How do you do,
At some point, I knew this movie would be included as it's also turning twenty. Mulan is the thirty-sixth in what is now more than fifty Disney movies, coming out in the latter end of the Disney Renaissance. It's plot line is basically a Chinese girl, living in a time not stated, who has troubles fitting in as a girl, which doesn't give her family honor. One day, her country is threatened by invaders from beyond the blue, to which her father answers duty's call to fight, but Mulan decides to fight in his stead due to his illness, even dressing up as a man to do so. This leads to her joining the Chinese Army and fighting the invaders, and becoming a hero.
That is the summary of the movie. A lot of effort was made in making this movie. I hear they actually had animators go into the Forbidden City in an effort to get the details right. And, despite being a rich farmer's daughter, Mulan is listed among the Disney princesses (for reasons that are hard to explain, other than maybe give Asian American girls someone to relate to, just as Jasmine did that for Arab Americans, Pocahontas for Native Americans). Remarkably, very little of the cast is made of Asians, such as having Pat Morita play the Emperor (expecting him to say "wax on, wax off"?) and Jackie Chan even voiced Shang Li in the Chinese dub. A couple of non-Asian actors are on the cast list. For example, Diamond Osmond does the singing for Shang during the "Make a Man Out of You" number and the late Marni Nixon is heard in "Bring Honor To Us All." Don't forget, African American actor Eddie Murphy plays Mushu the Dragon (since not many people are as funny as Murphy, which is why the German dub had Otto Waalkes voice him). In short, it's not really Chinese, it's a multi-ethnistic film.
The movie is fun to watch, even if not everything is accurate. For one, the gender roles deal is presented in a childish manner, though one line in the song "Honor to Us All" does bring that up. When we see the army, the whole thing is treated like summer camp meets military school (the soldiers stop a fight at Li's voice and point at Mulan on the ground while saying together, "He started it."). The horrors of war are toned down considerably, even when we witness a destroyed village, while the deaths of characters seem lopsided. Of course, they don't add in a disclaimer that tells the audience that wars are not as fun as the movie presents it, and after going over Saving Private Ryan, you'll agree. The film also downplays Buddhism and Confucianism, while showing the ancestor worship (and even having the ghosts of the ancestors appear in two scenes), just as Aladdin downplayed Islam while featuring flying carpets and genies, Pocahontas reduce shamanism to magic tricks while having a talking tree, or The Hunchback of Notre Dame featuring people praying in church and talking gargoyles without going deep into Christianity. The reduction of religion, yet showing the spiritual side of it in the story is what keeps these movies from becoming secular. These are the tip of the ice berg.
The film's plot line is based on the exploits of a legendary warrior named Hua Mulan, first mentioned in the Ballad of Mulan, written in the sixth century. The story is the same as the movie, but only in Mulan taking her father's place in the army. The original Mulan lacked the characteristics of the Disney version, largely served in the Chinese army for twelve years without anyone knowing she was a woman until the end. The legend was rewritten some six centuries later as Sui Tang Romance where Mulan meets other girls in the army, and dies at the end through suicide, to avoid being ruled by a foreigner. Rather or not Mulan actually existed is hard to tell and most scholars consider her a legendary as King Arthur is to the British. Apart from these two, the Chinese had a few other works, including plays, on her, with movies being in the recent century.
In neither tale is there mention of the Huns. To clarify a few things, the Huns were an Asiatic people living in a largely nomadic life on the Steppes. Through a hypothesis by Joseph de Guignes, it was believed the Huns and the Xiongu were the same, although beginning with Otto Maechen-Helfen, historians have challenged this idea. Making it harder to tell if they are related, or the same, or even if they were actually Mongols, is the fact the Hunnish language is no longer spoken in any part of the world, nor did they leave many documents. The West knows of the Huns only as the hoards of horseback riding warriors who nearly conquered the Roman Empire under Attila, though they never actually defeated that said empire. They eventually settled in modern day Hungary, and were later assimilated with the Magyars, four centuries later. As to the Xiongu, they are a little more mysterious, as they settled in modern day Siberia and Mongolia, and did many invasions of China, but were defeated sixty years after Christ was nailed to His to Cross. This would put their invasion long before the time frame of Mulan, practically.
