copy of this at Tubi is lousy. Lips don't match, voices often don't sound like they belong to the characters. Second, whether this franchise takes place in Baltimore or Beijing, the cliches are the same. There's a reason the Step Up films (this one included) were never popular with critics. No amount of terrific dancing can cover the fact that the story is the same overcoming the odds parable we've seen hundreds of times. Admittedly, Tie Hou having been in prison and his difficulty finding jobs does give it a slightly more realistic edge, but Tie She's death is played for melodrama, and the class war drama isn't nearly as exciting as the movie wants to think it is. There's also this being a low-budget film. It does show at times, especially in the dull sets.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of the other Step Up films or of Asian musical cinema, this is worth checking out once for the dance routines alone.

Home Media: Streaming only in North America. Tubi currently has it for free with commercials. 

Tubi

Amazon Prime

YouTube

Honoring Chinese New Year - The Legend of Su-Ling

Golden Films, 1998

Voice cast unknown

Directed by Diane Paloma Eskenanzi

Music by Mike Himmlestein; Lyrics by Mike Himmelstein and Terry Sampson

UAV was far from the only company that put out imitations of the latest animated blockbusters in the 1990's and early 2000's. Golden Films debuted in 1990 to make low-budget animated films and specials for television. Unlike UAV, they occasionally branched into original stories in addition to Disney and Don Bluth imitations. Given when this was released, it's likely this was originally intended to piggyback the success of Mulan, but it has more in common with daintier Disney stories from earlier in the decade like Beauty and the Beast. How well does it come off today? Let's begin with the opening number "Land of Jade" as Chinese peasants work in the sun and sing about their kingdom and find out...

The Story: The peasants are forced to give up their treasures to the Emperor, who amasses wealth and beautiful things to fill the hole in his heart after the death of his wife. He tries to force his son Chen into marrying a princess of his choosing, but she's a spoiled brat with no patience or appreciation for the garden Chen has worked hard on. The Emperor and his sniveling toady Wang want Chen to marry and add the princess' wealth to their coffers, but Chen wants to marry for love.

Tired of his father's smothering and greed, Chen flees the palace in the guise of a peasant. He takes up with a kindly old fisherman and falls for his beautiful granddaughter Su-Ling. Su-Ling is angry because the Emperor took her nightingale, the one thing she owned, as a present for the princess. When the nightingale refuses to sing, Wang convinces the Emperor that Su-Ling's grandfather might have a spell that would make it perform again. Su-Ling follows him, flat-out telling the Emperor that the bird won't sing because she won't. The Emperor forces Su-Ling to marry his son...but Su-Ling doesn't realize that the prince and her beloved fisherman are one and the same...

The Animation: Only slightly above UAV's usual work. The colors are bright and jewel-like, as appropriate for a story set in China, but the movement is stiff, there's no expression on the characters, and they tend to look all alike. The backgrounds and costume designs are a little bit more detailed, especially in the opening chorus number and during Chen's number when he's venturing into the world.

The Song and Dance: Golden Films gets credit for going with an original story and not a flat-out rehash of Mulan. Despite Su-Ling being in the title, Chen is the one who really propels the action. This is has more in common with a gender-reversed Aladdin or the Hans Christian Andersen story The Nightingale than Mulan. I'm also glad no one is really played as a bad guy. The Emperor may behave like a jerk, but he's reacting badly to the loss of his wife. Wang is a yes-man who is just following orders. The real story is seeing how the Emperor learns that beauty and graciousness is something that can't be bought or forced, and that all the riches in the world can't compare to the richness of a loving heart. 

The Numbers: We open with that chorus number "Land of Jade" depicting Su-Ling, Chen, and the people of China at work and play, which also closes the film. "Here I Go Out In the World" takes Chen out of the palace and among his people to find his own way. "I Found This Love" is Su-Ling and Chen's big ballad as they help her grandfather and fall for each other. We also get a short chorus dance with a "Dragon" before Chen marries the woman his father wants him to.

What I Don't Like: For the character who is actually in the title, Su-Ling could have had more to do. She's feisty, standing up to her grandfather and the Emperor, but she's mostly seen in the beginning and the end. She and Chen barely have time to fall in love, or do much of anything together besides their ballad. One minute, she mistakes him for a thief, and the next, they're crazy about each other. The Emperor's sudden change of heart in the end is a little too fast as well. Once again, I really wish they'd been able to expand it another half-hour or so to flesh out the characters and their motivations.

