CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.
Film Review: Homage & Reimagining! On-Air Review of ‘Mulan’
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on September 3rd, 2020, reviewing the new live action film “Mulan.” This is the Walt Disney Studios adaptation of their own 1998 animated film, originally a March release, now leading off the Fall Season.
Rating: 5.0/5.0 |
The 1998 animated film was based on the Chinese folklore, “The Ballad of Mulan,” and the live action rendering features Liu Yifei as Mulan, the eldest daughter in a family of two sisters. As she grows up, Mulan’s father teaches her the warrior ways of the Chi, symbolized by a Phoenix that rises. When Dad is drafted, Mulan takes his place by stealing his papers, and posing as a man. The army must battle the evil warlord Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) and Mulan’s Chi doppelgänger of doom, Xian Lang (Gong Li). It’s directed by New Zealander Niki Caro, and is both an homage and a new statement on the source material. Oh yeah, and Jet Li has a role!
Mulan
Photo credit: Walt Disney Studios