So while the movie calls them Huns to make it easy on American audiences, but I'll use Xiongu for the sake of accuracy. The Xiongu are not really given much in the movie to go around. They are simply the invading enemy of China (that "other" if you will), just as the Germans in Saving Private Ryan are simply the enemy in a war (and incidentally, the Germans had been mistakenly called Huns as well). Their leader is Shan-Yu, a ruthless chieftain hell bent on challenging the Emperor in superiority. He is very powerful, able to break down doors on his own and chop columns down with his sword; he has heightened senses and the film makers had him have the ability to see through his falcon (kind of like the Beast Master in his movies), though that was reduced for the sake of timing. He does differ from most Disney villains, who usually have motives of their own to be villainous, enough that one could use all the Renaissance Disney villains as symbols of the Seven Deadly Sins. Shan-Yu, on the other hand, is not the standard Disney villain. He's just the leader of an invasion force; he's the country's enemy. Thus, he is perhaps the most simplistic villain in Disney history.
He and the Xiongu are done in a way to make the audience always see them as invaders and not the old villains to identify with. First, we see them scale the Great Wall without much effort and without regard that the Chinese have a way of alerting the countryside of the breach (thanks to that one guard who lit a beacon, causing all the beacons of Gondor...er, the Great Wall, to be lit as well). A deleted scene shows the Xiongu destroying a village and leaving nothing alive, yet Shan-Yu executes a man who spared a little bird, in turn is killed by his falcon. The reason for its exclusion is perhaps leave out the lone descanting voice and instead we see the aftermath. That is when Shan-Yu finds Imperial scouts and sends them away with a message, before allowing a bowman to kill one of them. We also don't see what happens to the other village, but hearing how he speaks of returning a doll to a girl is enough to raise alarm bells, and we see the aftermath where the village and the Chinese army are wiped out. When we finally see the Xiongu in battle, they are basically fodder for the cannons, without any thought given on their humanity, as opposed to the Chinese.
On that matter, some elements of the Yellow Peril are used with the Xiongu, something lacking in the Chinese, thankfully. The Xiongu are depicted have demonic faces, speaking in gruff voices, and having eyes like that of cats (Shan-Yu's are almost like that of Darth Sideous from Star Wars, plus the yet to be introduced Darth Maul). Another way the Xiongu are dehumanized is how we don't see any women among them, where the Chinese have women and children, basically following the perceptions of survivors of barbaric raids who only see the men. This can make the kids in the audience think that there are no women or children among the Xiongu (which is an impossibility). That leads to another theme.
Mulan holds a few feminist themes, which seem to explain the absence of Xiongu women by showing Mulan as the woman in battle with male empowered threats, the patriarchy from within and the rapist other from without. A more radical version would make Mulan a rebel against China's patriarchal society, but is caught between bringing it down on her own or having to protect it because the invaders might not be so generous about her. In short, she's between the rock and the hard place.
Much of that is toned down because the target audience is children and most of feminism goes over their heads (unless one is named Lisa Simpson). Besides, Mulan is not enlisted to challenge gender roles or promote equality, she just does it because her father is sick and she has no brother around to take up the sword.
Once in the army, Mulan finds that becoming a man is not what its cracked up to be. She gets to see other men in ways she never thought of seeing them (they are shown picking their noses at one point, and become very rough with one another). As the training goes, she finds it hard and is nearly discharged for it. Of course, she decides to try at the arrow again, getting it that time after much effort. Her determination even inspires the men to perform to their fullest.
I have heard of how people talk of Rey in the new Star Wars movies, how she is something of a Mary-Sue, and it seems some would want a strong woman to be like that. Mulan does better than Rey in getting support because she is the underdog. She is not good at being a girl, yet can't be a boy either, but is willing to pull through despite the odds. When her identity is discovered, she is nearly killed for it, but Li spares her for saving his life. Then, she goes on to save the Emperor from Shan-Yu. In the end, she is a hero. Basically, it's just like the previous movie, Hercules for girls.
