This Episode is sponsored by Skillshare "But when two hares running side by side"
"How can you tell the female from male" It's nearly impossible for me to express Just how important the character of Mulan is to me And to every single Chinese person The Ballad of Mulan is taught in elementary school It's one of my favorite poem from China And at one point in time I could recite the entire poem by heart There are opera plays There are TV shows Countless books for children and adults I can't think of any other traditional characters Who is this ubiquitous within a culture It was the 90s Mainland China started importing Disney animated films Not long after I watched the Lion King I heard stories of Disney making a Mulan film Chinese animation was pretty much in the gutter back then I was excited to see Mulan as a cartoon character Spring of 1999 Our elementary school trip brought us to the local cinema To see Mulan I figured it's probably just a 1960s adaptation or something To my surprise A Disney logo appears on the big screen Every kid in the theatre gasped We were ecstatic And it was every bit as beautiful as I have hoped It's not a perfect film It has some questionable racial depictions Although I guess the Huns aren't around anymore? And I heard people say it's a watered-down version of the story Then again, Chinese people love to say that to everything None of the matters Because for the first time, I feel represented in a cartoon My culture, my favorite story, on the big screen And I'm just a dude I can't imagine how powerful it must have felt to a young girl Mulan is unlike any other Disney female lead at the time Arguably, ever She's not born royalty nor nobility And does not marry into one either She's a warrior With a kill count of thousands For a traditionally highly patriarchal country Mulan is an important icon Who not only gives girls in China an important representation But a sense of empowerment When Mulan defeats Shan Yu atop the palace The entire theatre of children cheered Clearly, the film did something special Fast forward 20 years later A new, live-action Disney Mulan came out And it came at the perfect time Feminism is, once again, a hot topic in China News of domestic violence And gender discrimination came into focus more and more Preference for sons over daughters is still a big issue Those were empowered by Mulan during their youth Are currently fighting for their equality It is the perfect time for a new generation of Mulan To inspire people And you Fxxked it up! To understand how the live-action Mulan fails We need to see where the 1998 Mulan succeeds The story of Mulan is set in a nonspecific era in ancient China A time when the greatest honor a woman can bring Is to get married and bear children Which Mulan is terrible at "Put it out! Put it out! Put it out!!" During this time, the Huns begin to attack China To counter the offensive, China conscripts one son from each family "The Fa family" "No!" Having no sons in the house Mulan's father is the only one who can go Too wrapped up in the social order Mulan's father refuses to consider otherwise "I know my place!" "It is time you learn yours" And with his age, he will surely die on the battlefield To save him, Mulan decides to dress up as a man And join the army Mulan's journey empowers women in two ways First, by showing her capability in holding her own against men Mulan starts off as a total amateur But so does everyone else We see this ragtag group of soldiers train And in any and all relevant aspect Mulan can keep up with men As the other soldiers grow So does she Here, the film made a statement that Women, in any practical situation Can be just as capable as any other man Mulan learns to be masculine "And this... represents Strength" She is capable of harnessing strength and power Traits that, traditionally, are valued by men But what's more interesting, is the second way the film empowers women By empowering femininity Now, this sounds strange because at first
glance Mulan isn't very feminine she is a tomboy and a failed bride "You may look like a bride" "But you will never bring your family honor" But she's also not good at masculinity Being extremely awkward at pretending to be a man That's because those are the extreme versions of gender expression Femininity means submission Masculinity means aggression In a sense, Mulan's journey is to embrace her own gender expression She succeeds in doing traditionally masculine tasks By refusing to engage in hypermasculinity Rejecting the values of brute strength Instead, she's able to overcome her challenge by using clever solutions On multiple occasions And her friends learn from her, too They start off as hyper angry hyper-masculine men But by the end, are willing to be in drag To save the emperor We see both sides learn to embrace each other Girls can be manly And that men being girly, is not necessarily a bad thing There is strength on both sides And there is