The Big Finale: Short but charming fairy tale is worth checking out this Chinese New Year for fans of Aladdin and those looking for a sweet and unique way to pass 40 minutes or so before dinner.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, including currently for free with commercials on Tubi.

DVD

Tubi

Honoring Chinese New Year - Over the Moon

Netflix, 2020

Voices of Cathy Ang, Phillipa Soo, Robert G. Chiu, and Ken Jeong

Directed by Glen Keane

Music and Lyrics by Christopher Curtis, Marjorie Duffield, and Helen Park

We celebrate Chinese New Year with this lovely animated film, the third released by Netflix. This retelling of the Chinese myth of the rabbit in the moon was released during the pandemic that year, meaning it went straight to streaming with a release in a few theaters. Does the sweet tale of a teen girl who hopes to prove that the goddess of the moon is real continue to work now? Let's begin with cook Ma Ma (Ruthie Ann Miles) telling her daughter Fei Fei (Ang) the story of the moon goddess Chang'e (Soo) and find out...

The Story: Unfortunately, Ma Ma takes ill and dies when Fei Fei is 11. By the time she's 15, her father Ba Ba (John Cho) is remarrying a woman named Mrs. Zhong (Sandra Oh). Although she's a nice lady, Fei Fei doesn't handle this well. She's especially not fond of Mrs. Zhong's annoying son Chin (Chiu) who insists he can run through walls and his pet frog. 

Fei Fei creates a rocket that'll take her to the moon so she can prove Chang'e is real. To her consternation, Chin sneaks along. Beautiful Chang 'e is obsessed with returning to her true love Hou Yi (Conrad Ricamora), who lacked her immortality. She thinks the children came to deliver a gift that would bring her love back. Fei Fei goes to search for the gift with three "Biker Chick" Lumarians, while Chin challenges Chang'e to a ping-pong game. Fei Fei thinks she's found the gift, but the bikers take off with it. With the help of exiled Lumarian Gobi (Jeong), she and Chang'e finally learn how to heal and let go of the past.

The Animation: While the character animation is well done, the big thing here is Chang'e and the Lumarians' world. It's all bright neons and huge shining spires and magenta glitter. There's some amazing designs, too, especially on animals like the giant frogs and dog who bites into the moon. Chang'e's elegant and colorful costumes were created by Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei, and they certainly look like haute couture, from the sparkly layer dress she wears at her concert to the dramatic red number with the enormous collar seen on the poster.

The Song and Dance: This charming and sweet film may have been especially important when it debuted, given how many people lost loved ones in 2020. You really feel Ang's heartbreak over her mother, especially early in the film when she's trying to deny that her father has moved on. Soo also does well as the fickle goddess who is heartbroken over her lost love one minute, charming to her people the next. Chui and Jeoung get a few good moments as the goofy little brother who basically thinks he has superpowers and the exiled Lumarian who believes in the good change can do.

Favorite Number: We open with "On the Moon Above" that gives us the story of Chang'e and how much Fei Fei adored her mother. They sing about making "Mooncakes" for the big Moon Festival, even as Ma Ma is dying. Fei Fei hopes her "Rocket to the Moon" will take her to Chang'e, so she can prove she's real. Chang'e appears in a huge concert, complete with back up Lumenettes dancers, insisting that she's "Ultraluminary." 

"Hey Boy" pits Chin against Chang'e in a ping pong game that leaves him wondering if he's in over his head. Gobi tells Fei Fei how he thinks their ride on giant frogs - and the ability to change and move on - are "Wonderful." Hou Yi briefly joins his wife for "Yours Forever" in the beautiful forest of her memories. Chang'e and Fei Fei break out of depression by admitting that it's not so bad to "Love Someone New."

What I Don't Like: Ok, so the story is a tad cliched. It starts off coming-of-age and veers more into sci-fi action territory on the moon. Critics complained that this had a little too much Disney in it, with its huge castle and princess-like goddess, likely the result of director Keane being a former Disney animator. Once they get on the moon, the mood goes from contemplative to annoyingly frantic, not helped by all the padding with the unnecessary ping pong game and Gobi's antics. The ending is sweet, but getting there is more tooth-itchingly sticky. Not to mention, a good chunk of the voice cast is actually Korean rather than Chinese, and a lot of the music apes the Korean pop that's so huge right now. 

