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Thoughts: Disney live-action Mulan remake
I watched a video by Asian Boss with Chinese people reaction to and providing their thoughts on the trailer to the Disney live action Mulan film. Here's the link.
I found the comments section very interesting, and learned something that explained a lot about the discussions and disagreements regarding this movie. Chinese people expect the film to be an adaptation of the original legend, whereas Western viewers expect the film to be an adaptation of the Disney cartoon. Based on the trailer, it seems that the film has fallen short of fulfilling both sets of expectations.
Background
As a person of Chinese ethnicity living in the Anglosphere, I think I can see both perspectives.
I will come clean that in the past, I really loved Mulan. The movie was fine. It was another Disney movie with fun songs and pretty animation about a woman who overcame the odds and showed that women could be heroes just like men. For me, the most important thing was that Mulan was a Chinese woman who was the hero. Mulan was really important to me in a representation standpoint. To this day, I still have several Mulan dolls (based on the Disney version of Mulan) because she meant so much to my childhood.
That being said, I've recently started consuming much more Chinese language entertainment, created by and for Chinese people. In conjunction with my Chinese upbringing, I think I've been better able to connect with Chinese people because, I understand their way of thinking more than the average Westerner.
Mulan remake
I am now going to discuss why I think the trailer falls short of meeting both Western expectations and Chinese expectations.
Western expectations
No Mushu - A big complaint about the new Mulan film was that there was going to be no Mushu. Many people loved Mushu for the comedic relief. I personally don't care much for Mushu because I do consider Mulan a serious story rather than a Disney original.
No musicals - This is another complaint from Westerners. Music has always been a staple of Disney original cartoons. Almost all live action remakes have included the original music that made them so well-loved.
Chinese expectations
Costumes - I am a big fan of Chinese period dramas myself, and I was quite let down by the costumes and makeup. I'm not angry, just disappointed. I acknowledge that this is a war story and thus we're not going to see elaborate palace costumes. The only time this might've been applicable would be when Mulan was seeing the matchmaker. In addition, we saw Mulan wearing a red hanfu in certain battle scenes. These robes were...kind of plain? Many of us who have watched Wuxia stories can remember costumes with more personality. Liu Yifei herself has acted in Wuxia shows donning costumes with more charm.
Hair - Mulan cutting her hair was a big part of the original Disney cartoon. However, this is an EXTREME HISTORICAL ACCURACY. In the olden days, both men and women did NOT cut their hair until the Qing dynasty, when men were forced to shave their heads to be aligned with ethnic Manchurian customs. The idea was that hair was part of the body that was given to you by your father and mother, so cutting your hair and "harming your body" was considered not filial to your parents. Mulan was filial character, considering she took her father's place because she didn't want him to get hurt. So cutting her hair would not be in line with her character. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the hair in the trailer. In the scene with Mulan and her family, all of the family members have hair that is combed down. In many period dramas, we usually see everybody, whether rich or poor, with their hair combed up, so this type of hair felt pretty modern. In the later battle scenes, we saw that Mulan was fighting with her hair down and untied. That bothered me. As we see in a lot of Chinese dramas, untied hair was seen as "uncivilized" or "unkempt." People only had their hair down and untied when they were going to sleep, or if they'd gone mad. Plus, we've seen Liu Yifei with better hairstyles. I know I'm just nitpicking here, but guys. GUYS. Liu Yifei is SO PRETTY if you just STYLE HER THE RIGHT WAY.
Makeup - Mulan's makeup in the matchmaker scene just wasn't something that I felt Chinese viewers would like. Shows like the Longest Day in Chang'an had heavy makeup for its female characters, but that still felt more familiar than the makeup we saw in Liu Yifei in that specific scene. To put it bluntly, it just wasn't very elegant.
