{"id":191477,"date":"2021-03-01T20:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-hard-hitting-visual-feast-film\/"},"modified":"2021-03-01T20:00:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T17:00:35","slug":"a-hard-hitting-visual-feast-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-hard-hitting-visual-feast-film\/","title":{"rendered":"#A Hard-Hitting Visual Feast \u2013 \/Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#A Hard-Hitting Visual Feast \u2013 \/Film<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

\"raya<\/p>\n

\u201cYour favorite Disney Princess is Mulan, right?\u201d is a question I\u2019ve heard, and somewhat resented, many times over the years. Of course<\/em> she would have to be my favorite; for decades Mulan was the only Asian face in Disney\u2019s overwhelmingly white line-up of fairy-tale mascots, and Asian-Americans were starved for onscreen representation as it is (for the record, my favorite is Belle). I would admit to dressing up as the Chinese warrior for Halloween, and I will admit to being more than a little excited when I heard Disney was making a Southeast Asian-inspired Disney movie, featuring the company\u2019s first-ever Southeast Asian Disney Princess. How long we\u2019ve waited for this moment, to finally be shown in our brown-skinned glory, instead of faceless victims of the dozens of grimy jungle wars.<\/p>\n

I start off this review by mentioning Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em>\u2018s<\/strong> bid for diversity because that\u2019s the big selling point for this fantasy epic. It\u2019s the movie that features Disney\u2019s first Southeast Asian princess, played by effervescent Vietnamese-American actress Kelly Marie Tran<\/strong>, whose creative team went above and beyond to accurately represent the region in the food, the architecture, the character design, down to every little tiny detail. The devil may be in the details, but is the Disney magic? Well, yes and no.<\/p>\n

Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em> a real barn-burner of an adventure epic, full of chases and elaborate style action sequences that would make Indiana Jones<\/em> blush. As an animated fantasy epic, it\u2019s a thrilling romp with a strong emotional core that even wanders into pure action cinema at times, thanks to breathtaking and hard-hitting fight sequences that are easily some of the best things Disney Animation has ever done. As a rarefied piece of Southeast Asian representation onscreen, it does its job.<\/p>\n

Set in the fictional country of Kumandra, which is made up of five distinct lands \u2014 Fang, Spine, Talon, Tail, and Heart \u2014 Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em> follows the titular lone warrior as she embarks on a quest to find the last dragon and save the world from the sinister Druuns, malevolent forces that turn every human they touch to stone; among them, Raya\u2019s father Benja (Daniel Dae Kim<\/strong>), the chief of Heart. It\u2019s a loss that weighs heavily on Raya, having unwittingly set the Druuns upon the world several years earlier, when she and Benja had welcomed the four other tribes to their home in a bid for harmony, and Raya \u2014 recently named Guardian of the Dragon Gem \u2014 shows another chief\u2019s daughter, Namaari, the vault where the Gem is kept. Namaari quickly betrays Raya to allow her tribe of Fang to steal the Gem for themselves, believing that the Gem was the reason for Heart\u2019s prosperity while all the other lands suffered. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the tribes and Benja rush to the vault, where a fight ensues \u2014 leading to the Gem breaking and unleashing the Druuns back onto the world.<\/p>\n

But Raya believes that the last dragon \u2013 who had created the Gem that stopped the Druuns 500 years ago \u2013 is still alive, and embarks on a years-long quest to find her. Finally, after years of searching, at the end of a dried up river, Raya revives the long-slumbering Sisu (a buoyant Awkwafina<\/strong>), an enthusiastic, slightly dim-witted water dragon who has even less of a clue than Raya on how to save the world. The two of them set off on a quest to find all the pieces of the Dragon Gem, assembling an unlikely group of allies who help break down the barriers between tribes and break down the emotional walls that Raya had put up since being betrayed by Namaari (Gemma Chan<\/strong>, at her most growly) all those years ago.<\/p>\n

At this point in Disney Animation history, there are certain expectations that come with every Disney movie: will there be cute sidekicks? Will it have a strong-willed protagonist who learns some important lesson? Will the adventure end in a grand, emotional climax that gives us a taste of that old, ineffable Disney magic once again? But Disney, as of late, is doing its best to redefine who gets to deliver that Disney magic by making efforts to diversify its characters and films in ways that feel strategic, yes, but still feel earnest and earned in the way that only a little Hawaiian girl\u2019s joy at seeing herself in Moana<\/em> can achieve.<\/p>\n

