LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS: What to Watch after the MULAN Remake

I wanted to do something different than review Disney's Mulan (2020), the remake of their hit 1998 animated film Mulan. While I watched and enjoyed it, there are plenty of people more qualified to speak to its merits as it relates to the culture and stories that it's trying to depict. My aim here is to offer some suggestions to people who watched it (or didn't want to drop $30 but have access to a streaming service or two) and are hungry for a bit more high-flying martial arts action in a roughly similar vein.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that most everyone knows about 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and has seen Kung Fu Panda, and I'll try to include a couple (mostly) kid-friendly options along the way for any slightly adventurous youths who got their appetite whetted for a bit of wushu.

So, without further ado, the 10 movies you might like after watching Disney's new Mulan:

10. The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Ok, elephant in the room: yes, this is the "Jackie Chan and Jet Li made a movie together and the hero is a random white kid" movie. And. . . yeah, there's some stuff to unpack there.

However, it's a shockingly good (and obviously well-intentioned and lovingly crafted, if clumsy) version of that. Essentially "The Karate Kid goes to Wushu Narnia" - a young kung fu movie buff runs from local bullies right into a Middle Kingdom fantasy epic, where he must team up with a drunken peasant (Chan) and a mysterious monk (Li) to restore the staff of the legendary Monkey King to the. . . the Monkey King. It's his, they have to restore-look, it's a whole thing.

Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) directs a love letter to classic and cult martial arts cinema with a shocking talent for the wire-rific action sequences, and Li Yufei (Disney's live-action Mulan herself, if you're looking for the obvious connection) is a key part of the stacked supporting cast. Kingdom is every bit as good a "kiddo's first wushu movie" as this year's big-budget remake, and features a damn fun dust-up between the two martial arts screen legends on the poster.

The Forbidden Kingdom is streaming on Fubo and Cinemax, and rentable on most streaming platforms.

Safe For Kids? If they've seen anything from the MCU, this'll go down fine.

9. Wing Chun (1994)

Now we're getting into the choice picks. Yuen Woo-ping (choreographer of The Matrix and many more) directs action legends Michelle Yeoh (as the titular cross-dressing martial artist) and Donnie Yen (given considerably more to do here than in Mulan) in a story of roving bandits, brave warriors, and awkward romance.

There's quite a few films that use the "girl dressing in boy's clothes" gag for comedic effect on this list, but Wing Chun is 96 minutes of dynamite with great chemistry between the leads, suitably fantastic fight sequences, and some surprisingly subtle work from Yeoh.

Wing Chun is rentable on Amazon, but worth tracking down.

Safe for Kids? Mostly, yes - if you don't mind a bit of innuendo.

8. Red Cliff (2-part International Version, 2008/2009)

This one is a time commitment. John Woo's (Hard Boiled, Face/Off) 5-hour, 2-part, star-studded epic of the battle of Chi Bi during the Three Kingdoms era has just about everything. Massive battles, heroic duels, and legendary characters (anyone who's played the Dynasty Warriors games is gonna be "Leo pointing" like crazy). Are there cross-dressing warrior princesses? Naturally. Do characters negotiate alliances by playing wordless musical duets? Damn right they do? Are there doves? Are there ever.

Woo balances high-flying heroics with the sweeping drama of a gritty war film and deft touch of comedy. It's a full course meal of a film, best experienced in installments over a couple nights (this is a Deathly Hallows Part 1 & 2 situation), and under no circumstances should you watch the heavily-edited "American" theatrical version.

Red Cliff is available to rent on VUDU.

Safe for Kids? Not really - this is a pretty solid R-rating, but adventurous teens will love it.

7. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

36th Chamber is one of the titans of the genre, but if the only thing it had going for it was a sequence of dynamite training montages that will look very familiar if you've seen either of the Mulan films (buckets!), that would be enough to recommend it. But aside from seeing where so many elements of the genre were codified, it's also a total blast in its own right. Lau Kar-Leung (The Legend of Drunken Master) directs Gordon Liu (Kill Bill v. 2) as a scholar who trains in Shaolin kung fu to free his village from Manchu invaders.