strength in not limiting one with either extreme Finally, it's important to realize the climax is her trying to save the emperor And not China It has probably an unintentional moral That Mulan's power, and by extension, a woman's power Is best used to uphold the patriarchy The storytellers at Disney probably took notice, too And to avoid that connotation The film cleverly suggests that Mulan doesn't save the emperor out of loyalty She merely sees the emperor as a fellow human in need of help But more importantly After the dust settles The emperor offers Mulan a position in his counsel "You can have his job" Mulan declines Rejecting the value in upholding the patriarchy She returns home, to the only patriarch she recognizes Her father She presents him the sword and a medal Bringing symbolic honors to her family What does the father do He tosses everything aside and embraces his daughter "The greatest gift and hornor" "Is having you for a daughter" Breaking the final patriarchal relationship Their love is a human one Instead of a dragon Mulan 2020 has a no name phoenix that does nothing And the CGI looks like utter crap Maybe it wouldn't be a problem If the animators joined Skillshare Skillshare is an online learning community With thousands of inspiring classes for amateurs and professionals alike Classes include character animations Compositing Greenscreen Which this movie also needs some help with All of them are available and easily accessible Get started with this class by Remington Markham To bring your illustartions to life with Blender 3D The same 3D animation tool used by Hollywood professionals Classes are concise, ad free and affordable Less than ten dollars a month with an annual subscription For a limited time You can use the link in my description To get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership Explore your creativity Hone your skill Give Skillshare a try today! Anyway, Mulan 2020 follows largely the same basic plot Mulan fails to be a bride China summons its troops Father too old to fight Mulan leaves in her father's place But with a few critical differences Difference number one Mulan is now a naturally gifted fighter That is such an awful decision Instead of seeing Mulan growing alongside her friends Letting us know that women are as capable as men Now, only the select few who are blessed by the gods Have the privilege of catching up with men Those who aren't so gifted? Like Mulan's unnecessary sister character? Well, she gets married at the end of the film "I'm matched" Imagine you are a young girl With confidence issues You watched Mulan 2020 Then you go back to school And see other girls who are prettier than you Who are better at sports than you Instead of saying you are just as capable with enough perseverance No, they are Mulan And you are just the sister now Sorry, not everyone is special Difference number two In the animation, Mulan is a problem solver Mulan finds her way to the top using her wit Instead brute strength And, I have to emphasize this She's the ONLY ONE to make it Mulan is able to solve this problem Because she can think outside the box Without indulging in hypermasculinity Where strength and brute force are valued In context, the hypermasculine ideal of strength Is and will always be only achievable by the few Not everyone will make it Mulan's success is a statement That there is value outside of the hypermasculine way of thinking The live-action version of this scene Has Mulan climbing the mountain with two buckets of water How does she solve this problem? Mulan simply does the manly thing better than men Through sheer strength and will power To hammer this home further Mulan kills the villain by using his weapon A weapon traditionally associated with men On the surface, it appears progressive That man and woman are not so different But when carefully examined It is indulging in the traditional masculine value of strength And that a woman is good Only if she can man up Mulan's experience and perspective as a woman is not valued If anything, her gender is a hindrance So instead of her teaching her friends to break free from hypermasculinity She... just doesn't The only lesson she learns in the film Is to not hide her true identity And her naturally gifted power "Then, you'll die pretending to be something