So Disney has gotten some of the Moana<\/em> team (including producer Osnat Shurer<\/strong> and co-director Don Hall<\/strong>, who helms Raya<\/em> with Blindspotting<\/em> director Carlos L\u00f3pez Estrada<\/strong>) back together to work their same magic on the Southeast Asian region (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, among half a dozen other countries). Like Moana <\/em>before it, Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em>, features a melting pot of influences that provide a rich texture to the film that elevates it from being a simple pastiche of action epics that came before it. On a superficial level, the obvious parallels to Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em> are there (right down to a breezy narrated introduction and the character designs), but the film also recalls the likes of Raiders of the Last Ark <\/em>and Studio Ghibli\u2019s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind<\/em>, albeit with some Southeast Asian flair, like a lovely opening sequence that uses the traditional art of shadow puppetry. The brisk and efficient script<\/a>, written by Adele Lim<\/strong> and Qui Nguyen<\/strong>, also sprinkles in various nods and words that Malaysian or Vietnamese audiences will recognize.
\nHowever \u2014 and this is going to sound like criticism that I\u2019m levying specifically at Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em>, even though it\u2019s not \u2014 Raya<\/em>\u2018s vision of diversity doesn\u2019t feel as satisfying as a more culturally specific story like Pixar\u2019s Coco<\/em>, for example, which found universality within its specificity. Seeing a familiar dish and hearing a familiar word doesn\u2019t have quite the effect as recognizing a family dynamic onscreen. But one film shouldn\u2019t have to handle the weight of representing an entire geographic region, and I don\u2019t expect Raya and the Last Dragon <\/em>to do so, <\/em>though it appears to desperately want to.<\/p>\n

But taken purely as an action epic, Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em> is a real treat. Disney animation has never looked better, the sweeping tundras and twinkly night markets carrying a real-world weight to them, aided by the frequent use of shallow depth of field that adds a hazy beauty to the movie. The fight scenes are simply jaw-dropping, full of energy and oomph, and a terrifying realness that would have you believe the film\u2019s directors flirted with an R-rating<\/a>. Tran, who is absolutely perfect as Raya, imbuing a casual coolness to the prickly character, unleashes a frightening rage during the battle scenes that feel raw and unhinged in a way that Disney has rarely felt.<\/p>\n

But Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em> struggles with differing tones that threaten to undercut its big emotional moments. There\u2019s a strain of wacky comedy that feels more in line with an early 2000s DreamWorks movie, like the absurd inclusion of a martial arts-fighting \u201ccon baby\u201d who joins Raya\u2019s team after an attempted theft. Raya\u2019s entire unlikely team \u2014 which includes a scene-stealing Benedict Wong<\/strong> as a giant warrior Tong and newcomer Izaac Wang<\/strong> as a smirking 10-year-old shrimp boat chef named Boun \u2014 sits at that strange tonal intersection of the Disney comedy The Emperor\u2019s New Groove<\/em> and its original, serious version Kingdom of the Sun<\/em>. But at the same time, they \u2014 along with Sisu and Namaari, who with Raya make up the unusually all-female lead trio \u2014 provide the beautiful beating heart of the film, which builds into a wrenching, lump-in-the-throat emotional climax that nearly makes up for the uneven tone.<\/p>\n

So, does Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em> give us a dose of that good old Disney magic? The Southeast Asian-flavored epic may not be quite the apex of representation that it wishes to be, but it gives us Disney magic of a new variety: one that is thrilling, and textured, and gives us a heroine with honeyed skin and a fascinating flaws who will be the favorite Disney Princess for a whole generation of Southeast Asian kids.<\/p>\n

\/Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10<\/strong>
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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#A Hard-Hitting Visual Feast \u2013 \/Film” \u201cYour favorite Disney Princess is Mulan, right?\u201d is a question I\u2019ve heard, and somewhat resented, many times over the years. Of course she would have to be my favorite; for decades Mulan was the only Asian face in Disney\u2019s overwhelmingly white line-up of fairy-tale mascots, and Asian-Americans were starved…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net\/wp\/wp-content\/images\/RAYA-ONLINE-USE-217.0_074.00_0112-e1614565988441.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1568,1513,1416,1498,1570,7598,59971],"class_list":["post-191477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-featured-stories-sidebar","tag-action-adventure","tag-animation","tag-disney-pixar","tag-features","tag-movie-reviews","tag-raya-and-the-last-dragon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}