Mulan, a MostAdaptable Heroine: There's a Version for Every Era

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When rumors of a live-action, nonmusicalversion of "Mulan" began to trickle out a few years ago, manyhard-core fans of the 1998 Disney original groused. No big musicalnumbers and soaring ballads? No Mushu, the wisecracking dragon,or Li Shang, the movie's clearly conflicted love interest? No "Reflection"? Many felt that the filmmakers were beingunfaithful to the Mulan legend — or at least to Disney's own version of it.

But Mulan has always been the most adaptable of heroines.Long before fans criticized Disney for taking liberties withtheir beloved animated heroine, poets, writers, playwrights and filmmakers hadbeen creating scores of wildly different versions of the legendary woman warrior.In some, she's a hardened army general; in others, she has magical powers; inyet others, she's a crack shot with a bow. In one animatedversion, she's a bug.

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Over the centuries, she's been celebrated instage plays and operas, in musicals and TV series, in picture books and novelsand young-adult fiction. On the big screen, she's starred in silent movies("Hua Mulan Joins the Army" from 1927); a gorgeous, full-color musical by thelegendary Shaw Brothers ("Lady General Hua Mu-Lan," 1964); a gritty,action-filled war epic ("Mulan: Rise of a Warrior," from 2009, with Zhao Wei) — as well as a certain Disney animatedmovie, featuring a tiny red dragon.

In the latest "Mulan," premiering Sept. 4 onDisney+, the Chinese-American actress Yifei Liu stars in a tale that blendsstunning battle sequences (the film's $200 million budget included a portionfor 80 trick riders from Kazakhstan and Mongolia) with a story that makes muchof the story's gender-bending subtexts.

Andwhile there's no Mushu ("we really needed Mulan to face her own challenges andmake her own decisions," the director Niki Caro noted), there are severalreferences to the 1998 animated film. There are also nods tovarious older versions of the story, most notably the "Ballad of Mulan," the poem from the fifth or sixthcentury that started it all.

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"Ballad of Mulan" is a relatively simpletale, only six stanzas long: Mulan leaves her village to takeher infirm father's place in the emperor's army. For a dozenyears, she serves nobly, all while disguised as a man; in the end, she refusesrewards and honors to return home, where her former comrades learn at long lastthat, surprise, Mulan is female.

Not only did we have to see Mulan fight, saidCaro, we had to see her fight as a woman — hence, all those shots of YifeiLiu sans body-concealing armor, her long flowing hairunrestrained by hat or helmet. "In this version, what she learns is that she won't be truly powerful untilshe's herself, until she accepts the power she has as a young woman," Caro added.

How will this version play to fans of theoriginal — whether the ballad or the Disney animated one? "I know we're notgoing to please everybody," Caro said. "But I do think there's a reason thatthe story has been so resonant and relevant for, what, over1,300 years? And telling it in live action, my hope was that I would make itpossible for everybody, including those who were so protective of the animation,to enjoy her again in a new way."