No, there are no epic war scenes or battle scenes in this film, but nonetheless it is an epic film. I read in one of the review that the story wasn't going anyway and was dragging along. Well, yes, that is the purpose of this film, the absurdity of war and heroism, of true sacrifice and no happy ending in the Hollywood way.
Mulan becomes a tactically sound commander of some Chinese army, learns the realities of politics the hard way, learns the Chinese way of sacrificing your own happiness for the greater good of the nation.
It is not merely a sacrifice of your life, but a sacrifice of everything you might think will or would define yourself. There is no true glory in war, and Mulans father says so in the very beginning of the movie. Who wins? The nation, the people, not the individual.
So the story doesn't really go anyway - and still it goes everywhere, touches upon the absurdities of our quaint notions of self and of glory and of victory.
When Mulan finally puts the welfare of the nation above herself and even above her family and her brothers-in-arms for the sake of the greater good, she ends up where she finally understands what her father meant, despite her fears or even because of her fears.
It is a brilliant movie. I will Watch it Again, and not because of the battle scenes - they are mostly not there - but for the story that doesn't lead you anywhere, drags you along against your will and you end up the same way of Mulan, with only a fling of hope: there is a greater good, and it is not you!
Mulan becomes a tactically sound commander of some Chinese army, learns the realities of politics the hard way, learns the Chinese way of sacrificing your own happiness for the greater good of the nation.
It is not merely a sacrifice of your life, but a sacrifice of everything you might think will or would define yourself. There is no true glory in war, and Mulans father says so in the very beginning of the movie. Who wins? The nation, the people, not the individual.
So the story doesn't really go anyway - and still it goes everywhere, touches upon the absurdities of our quaint notions of self and of glory and of victory.
When Mulan finally puts the welfare of the nation above herself and even above her family and her brothers-in-arms for the sake of the greater good, she ends up where she finally understands what her father meant, despite her fears or even because of her fears.
It is a brilliant movie. I will Watch it Again, and not because of the battle scenes - they are mostly not there - but for the story that doesn't lead you anywhere, drags you along against your will and you end up the same way of Mulan, with only a fling of hope: there is a greater good, and it is not you!