The Big Finale: Despite the strange and sometimes conventional story, this is still recommended for older elementary-schoolers and pre-teens who have any interest in Chinese culture or have lost someone recently.

Home Media: This is a Netflix exclusive at the moment. 

Netflix

Honoring Chinese New Year - The Secret of Mulan

UAV Corporation, 1998

Voices of Abigail Revasch, Leo Burmester, Tom Clifford, and George Bettinger

Directed by Chad Nigeringston

Music and Lyrics by Megan Calaveri 

The major studios weren't the only ones who tried to cash in on the popularity of Disney's films in the 90's. Everyone wanted a piece of that epic animated musical pie, even the lowliest direct-to-video chop shops. Several studios existed primarily to make animated films based on Disney's blockbusters and other films of the time. UAV actually began as video distributors in the 1980's. They entered film production in 1996, churning out B movies and cheap imitations of the latest animated hit like the "Secret of" series. Does this...unique...take on the Chinese legend deserve to fly, or should it be left in a cocoon? Let's begin with the opening number in China, as the towering Mongol beetle Mala Khan and his bug army invades an all-animal China, and find out...

The Story: After Khan's army manages to breach the river, the Prince of China puts out the call for more soldiers. Mulan, a female caterpillar, runs away to take her father's place. She dresses as a male bug and joins the Army, becoming their top captain. Mala Khan would do anything to get rid of this new intruder, and he's helped by a jealous bug general who wishes the prince would lavish praise on his efforts. Only two creatures know Mulan's secret, the female courier Zhing Zhing and her family's loyal mouse retainer Yi Wu. Zhing Zhing is tricked by the traitorous general into bringing Mulan to him. He thinks he's gotten rid of her, but Mulan's only getting ready for her biggest transformation yet.

The Animation: Not great. The backgrounds are actually pretty detailed, and the story is certainly colorful enough. Those colors, however, seem to be thrown together without rhyme or reason and often don't compliment each other. Some of the bugs look so much alike that it's hard to tell what a lot of them are. The characters move stiffly and there's a lot of awkward cuts and transitions in the battle scenes. 

The Song and Dance: Well, at least they tried for a slightly different approach to retelling the legend. I've certainly never seen Chinese folklore done with talking insects before. I suspect it may also be an imitation of Pixar's A Bug's Life and Dreamworks' Antz, which also came out that year and involved crawly critters going to war. Zhing Zhing and Mulan have a rather sweet relationship in the second half, and Yi Wu is a far less annoying sidekick than Mushu in Mulan. Mulan's no clumsy tomboy, either. She's a tough cookie who knows martial arts from the start and won't back down to anyone, including the Mongol Army. The score by Nathan Wang is surprisingly lush for such a cheap production, giving the battle scenes and the finale more feeling than they warrant. 

Favorite Number: The movie opens with the Mongols invading, leveling villages as they sing the praises of "Mula Khan." Mulan's "Reflection" equivalent is "For Honor, For Country," which she sings to the moon as she tries to figure out what to do about her father leaving. Khan's much-abused fly assistant Bowtie finally gets a moment away from his boss as he celebrates his part in getting rid of Mulan with "They Call Him Bowtie." Mulan and the Prince soar in the stirring finale, as they glide over China and Mulan declares "My Heart Is My Kingdom."

What I Don't Like: There's some decent ideas here. I wish they had the budget to expand on them or go further into them. Mulan has a more feminine sister in the opening sequences who chastises her for being a tomboy. She vanishes after Mulan goes to war and is never seen or mentioned again, even after her parents turn up briefly in the finale. Yi Wu isn't a bad sidekick, but Bowtie's whiny Brooklyn accent and weird vaudeville jazz number are totally out of place, and the mouse and rabbit who take the emperor to safety and turn up occasionally thereafter are just annoying. There's that terrible animation, too. And though I did like the majestic "My Heart Is My Kingdom," the other songs are just dull or even more out of place than the ones in the Disney film. 

Not to mention, there's historical inaccuracies going out the wazoo, from the strange mix of clothes styles, to the fact that the Mongols wear Japanese samurai armor. 

The Big Finale: You get what you pay for. There's worse animated movie imitations out there...but there's also better ones. Unless your kids are really bored while wandering around streaming or are huge fans of Mulan or A Bug's Life, I'd fly on by this one. 