Settings - One of the shots that made an impression in the trailer was the one of the traditional Hakka houses, shaped in a cylinder. However, as many have noted, Mulan was a figure from Northern China. This type of disconnect might not be a problem at all for Westerners, but many Chinese people and people familiar with Chinese culture were quick to point that out.
Language - It didn't seem that any people in the video were bothered. I think to Chinese people, this is still an American production, and thus it made sense that they were speaking in English. To be honest, it does bother me. I don't like that Hollywood needs to remake every foreign film in English. I'm sure part of it is for the money, so they can cash in on a successful story. But I think it has also limited English-speaking filmgoers and stopped them from exploring cinema of other languages. Mulan doesn't seem to have that many characters, so I think it can probably pass, but it hurts my brain when I try to think about how a palace political thriller or a wuxia story could have been performed completely in English. It would remove a lot of the nuances that we usually see in these types of stories.
Historical accuracy - Again, many Chinese people associate Mulan with the legendary poem, rather than any of the adaptations. While the 2009 Mulan film with Vicki Zhao probably isn't super historically accurate either (don't think Chen Kun's character was real), it stayed on the side of realism. In the 2020 film, Gong Li will play a sorceress...yeah. That being said, I know that many Chinese audiences will understand that the 2020 film isn't meant to be a historical retelling and will take it in stride as just another adventure movie.
Other
Personally, I think I'm struggling with the movie because I want it to be a serious movie, and one that is faithful to the Chinese interpretation of the legend as much as possible. This is because rarely are Asians featured in a big budget film in the Anglosphere like this. When I'd first heard that the live action remake had been announced, I'd wanted it to be a good movie. (That was before I'd become disenchanted with Disney's capitalist undertakings)
But there are too many aspects of the film that I think don't show off what's great about Chinese culture. The costumes is a big one. Those have always been one of my favourite draws, and what's in the trailer just don't look inspiring. There are plain-looking Chinese clothes that still have personality! (My recent favourite example are the guards' clothes from the Rise of Phoenixes. They're just guards, but their costumes are still so cool)
What worries me is that non-Chinese people will see this movie and write off all Chinese films because they didn't like this one film. But there are so many good historical Chinese stories! I guess this mindset comes from a sense of insecurity and inferiority. I want my culture to be validated by the masses.
I'm also a little skeptical about the action direction. We see a scene of Mulan flipping through the sky. This move is...a little suspect? I'm always worried about flips and high jumps in action because the fighter is letting gravity dictate where they fall, and the enemies on the grand can be prepared with their weapons right where you're going to land. Yes, we have Donnie Yen as the captain so we're probably going to get one good fight scene where Donnie Yen does Donnie Yen things and fights fifty people at one time. And I trust that Liu Yifei can fight too. Many women in Chinese film industries who act in Wuxia and action films come from dance backgrounds, and Liu Yifei herself has acted in both the Return of the Condor Heroes and Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. But quality always comes from the top down. I don't know who the action director is but we'll see.
Overall
I don't think I'll be eager to watch this movie when it comes out. I'm not even sure it'll be on my to-watch list. there are just a lot of things that bother me about it right now, and I think I need to wait until I'm in the right mindset before I can watch it. As I mentioned above, I'm wary of this movie because I don't want people to write off an entire culture because they didn't like this one film.
Despite my grumblings, there is obviously a chance that this might actually be a good film, and I'm just being an asshole.
We'll just have to wait and see ^^;;
I found the comments section very interesting, and learned something that explained a lot about the discussions and disagreements regarding this movie. Chinese people expect the film to be an adaptation of the original legend, whereas Western viewers expect the film to be an adaptation of the Disney cartoon. Based on the trailer, it seems that the film has fallen short of fulfilling both sets of expectations.
Background
As a person of Chinese ethnicity living in the Anglosphere, I think I can see both perspectives.