Identity is one central theme, explored in the song "Reflection". Mulan, as mentioned, doesn't do well as a girl, and she wonders if her reflection shows that. She tries out as a man and fails at that, too. Yet, her identity as a hero is what matters in the end. This, to me, seems better than it being something of a transgender story line. Outside of politics, identity has become a recurring theme in the Disney Renaissance during the 1990s. In 1991, we had the Belle discovering the her prince within the Beast, who also learns who he really is. In 1993, Aladdin seeks to be more than simply a "street rat". In 1994, Simba gets exile and almost forgets his role, until reminded by an old friend. Hercules even has that crisis, before learning he is a demi-god. Even The Nightmare Before Christmas (which is not in the traditional canon) has that where Jack looks for something other than the usual trick-o-treat. They all have plenty of things to happen along the way. Most famous, Simba goes through his movie thinking he killed his father, Mufasa, until Scar reveals the truth in the film's climax. The Beast's temper gets the best of him early, though he learns how to be gentle. And there's Quasimodo who doesn't get the girl in the end. At many times, it seems as though nothing goes right for the heroes. Do they all get their "who am I" conflicts resolves? The Beast becomes human again, Aladdin wins the heart of the princess and a better life, Simba returns to become king, Quasimodo is accepted into society, and Hercules becomes the greatest hero around. The only Disney hero to not get his or her conflict settled at this point is Pocahontas, even though she prevented a war must be separated from her man. This theme continued the following year with Tarzan where a man raised by apes learns his true heritage.
Mulan is not the only one. Mushu and Cri-Kee the cricket, who basically become the film's answer to C-3PO and R2-D2, have their own. Mushu is demoted from family guardian to simply the gong ringer and he wants the honor of being the guardian beast again. Cri-Kee is believed to be lucky by an old woman, and he seeks that out as well. I always liked this pair, besides being just like our famous droid friends. It is a good story about a girl becoming empowered, but these two are the supporting cast that Disney likes to use in its movies, there to give others someone to relate to. Mushu is even comfortable in his sexuality that pretends to be a mother figure to Mulan in one scene, and acts like an actual mom whose child is going to school for the first time (just replace the sword with a lunch box).
I also find how Mulan's romance with Li Shang demoted to sub-plot, whereas many Disney films targeted to girls tend to put the romance in center stage. The reason such plots were popular with Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, is hard to say, but my opinion on it is most girls love romance and want true love, and their fantasies are always about getting that true love, often embodied by a man (though same-sex stories will replace him with another girl), and what better way to embody that than with a prince? Practically the fantasy of getting the perfect male specimen is why the Disney movies with princesses appealed to them for years. Mulan sort of speaks for girls who never like to wear dresses or do anything they deem silly in order to catch a boyfriend. We like to call them tomboys, of course. So, their fantasies are more about finding someone who will treat them as people, as their equal. In the case of Mulan and Li, Mulan considers him an admirable leader while Shang at first thinks of her as a man who admires him. He respects Mulan as a man, but can't figure out what to do when learning she is a woman, which plenty of feminists have ranted about enough that I won't add more to it. In the end, he decides he likes a strong woman on his side and decides to court her. That gets unresolved, but Mulan II makes a plot on that later on. However, that hasn't stopped many from accusing Li Shang of being either sexist or gay (check out this video, skip to 3:44 mark).
As stated, Mulan is in the later end of the Disney Renaissance. It did modestly in the box office, especially on par with its predecessors, while dwarfed by The Lion King, and passed by Tarzan in 1999. The box office performance suggests that by this time the novelty of it was wearing out as Disney seemed unable to recapture the success it made with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. After Tarzan, the Disney movies began the process of a kind of slump with lesser quality films, until 2008 with the premiere of Bolt and a recent resurgence of Disney fandom. In the same process, Mulan has developed a cult following more so than the two male dominated movies it is sandwiched by. One evidence of that is how it's being aired on television frequently and Disney is even making a live action remake to come out in 2020. According to the wikipedia, article at the present, they are trying hard not to whitewash the story which is why the cast is now a solid cast of Asian actors, largely Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. As I write, they are already shooting this remake.