Home Media: The DVD is out of print and expensive nowadays. If you must see this, it can be found on several streaming sites for free with commercials, including Tubi. 

DVD

Tubi

Honoring Chinese New Year - Stowaway (1936)

20th Century Fox, 1936

Starring Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Robert Young, and Helen Westley

Directed by William A. Seiter

Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Mack Gordon

Let's celebrate the Year of the Tiger with one of Temple's most successful features. This one changes things up slightly by going for not one, but two exotic settings and focusing more on the lovers than the older curmudgeon and Temple's antics. How does the story of a little American girl raised in China who plays matchmaker to a confirmed bachelor and a young lady look today? Let's begin in the village of Sanchow, China, which is about to be raided by bandits, and find out...

The Story: Barbara "Ching-Ching" Stewart (Temple) flees Sanchow with a guide hired by her friend Sun Lo (Phillip Ahn). The guide abandons her and makes off with her money, leaving her alone in Shanghai. She runs into Tommy Randall (Young), a handsome playboy on a world cruise with his valet Atkins (Arthur Treacher). He leaves her and her dog Mr. Wu in his convertible, but she flees into the rumble seat to avoid the rain. After she falls asleep there, she finds herself on the ocean liner when the convertible's loaded on there.

Susan Parker (Faye), who is traveling to Bangkok to marry her banker fiancée Richard Hope finds Ching-Ching when she's hiding from the Captain (Robert Grieg). Susan agrees to take her in for the voyage, to the dismay of Richard's pushy mother (Wesley). Ching-Ching tries to bring Susan and Tommy together, but Mrs. Hope doesn't like that one bit. Richard likes it even less. There may not be much anyone can do when it turns out Ching-Ching is now an orphan and has to be taken to Shanghai, unless Tommy steps up to take responsibility for her and Susan figures out which man she really wants.

The Song and Dance: The exotic Chinese setting is relatively well-represented for 1936, as are the Chinese themselves. Most of the Chinese characters speak in Confucius homilies and we can hear a few "me speekee English," but they're at least somewhat respected and are played by actual Asian actors. It makes Tommy look even more ridiculous arguing with a shopkeeper when he first meets Ching-Ching. Temple's having a blast, whether she's ordering around her dog or imitating Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, and Faye is a warm and inviting presence as the woman she latches on to. 

Favorite Number: Ching-Ching first sings "Goodnight, My Love" as a lullaby to herself. Tommy and Susan later dance to it after she sings while they chat about Ching-Ching on the deck. Faye's solo also has her on deck in the moonlight as she muses "One Never Knows, Does One?" Temple's big cheer-up number she performs at the talent show is "You've Gotta S-M-I-L-E to Be H-A-P-P-Y." The movie finishes with a delighted Ching-Ching and her new family gathered around the tree as she sings "That's What I Want for Christmas."

Trivia: Temple was eventually given the Pekinese she had in this movie. She renamed him Ching-Ching, after her character. 

Temple learned 40 words of Mandarin Chinese for her role. 

What I Don't Like: While this one does switch things up a bit by putting the emphasis on the lovers and making the crochety old person the villain, it still comes off as Temple's standard melodrama. For all that they get right with the Chinese, the things they get wrong (like the guy who abandons Ching-Ching, Temple's sing-song delivery, and some of more obvious "me speekee English" in Shanghai and Hong Kong) stand out all the more as annoying and dated. The songs in this one, aside from Temple's imitations and "Goodnight, My Love," are barely afterthoughts, and certainly not up to the scores in some of her earlier movies. The courtroom finale is silly and a bit unnecessary, given that even the judge could see Tommy and Susan were in love. 

The Big Finale: One of Temple's better films is a must if you're a fan of hers, and not a bad place to start with younger kids if you explain about some of the more overt Asian stereotypes. 

Home Media: As with most of Shirley's films, this is easy to find on DVD and streaming. 

DVD

Amazon Prime

Honoring Chinese New Year - Mulan II

Disney, 2005

Voices of Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, Mark Moseley, and Lucy Liu

Directed by Darrell Rooney and Lynne Southerland

Music by Jeanine Tesori; Lyrics by Scott Erickson

Although it wasn't as big of a hit as some of the Disney animated musicals from earlier in the 90's, Mulan impressed critics with its epic action scenes, delicate animation, and unique heroine. It picked up enough of a fan base after its release to earn one of the last direct-to-home-media sequels the studio churned out from 1994 to 2008. How does this follow-up compare to its illustrious ancestor? Let's start with Mulan (Wen) as she teaches the local kids about martial arts, and find out...