This is brass tacks, deliberate, and grounded action for the most part, but what it lacks in high-flying wall-running it makes up for with some impressive choreography, giddy variety of weapons styles, and memorable characters. It's one of the classics of its field for a reason, and that reason is that it just plain kicks ass.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Safe for Kids? Mmmmmostly. If they've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, they can probably handle this.

6. Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986)

The director of our previous film on the list (dude was prolific) also worked on one of Jet Li's breakout hits, in case you wanted to see what the man who would play Mulan's emperor was capable of at the top of his game. A story of a Shaolin monk getting mixed up in a rebellion against a local warlord which skews more towards comedy than a lot of these films is also notable in the shift it represents in terms of how martial arts films were made (beggingin the era of the speedy acrobatics that defined both Li and Chan's '80s/'90s golden age).

And there's cross-dressing and mysterious parentage and romantic triangles with an absolute banger of a finale featuring a grand melee on a floating barge, all packed into less than 90 minutes.

Martial Arts of Shaolin is streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Safe for Kids? Eh. Aside from a bit of a cheeky beheading at the end of the film, it's basically a PG-13.

5. The Flying Guillotine (1975)

"Brendan, what exactly the hell is a flying guillotine?"

Watch the movie, that's what.

Seriously, just watch it. It's on Netflix and Amazon Prime, you got no excuse.

Safe for Kids? Um. It's called The Flying Guillotine. So. . . no.

4. The Vengeful Beauty (1978)

The director of The Flying Guillotine made an unofficial female-fronted sequel, following Chen Ping's quest for revenge against the tyrannical emperor and his flying guillotine assassins who murdered her family. It's not every day you see a pregnant heroine rack up this kind of body count, but she is very good at what she does.

Like The Flying Guillotine, this features plenty of high-flying action and high-stakes melodrama, but also a lewd and bloody streak a mile wide.

The Vengeful Beauty is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Safe for Kids? Oh my. No. No, absolutely not.

3. Magnificent Warriors (1987)

"Hey, wait a minute - that's Michelle Yeoh again!"

Damn right, it is.

"But why is she dressed kinda like Indiana Jones?"

Because this movie fecking rules, that's why.

Magnificent Warriors is a 1930's period piece that's part adventure/spy romp, part martial arts mayhem, and part "liberate the townsfolk" war movie that goes full Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven for the third act. Yeoh has absolutely no trouble carrying the film, Richard Ng and Darek Yee make for delightful supporting players, and the scrappy final defense against a small army in the finale is breathless and impressive.

Magnificent Warriors is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Safe for Kids? I don't think so, but give it look and decide if the 10-year-old is ready.

2. Come Drink With Me (1966)

And going even further back, we have another of the big early touchstones of martial arts cinema. Come Drink With Me follows fighter-for-hire Golden Swallow (who, keeping on theme, dresses like a guy) as she faces off against a group of bandits who's leader has been captured by local authorities, sending them on the warpath.

This isn't anywhere near as vivid or dynamic as the genre would later become (it's an interesting exercise watching Ching Pei-Pei in this and then as Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), but fans of the genre will find plenty to appreciate, and in the context of its time, this really was a watershed moment that remains eminently watchable.

Come Drink With Me is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Safe for Kids? There's quite a bit of 1960's Red Paint Blood and some dismemberment on display.

1. Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

There's an argument to be made that Kung Fu Hustle is the best movie on this list, and I say this as someone who thinks at least of couple of these belong in the Criterion Collection. Like Disney's new Mulan, much of this film is about one's chi being off because of not being true to oneself, and star/director Stephen Chow's wannabe gangster Sing has an arc that balances between foppish comedy, genuine pathos, and serious heroism with aplomb. 

Which is fortunate, because Wah Yuen and Qiu Yuen as the landlord and landlady of the housing complex Pig Sty Alley (where most of the movie takes place) damn near steal the entire film. This is a blend of meat and potatoes kung fu cinema with over-the-top Looney Tunes action (there is a literal Wile E. Coyote / Roadrunner chase up in here) with tonal acrobatics and mixing styles that should cause the entire endeavor to collapse in on itself, but instead stands as one of the best movies of its decade.

Kung Fu Hustle is streaming on Netflix.

Safe for Kids? Not unless you think they're ready for their First R-rated Movie.

(But as "First R-rated Movies" go, you could do a lot worse.)