That is the summary of the movie. A lot of effort was made in making this movie. I hear they actually had animators go into the Forbidden City in an effort to get the details right. And, despite being a rich farmer's daughter, Mulan is listed among the Disney princesses (for reasons that are hard to explain, other than maybe give Asian American girls someone to relate to, just as Jasmine did that for Arab Americans, Pocahontas for Native Americans). Remarkably, very little of the cast is made of Asians, such as having Pat Morita play the Emperor (expecting him to say "wax on, wax off"?) and Jackie Chan even voiced Shang Li in the Chinese dub. A couple of non-Asian actors are on the cast list. For example, Diamond Osmond does the singing for Shang during the "Make a Man Out of You" number and the late Marni Nixon is heard in "Bring Honor To Us All." Don't forget, African American actor Eddie Murphy plays Mushu the Dragon (since not many people are as funny as Murphy, which is why the German dub had Otto Waalkes voice him). In short, it's not really Chinese, it's a multi-ethnistic film.
The movie is fun to watch, even if not everything is accurate. For one, the gender roles deal is presented in a childish manner, though one line in the song "Honor to Us All" does bring that up. When we see the army, the whole thing is treated like summer camp meets military school (the soldiers stop a fight at Li's voice and point at Mulan on the ground while saying together, "He started it."). The horrors of war are toned down considerably, even when we witness a destroyed village, while the deaths of characters seem lopsided. Of course, they don't add in a disclaimer that tells the audience that wars are not as fun as the movie presents it, and after going over Saving Private Ryan, you'll agree. The film also downplays Buddhism and Confucianism, while showing the ancestor worship (and even having the ghosts of the ancestors appear in two scenes), just as Aladdin downplayed Islam while featuring flying carpets and genies, Pocahontas reduce shamanism to magic tricks while having a talking tree, or The Hunchback of Notre Dame featuring people praying in church and talking gargoyles without going deep into Christianity. The reduction of religion, yet showing the spiritual side of it in the story is what keeps these movies from becoming secular. These are the tip of the ice berg.
The film's plot line is based on the exploits of a legendary warrior named Hua Mulan, first mentioned in the Ballad of Mulan, written in the sixth century. The story is the same as the movie, but only in Mulan taking her father's place in the army. The original Mulan lacked the characteristics of the Disney version, largely served in the Chinese army for twelve years without anyone knowing she was a woman until the end. The legend was rewritten some six centuries later as Sui Tang Romance where Mulan meets other girls in the army, and dies at the end through suicide, to avoid being ruled by a foreigner. Rather or not Mulan actually existed is hard to tell and most scholars consider her a legendary as King Arthur is to the British. Apart from these two, the Chinese had a few other works, including plays, on her, with movies being in the recent century.
In neither tale is there mention of the Huns. To clarify a few things, the Huns were an Asiatic people living in a largely nomadic life on the Steppes. Through a hypothesis by Joseph de Guignes, it was believed the Huns and the Xiongu were the same, although beginning with Otto Maechen-Helfen, historians have challenged this idea. Making it harder to tell if they are related, or the same, or even if they were actually Mongols, is the fact the Hunnish language is no longer spoken in any part of the world, nor did they leave many documents. The West knows of the Huns only as the hoards of horseback riding warriors who nearly conquered the Roman Empire under Attila, though they never actually defeated that said empire. They eventually settled in modern day Hungary, and were later assimilated with the Magyars, four centuries later. As to the Xiongu, they are a little more mysterious, as they settled in modern day Siberia and Mongolia, and did many invasions of China, but were defeated sixty years after Christ was nailed to His to Cross. This would put their invasion long before the time frame of Mulan, practically.
