Mulan Frizzles...... But Why?
Four days ago, Mulan, Disney's latest live-action remake, finally arrived in Chinese movie theaters, people's reaction was......well, really bad.
On Douban.com, the most commonly used movie rating website in China, Mulan got 4.9 and collected only $23 million in its opening weekend ( consider China is the second-largest movie market in the world). Moviegoers are so mad, one of the most popular comments online says, "Please don's share the pirated version of Mulan, you'll be wasting everyone's time".
Just to fill in the basic background information. Mulan is not a real person. She's an imaginary figure from The Ballad of Mulan, an ancient folk song originated from Northern and Southern dynasties in China (nearly 1600 years ago). Basically, as the only child at the proper age in her family, Hua Mulan decided to disguise as a man and took her father's place in the army. Because her father was too old to fight. Mulan trained and fought hard during the war, got awarded with fortune and fame by the king, but she turned down the promising path and went back home to stay with her family.
Mulan's makeup is also very far away from Chinese aesthetics. Simply no one does makeup like that in Chinese history. After reading many comments on Douban.com, I think what people are trying to express is that if Disney is trying to tell the story of Mulan, people are expecting something authentic. The movie we see now seems like a mixture of blurry understanding of Chinese culture. Plus, if Mulan is going to play in China, history checks should be the very basics to fulfill.
The result appeared unexpected because Mulan was exciting for many Chinese people. First of all, the story of Hua Mulan is one of the most told tales in China. It is for sure a staple representation of traditional Chinese culture. Plus, in 1998, Disney made the original cartoon version of Mulan and had a huge fan base in China. The six-year-old me sure spent a lot of after school hours sitting in front of the TV and rewatching the movie. The original Mulan movie was Disney's successful exploration of Chinese culture. The industry giant combined eastern and western elements in the film, and made it super fun to watch, and yet quite educational for children!
A fun fact, the majority of Chinese students can recite The ballad of Mulan or even write the whole verse by memory because it was mandatory to do so to pass tests.
Chinese moviegoers are mainly disappointed at Mulan because the movie failed at doing proper history research, many obvious mistakes are simply unacceptable to Chinese people. For example, in the beginning, there's a scene showing Mulan's living environment, a low-rise building located in Fujian Provence, which has nothing to do with the time when Mulan's story took place, either the location or the building.
Here's The Ballad of Mulan in Chinese
Just when I thought Chinese moviegoers are the only ones who dislike the movie, Youtube told me otherwise. A few days ago, a video named Mulan is the Worst Disney Live-Action Remake So Far made the top 10 viewed video on YouTube. That's when I started to realize, oh okay, American people didn't like this Disney movie either. After all, The Ballad of Mulan belongs to only Chinese people, but the cartoon Mulan is beloved by every Disney fan. The remake delets many vital features from the original Mulan, such as Muxu, the hilarious dragon, and Li Xiang, the inspiring leader from Mulan's team, who is also her crush.
As the original Mulan fan, I have to agree with what Schaffrillas Productions says in the video: "all it does is subtract, it strips the original story of every single element that made it special."
One thing I remember vividly from the original version of Mulan is the scene she left home in the middle of the night with heavy rainfall. She was so determined when looking at her reflection from the ancestors' tombstone and cut off her hair with the sword. The dramatic scene was made perfectly for the audience to feel her struggling feeling, Mulan is scared, but this is something she has to do. This is an important scene because Mulan started her journey from here, and her emotion reflects her growth as a woman. The remake version changes all the above; Mulan just grabs the sword, puts on the armor, and gone. That's it. That's it???
Lastly, I think I'll write about the most essential concept throughout the whole movie, "chi." It is......, eh... I honestly don't know after watching the movie. All I know is that it's what makes Mulan special. I guess that's enough?
Ugh!! This is so frustrating to read. I never saw it because I did not have high hopes for it, but it's so frustrating to know that there was so little research that went into it. Initially, when Disney announced that it would consist of an all Asian cast, it looked promising (even though that's really a bare minimum). But of course, it turned out nothing to be an Americanized version of the story, with makeup and setting that is not historically accurate and is only an American conception of how the story should look. One of the most alarming things about Mulan is that parts of the film was shot in the Xinjiang region where there are multiple internment camps that are holding Muslims. Basically, Disney is indirectly supporting the cultural genocide that is taking place in this region by thanking the Xinjiang government officials and filming in a place where literal genocide is taking place.
ReplyDeleteThis post was so engaging! I really enjoyed learning about the history of Mulan as a character, and I could really sympathize with your frustration. Disney is a company with a vast amount of wealth and resources, they certainly could have done more to make the live-action remake authentic and culturally accurate. It seems like they just phoned it in and churned out the remake in order to make money, so I'm honestly glad to hear that it did not generate a lot of revenue. I hope that in the future, Disney (or other production companies, for that matter) are held to higher standards and produce films that are more meaningful and culturally sound.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the live-action version of Mulan is a movie with both surprises and regrets, and regrets are more than surprises. In its adaptation of the anime, it has removed the music and comedy, and the new characters are also a little confusing. In fact, with the rise of the MeToo movement, we're seeing more and more female characters being used in Hollywood blockbusters. This live-action version of Mulan also shows the sincerity of The Disney market towards the Chinese market. But now we talk about this film, or from the perspective of the film, the market of the film is not only from the film itself, the shooting of the film, the theme of the film design and so on will become the objects of discussion... This time, however, Mulan did neither the film itself nor the post-film marketing well.
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