The Story: As Mulan works with the kids, General Li Shang (Wong) arrives to propose to her. She accepts, and everyone in China is thrilled...except Mulan's guardian ancestor Mushu (Moseley). If Mulan marries, he loses his new position as head of the ancestors. He's determined to keep them from marrying.

Meanwhile, Mulan and Shang accept a mission from the Emperor of China (Pat Moriata) to take three princesses to the kingdom of Qui Gong, where they'll wed the princes and unify the kingdoms. The royal ladies, however, become smitten with Mulan's three soldier buddies, especially after Mulan insists they follow their hearts. Mushu's scheming works too well. Mulan finally gets fed up with Shang insisting they stick to the mission and breaks up with him...but when disaster falls on the group, she takes it on herself to unify the kingdoms and save China.

The Animation: Not at the level of the first film, but not quite as horrible as some of the others that came out around this time. It's still relatively delicate, with softer colors and fine lines, like Chinese calligraphy as cartoon characters. Some of the expressions don't quite work or are a little too goofy, though, including a notoriously weird one from Shang. 

The Song and Dance: The decent animation and characters are what makes this even mildly watchable. The trio of princesses are well-delineated, with their own adorable personalities and character quirks. I actually wished we could have seen even more of them, together and with Mulan's buddies. The guys are decently funny too, especially when they're thrown out of the bar in the beginning.

Favorite Number: Mulan teaches the local children the importance of balance in their lives as they take "Lesson Number One" in the opening. The princesses just want to do things "Like Other Girls" as they frolic through fields and fly on swings through the air in their imaginations.

What I Don't Like: The plot is ridiculous and annoying, starting with Mushu's selfish attempts to break up Mulan and Shang. Even Mulan calls him on it. There's also Mulan protesting the arranged marriages, only to sacrifice herself later. The marriages were supposed to prevent a war. What happens when none of them go through? What happened with the treaty? Did Qui Gong still become China's ally? And while the songs weren't the first film's strong point, they're even more bland here, just barely registering. 

The Big Finale: In the end, the decent characters aren't enough to save the bland score, so-so animation, and confusing and annoying story. For huge fans of Disney or the original Mulan only. 

Home Media: The solo DVD is long out of print, but it's easy to find on streaming and paired with the original film on disc.

DVD - Mulan/Mulan II

Blu-Ray - Mulan/Mulan II

Disney Plus (Subscription) 

Honoring Chinese New Year - Mulan (1998)

Disney, 1998
Voices of Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, BD Wong, and Miguel Ferrer
Directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft
Music by Matthew Wilder; Lyrics by David Zippel

We honor the Year of the Rat with one of Disney's more unique animated films of its Renaissance era. It was also their first venture into Asian culture and folk tales, and a rare musical action movie. How does the story of a Chinese girl who joins the army as a man in place of her father look now? To answer this, we join the Huns as they prepare for battle...and a young woman preparing for the day that will change her life, in more than one way...

The Story: Fa Mulan (Wen) is a clumsy tomboy living on a farm with her grandmother and parents in ancient China. She's sent to a matchmaker to prepare her to find a husband, but can't remember what she's supposed to do and makes a mess out of the ritual. Her parents can't figure out what to do with her. They're even less happy when she jumps in front of her father (Soon-Tek Oh) after he's conscripted into the army. Her father is a veteran of previous wars, and he has a bad limp. To prevent him from going, she poses as a man and joins herself. She's accompanied by Mushu (Murphy), a small dragon guardian who's trying to get into the other ancestors' good graces, and Cri-kee (Frank Welker), a cricket her grandmother (June Foray) claims is lucky.

Her fellow army mates don't know what to make of her, either. Captain Li (BD Wong) is about ready to drop her, until he sees what she can do when she's really determined. Trouble is, she can only do it as a man. Even after she's found out, she'll still ride on to the Forbidden City to do whatever she can to save the Emperor (Pat Moriata) and China from Hun leader Shan You (Miguel Ferrer).