So while the movie calls them Huns to make it easy on American audiences, but I'll use Xiongu for the sake of accuracy. The Xiongu are not really given much in the movie to go around. They are simply the invading enemy of China (that "other" if you will), just as the Germans in Saving Private Ryan are simply the enemy in a war (and incidentally, the Germans had been mistakenly called Huns as well). Their leader is Shan-Yu, a ruthless chieftain hell bent on challenging the Emperor in superiority. He is very powerful, able to break down doors on his own and chop columns down with his sword; he has heightened senses and the film makers had him have the ability to see through his falcon (kind of like the Beast Master in his movies), though that was reduced for the sake of timing. He does differ from most Disney villains, who usually have motives of their own to be villainous, enough that one could use all the Renaissance Disney villains as symbols of the Seven Deadly Sins. Shan-Yu, on the other hand, is not the standard Disney villain. He's just the leader of an invasion force; he's the country's enemy. Thus, he is perhaps the most simplistic villain in Disney history.
He and the Xiongu are done in a way to make the audience always see them as invaders and not the old villains to identify with. First, we see them scale the Great Wall without much effort and without regard that the Chinese have a way of alerting the countryside of the breach (thanks to that one guard who lit a beacon, causing all the beacons of Gondor...er, the Great Wall, to be lit as well). A deleted scene shows the Xiongu destroying a village and leaving nothing alive, yet Shan-Yu executes a man who spared a little bird, in turn is killed by his falcon. The reason for its exclusion is perhaps leave out the lone descanting voice and instead we see the aftermath. That is when Shan-Yu finds Imperial scouts and sends them away with a message, before allowing a bowman to kill one of them. We also don't see what happens to the other village, but hearing how he speaks of returning a doll to a girl is enough to raise alarm bells, and we see the aftermath where the village and the Chinese army are wiped out. When we finally see the Xiongu in battle, they are basically fodder for the cannons, without any thought given on their humanity, as opposed to the Chinese.
On that matter, some elements of the Yellow Peril are used with the Xiongu, something lacking in the Chinese, thankfully. The Xiongu are depicted have demonic faces, speaking in gruff voices, and having eyes like that of cats (Shan-Yu's are almost like that of Darth Sideous from Star Wars, plus the yet to be introduced Darth Maul). Another way the Xiongu are dehumanized is how we don't see any women among them, where the Chinese have women and children, basically following the perceptions of survivors of barbaric raids who only see the men. This can make the kids in the audience think that there are no women or children among the Xiongu (which is an impossibility). That leads to another theme.
Mulan holds a few feminist themes, which seem to explain the absence of Xiongu women by showing Mulan as the woman in battle with male empowered threats, the patriarchy from within and the rapist other from without. A more radical version would make Mulan a rebel against China's patriarchal society, but is caught between bringing it down on her own or having to protect it because the invaders might not be so generous about her. In short, she's between the rock and the hard place.
Much of that is toned down because the target audience is children and most of feminism goes over their heads (unless one is named Lisa Simpson). Besides, Mulan is not enlisted to challenge gender roles or promote equality, she just does it because her father is sick and she has no brother around to take up the sword.
Once in the army, Mulan finds that becoming a man is not what its cracked up to be. She gets to see other men in ways she never thought of seeing them (they are shown picking their noses at one point, and become very rough with one another). As the training goes, she finds it hard and is nearly discharged for it. Of course, she decides to try at the arrow again, getting it that time after much effort. Her determination even inspires the men to perform to their fullest.
I have heard of how people talk of Rey in the new Star Wars movies, how she is something of a Mary-Sue, and it seems some would want a strong woman to be like that. Mulan does better than Rey in getting support because she is the underdog. She is not good at being a girl, yet can't be a boy either, but is willing to pull through despite the odds. When her identity is discovered, she is nearly killed for it, but Li spares her for saving his life. Then, she goes on to save the Emperor from Shan-Yu. In the end, she is a hero. Basically, it's just like the previous movie, Hercules for girls.