you are not" Bitch! she has to hide her gender to save her family The two themes don't go well together! But what angers me the most Is the third critical difference The reason Mulan wants to save the Emperor "I know my place" "And it is my duty" "To fight for the kingdom" "And protect the emperor" "I know my place" "It is time you learn yours" Look at her submissiveness standing next to the emperor Her fight is literally to uphold the conservative hierarchy Because in her story She's treated fine as a woman Or at least so she thinks "You'd believe Hua Jun" "Why do you not believe Hua Mulan" This conservative value of "loyalty" and "honor" Is something that the people of China have abandoned and detest Ever since the collapse of the feudal system We have a word for that! "What is this fourth virtue I see?" "Read it aloud, Mulan" "Devotion to family" It's called yΕ« fΗ! Mulan doesn't challenge the status quo "You can still take the noble path" She IS the status quo Perpetuating the notion that Just because one supernaturally gifted woman is respected Then all women are respected Gender equality achieved Like the animated film Mulan returns home to meet her father And that emotional moment Where the father abandons his symbol of honor, is gone Instead, their reunion is short and bland That's because their reunion is not the final ending Next, the emperor sends a gift to Mulan A sword, symbolic of her bringing honor to her family This reward is played up much bigger Than her lesson about being who she is Or loving who she loves And once again, she's invited to work for the emperor "To join our greatest decorated warriors" "As an officer and the emperor's guard" Does she accept the job? The film ends before she gives an answer But with her smile The answer is probably yes What a load of bullsh*t Now, the perceptive among you are probably already reading deep into this And think there are all kinds of Chinese propaganda in this film Which, I don't really want to get into Because I don't think that's the case That would be giving this movie too much credit Mulan 2020 isnβt malicious, itβs just stupid And it doesn't give a flying fxxk It only wants to appear diverse and inclusive It has four writers Not one of them is Asian Let alone Chinese Its dialogue sounds like a white person's oriental fetish "I told you you cannot eat, it'll ruin your make up!" "The fiercest winter storm cannot destroy this make up" It only wants to appear emotional Mulan fails to be a bride? No singing reflection No contemplating her failure No father-daughter bonding moment The moment she steps out of the classroom The minister is already there summoning the men to war When Mulan leaves This is how Mulan's father reacts in the animation This is how Mulan's father reacts in live-action It only wants to appear empowering Through the laziest ways Mulan is just naturally better than anyone Only some girls are special The not-so-special girls should be happy Being fitted into traditional gender roles Get married and bear a child "I'm matched!" And finally, it only wants to appear Chinese It makes no attempt at understand or deconstruct Chinese culture It mixes up the Chinese Phoenix myth with the Egyptian myth "Some say the Phoenix is consumed by flame" It sings praises to a western understanding of Chinese conservative value Failing to realize many of these values Have since been abandoned by Chinese people It just wants to LOOK Chinese enough to fool the audience And the sad thing is It's probably going to work As I said, China needs Mulan right now Instead, all we got is a big-budget virtue signaling Nothing signals that more than this moment "Black wind and I rode along side two rabbits running side by side" "I think one was a male, one was a female" Mulan's dialogue here is a reference to the Ballad of Mulan It takes one of the most iconic and powerful lines from the poem And turns it into a throwaway fan service moment In the Ballad Mulan went to war for an astonishing ten years And was promoted by twelve ranks No one ever found out she was a woman She was that much of a badass In the poem, she also rejects a governing position And chooses to return home It was only when her fellow soldiers come to visit And see her, in a dress, wearing make-up Do they realize the truth Confounded, they ask her why they never realized she's a girl To which, Mulan replies "The male hareβs feet go hop and skip" "The female hareβs eyes are muddled and fuddled" "But when two hares running side by side" "How can you tell the female from male" Mulan's answer was poignant Men and women may look different But when living amongst each other When fighting beside each other What difference do the differences make?
great video - I wasn't interested in the remake, but I appreciated the perspective and education!
The fact that they used an Egyptian myth in a Chinese story shows exactly how much fucks the producers gave
He touches on a lot of the issues surrounding βbadassβ women in movies. Something that I havenβt really been able to touch on in why I dislike some movies and their female representation.
Fantastic video! I adored the animated one as a kid, it makes me so sad to see what they've done with the live-action version. Why Disney whhhhyyyy?!
Wow! That was a terrific essay. Good points, perfect pacing, really nice editing. Suscribed.
Thank you for this! Absolutely loved this video.
Great video! I learned a lot, thank you so much.
It's nice to hear an actual Chinese person's opinions on the film and giving that perspective. Very interesting!
Great Video, thanks for sharing!