The Animation: Disney's animators studied the culture and architecture of China long and hard, resulting in more vibrant and delicate work than usual for them. As per Asian architecture, there's a lot of long, graceful lines and fluid curves. Some of it occasionally looks too cartoony, as in Mulan's rather potato-like horse Khan and her goofy army buddies, but it mostly moves very well. There's some first-rate battle sequences, especially the avalanche on the pass and the big finale with the fireworks.

The Song and Dance: Disney wanted to try something different with this one - their first truly action-oriented heroine. In some ways, Mulan is way ahead of her time, coming out in an era when women were only just starting to be prominent in action as more than the love interest. She may be clumsy and goofy, but she's also determined and quick-thinking. She shows the army that brains are just as important as brawn on the battlefield. Wen does well with her, showing the determination that would lead her play another Asian action heroine later, Melinda May in Agents of Shield. She's abetted by a nice cast, including Wong as her love-interest captain who wants to show his merit. Harvey Firnstein, Gedde Wantanabe, and Jerry Tondo are hilarious as her best buddies in the army, and Murphy has some nice lines as the mouthy mini-dragon who wants to be taken seriously again.

For all the funny moments, the movie works best when it explores Mulan's attempts to change gender roles in China and show just how terrible war is. The sequence when the troop goes from singing a comic number to suddenly discovering a destroyed village in less than five minutes is among the most devastating in any Disney animated film.

Favorite Number: By far the most famous song from this one is "I'll Make a Man Out of You," the army's big training routine. We see in a montage just how hard Captain Li pushes his troops, male and female, and how they finally learn discipline...and Mulan figures out how she can use brains and brawn to solve a problem. I also like "A Girl Worth Fighting For," where we learn what kind of women the more typical army troops are interested in right before they find the village, and the opening number for Mulan and her family as she's getting ready for her matchmaking rituals, "Honor To Us All."

What I Don't Like: I feel like we have two movies here. The lighter first half is more like a Warner Brothers cartoon, what with the army's macho gags and Mulan making a hash out of her ritual and all of Murphy's modern references...and it clashes badly with the darker war sequences. In fact, Mushu and Crik-kee can be funny, but they're both mostly out of place. More than half the cast isn't Asian, including Murphy. Mushu's stream of modern references can be cute, but more often than not, they tend to yank one of out of the ancient Chinese setting. Not to mention, the attempts at discussing gender roles are well-meaning, but can come off as awkward at times.

As odd as it seems to admit in a major Disney animated musical, the biggest problem here is the music. Other than the supremely silly "Make a Man Out of You," it's just not that memorable. Mulan's big ballad "Reflection" is especially dull and drippy, and probably just exists to slip a slow song in. The credits song "True to Your Heart" is catchy but a bit bland.

The Big Finale: For all its flaws, this is still one of Disney's more interesting animated films, with a uniquely diverse cast and strong heroine. If you've got a daughter who is more into action than princesses or loves stories from other lands, try this one on her.

Home Media: The most recent disc version pairs Mulan with it's direct-to-DVD sequel. It can also be found quite easily on streaming, including on Disney Plus and Amazon Prime.

DVD - Mulan/Mulan 2 Double Pack
Blu-Ray - 2 Movie Collection
Amazon Prime (Buy Only)

Honoring Chinese New Year - Flower Drum Song

Universal, 1961
Starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigata, Miyoshi Umeki, and Jack Soo
Directed by Henry Koster
Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein

We celebrate the Year of the Pig with this colorful generation gap tale. This may seem like an odd choice for Rogers and Hammestein, but they were no strangers to musicals about cultural folkways. It was the first modern-set movie with a primarily Asian cast in a story about Asians, and it was fairly popular in the early 60's. Let's head to San Francisco to see how well this tale of modern love triangles clashing with old-world Asian values holds up today...

The Story: Mei-Li (Umeki) and her father Dr. Han Li (Kam Tong) immigrate illegally to Chinatown so Mei to honor her pre-arranged marriage with Sammy Fong (Soo). Fong is the owner of the Celestial Gardens nightclub and has no desire to marry anyone but his girl, singer and stripper Linda Low (Kwan)...eventually. He turns the Lis over to Madame Liang (Juanita Hall), the sister-in-law of prosperous old-fashioned Master Wang (Benson Fong). Wang and Liang hope that Mei-Li will marry Wang's very American college son Wang Ta (Shigeta), but he ends up smitten with Linda. She doesn't really care much about him, other than getting a ring on her finger. She has the club's announcer and comedian Frankie Wing (Victor Sen Yung) pose as her brother in order to get the Wangs to agree to the wedding.