Identity is one central theme, explored in the song "Reflection". Mulan, as mentioned, doesn't do well as a girl, and she wonders if her reflection shows that. She tries out as a man and fails at that, too. Yet, her identity as a hero is what matters in the end. This, to me, seems better than it being something of a transgender story line. Outside of politics, identity has become a recurring theme in the Disney Renaissance during the 1990s. In 1991, we had the Belle discovering the her prince within the Beast, who also learns who he really is. In 1993, Aladdin seeks to be more than simply a "street rat". In 1994, Simba gets exile and almost forgets his role, until reminded by an old friend. Hercules even has that crisis, before learning he is a demi-god. Even The Nightmare Before Christmas (which is not in the traditional canon) has that where Jack looks for something other than the usual trick-o-treat. They all have plenty of things to happen along the way. Most famous, Simba goes through his movie thinking he killed his father, Mufasa, until Scar reveals the truth in the film's climax. The Beast's temper gets the best of him early, though he learns how to be gentle. And there's Quasimodo who doesn't get the girl in the end. At many times, it seems as though nothing goes right for the heroes. Do they all get their "who am I" conflicts resolves? The Beast becomes human again, Aladdin wins the heart of the princess and a better life, Simba returns to become king, Quasimodo is accepted into society, and Hercules becomes the greatest hero around. The only Disney hero to not get his or her conflict settled at this point is Pocahontas, even though she prevented a war must be separated from her man. This theme continued the following year with Tarzan where a man raised by apes learns his true heritage.
Mulan is not the only one. Mushu and Cri-Kee the cricket, who basically become the film's answer to C-3PO and R2-D2, have their own. Mushu is demoted from family guardian to simply the gong ringer and he wants the honor of being the guardian beast again. Cri-Kee is believed to be lucky by an old woman, and he seeks that out as well. I always liked this pair, besides being just like our famous droid friends. It is a good story about a girl becoming empowered, but these two are the supporting cast that Disney likes to use in its movies, there to give others someone to relate to. Mushu is even comfortable in his sexuality that pretends to be a mother figure to Mulan in one scene, and acts like an actual mom whose child is going to school for the first time (just replace the sword with a lunch box).
I also find how Mulan's romance with Li Shang demoted to sub-plot, whereas many Disney films targeted to girls tend to put the romance in center stage. The reason such plots were popular with Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, is hard to say, but my opinion on it is most girls love romance and want true love, and their fantasies are always about getting that true love, often embodied by a man (though same-sex stories will replace him with another girl), and what better way to embody that than with a prince? Practically the fantasy of getting the perfect male specimen is why the Disney movies with princesses appealed to them for years. Mulan sort of speaks for girls who never like to wear dresses or do anything they deem silly in order to catch a boyfriend. We like to call them tomboys, of course. So, their fantasies are more about finding someone who will treat them as people, as their equal. In the case of Mulan and Li, Mulan considers him an admirable leader while Shang at first thinks of her as a man who admires him. He respects Mulan as a man, but can't figure out what to do when learning she is a woman, which plenty of feminists have ranted about enough that I won't add more to it. In the end, he decides he likes a strong woman on his side and decides to court her. That gets unresolved, but Mulan II makes a plot on that later on. However, that hasn't stopped many from accusing Li Shang of being either sexist or gay (check out this video, skip to 3:44 mark).
As stated, Mulan is in the later end of the Disney Renaissance. It did modestly in the box office, especially on par with its predecessors, while dwarfed by The Lion King, and passed by Tarzan in 1999. The box office performance suggests that by this time the novelty of it was wearing out as Disney seemed unable to recapture the success it made with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. After Tarzan, the Disney movies began the process of a kind of slump with lesser quality films, until 2008 with the premiere of Bolt and a recent resurgence of Disney fandom. In the same process, Mulan has developed a cult following more so than the two male dominated movies it is sandwiched by. One evidence of that is how it's being aired on television frequently and Disney is even making a live action remake to come out in 2020. According to the wikipedia, article at the present, they are trying hard not to whitewash the story which is why the cast is now a solid cast of Asian actors, largely Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. As I write, they are already shooting this remake.
No comments:
Post a Comment