Sammy finally breaks off the wedding when he invites Master Wong to Celestial Gardens on Chinese New Year to see what Linda really does for a living. Shocked, Ta gets drunk and stays overnight with his friend Linda Chao (Reiko Sato), a seamstress who is also in love with him. Mei Li comes to her to have a coat mended, sees Ta's clothes there, and jumps to the wrong conclusion. Ta tries to talk to her, but she says she's ready to go through with the arranged marriage. Sammy, however, is not, and Ta really does care about her. It'll be up to Mei-Li herself to figure out how to unmix these couples and get "the younger generation" matched to everyone's satisfaction.

The Song and Dance: In many ways, this is still very charming. The ladies are the winners here. Kwan and Umeki score as the two very different brides, with Umeki delicate and sweet as a plum blossom, and Kwan brassy and salty. I also like the sole major non-Asian, Juanita Hall, as Madame Liang, who is taking citizenship classes and is more open to Western ways than Master Wang. James Shigata is quite easy on the eyes and has a stunning voice; no wonder all the women chase him. The Oscar-nominated sets, costumes, and cinematography ably capture all the hustle and "chop suey" East-Meets-West of San Francisco's Chinatown.

It's interesting that much of the story hinges on illegal immigration, considering how much that's in the news these days. While a lot of aspects of this story don't work now, that one almost feels ahead of its time.

Favorite Number: Kwan's "I Enjoy Being a Girl" is the sole standard to come from this score, and it gets a number worthy of it, too as she admires many versions of herself in the mirrors of her plush pink bedroom. Umeki's best musical moment is the actual "flower drum song" in the opening sequence, "A Hundred Million Miracles." Sato's "Love Look Away" is a ravishing ballad, with a lovely abstract ballet representing Helen's desire for Ta after it. Shigata gets another good love song, "You are Beautiful." "Grant Avenue" is better integrated into the score here than in the original Broadway version as a number for Kwan and the male dancers at the Chinese New Year Parade. Kwan and Soo get a more comic ballet, the hilarious "Sunday," as they imagine being normal suburban parents.

Trivia: The Broadway show debuted in 1958, and was the first and only stage show directed by Gene Kelly. It was one of the biggest hits of the 1958-1959 Broadway season, running for a year and a half.  Hall, It would be revived in 2002, with a totally re-written book by Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang. This version wasn't as well-received and lasted only six months.

This would be the last major American film with a mostly Asian cast until 1993's The Joy Luck Club.

Fans of sitcoms of the 60's and 70's will recognize two members of the cast. Soo played Sargent Nick Yemana on the long-running 70's cop comedy Barney Miller, while Umeki was the housekeeper Mrs. Livingston on The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

What I Don't Like: A lot of this story has simply not dated well, and not just the occasionally condescending portrayals of "The Older Generation" and Asian values and traditions. Linda Low's desperation for security and marriage and the cartoony "Sunday" number are very, very early 60's, as is the silly nightclub routine for  Frankie Wing, "Gliding Through My Memoree." Hall was cast as Madame Liang because their original choice, Anna May Wong, passed away before filming began and she played the role on Broadway...and yeah, it's pretty obvious she's the only non-Asian. Some of the lines comparing East and West sound awkward at best nowadays and slightly offensive at worst. Not to mention, not only were few people dubbed, but they were dubbed by non-Asians.

Linda Chao vanishes half-way through is never seen or heard from again. In the book this is based on, she apparently commits suicide after she can't get Ta to fall in love with her. Obviously, the musical wasn't going to be able to go that dark, but they could have at least mentioned her. Her big song and ballet, as beautiful as they are, really do nothing to move the plot along and just add to the already excessive length.

The Big Picture: Mixed feelings on this one. As much as I love the colorful costumes and some of the songs and performances, a lot of the story doesn't hold up nowadays. As one of the few mostly-Asian American films (and to my knowledge, the only mostly-Asian American musical), this is recommended on the sheer novelty value, performances, and musical numbers alone.

Home Media: I highly recommend my 2-disc DVD set from 2006, which has a gorgeous restoration and a ton of extras. It can also found on Amazon Prime and as part of a 3-pack with two other popular Universal musicals, Mamma Mia! and Jesus Christ Superstar.

DVD
DVD - Musicals Spotlight Collection
Amazon Prime