I will come clean that in the past, I really loved Mulan. The movie was fine. It was another Disney movie with fun songs and pretty animation about a woman who overcame the odds and showed that women could be heroes just like men. For me, the most important thing was that Mulan was a Chinese woman who was the hero. Mulan was really important to me in a representation standpoint. To this day, I still have several Mulan dolls (based on the Disney version of Mulan) because she meant so much to my childhood.
That being said, I've recently started consuming much more Chinese language entertainment, created by and for Chinese people. In conjunction with my Chinese upbringing, I think I've been better able to connect with Chinese people because, I understand their way of thinking more than the average Westerner.
Mulan remake
I am now going to discuss why I think the trailer falls short of meeting both Western expectations and Chinese expectations.
Western expectations
No Mushu - A big complaint about the new Mulan film was that there was going to be no Mushu. Many people loved Mushu for the comedic relief. I personally don't care much for Mushu because I do consider Mulan a serious story rather than a Disney original.
No musicals - This is another complaint from Westerners. Music has always been a staple of Disney original cartoons. Almost all live action remakes have included the original music that made them so well-loved.
Chinese expectations
Costumes - I am a big fan of Chinese period dramas myself, and I was quite let down by the costumes and makeup. I'm not angry, just disappointed. I acknowledge that this is a war story and thus we're not going to see elaborate palace costumes. The only time this might've been applicable would be when Mulan was seeing the matchmaker. In addition, we saw Mulan wearing a red hanfu in certain battle scenes. These robes were...kind of plain? Many of us who have watched Wuxia stories can remember costumes with more personality. Liu Yifei herself has acted in Wuxia shows donning costumes with more charm.
Hair - Mulan cutting her hair was a big part of the original Disney cartoon. However, this is an EXTREME HISTORICAL ACCURACY. In the olden days, both men and women did NOT cut their hair until the Qing dynasty, when men were forced to shave their heads to be aligned with ethnic Manchurian customs. The idea was that hair was part of the body that was given to you by your father and mother, so cutting your hair and "harming your body" was considered not filial to your parents. Mulan was filial character, considering she took her father's place because she didn't want him to get hurt. So cutting her hair would not be in line with her character. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the hair in the trailer. In the scene with Mulan and her family, all of the family members have hair that is combed down. In many period dramas, we usually see everybody, whether rich or poor, with their hair combed up, so this type of hair felt pretty modern. In the later battle scenes, we saw that Mulan was fighting with her hair down and untied. That bothered me. As we see in a lot of Chinese dramas, untied hair was seen as "uncivilized" or "unkempt." People only had their hair down and untied when they were going to sleep, or if they'd gone mad. Plus, we've seen Liu Yifei with better hairstyles. I know I'm just nitpicking here, but guys. GUYS. Liu Yifei is SO PRETTY if you just STYLE HER THE RIGHT WAY.
Makeup - Mulan's makeup in the matchmaker scene just wasn't something that I felt Chinese viewers would like. Shows like the Longest Day in Chang'an had heavy makeup for its female characters, but that still felt more familiar than the makeup we saw in Liu Yifei in that specific scene. To put it bluntly, it just wasn't very elegant.
Settings - One of the shots that made an impression in the trailer was the one of the traditional Hakka houses, shaped in a cylinder. However, as many have noted, Mulan was a figure from Northern China. This type of disconnect might not be a problem at all for Westerners, but many Chinese people and people familiar with Chinese culture were quick to point that out.
Language - It didn't seem that any people in the video were bothered. I think to Chinese people, this is still an American production, and thus it made sense that they were speaking in English. To be honest, it does bother me. I don't like that Hollywood needs to remake every foreign film in English. I'm sure part of it is for the money, so they can cash in on a successful story. But I think it has also limited English-speaking filmgoers and stopped them from exploring cinema of other languages. Mulan doesn't seem to have that many characters, so I think it can probably pass, but it hurts my brain when I try to think about how a palace political thriller or a wuxia story could have been performed completely in English. It would remove a lot of the nuances that we usually see in these types of stories.
Historical accuracy - Again, many Chinese people associate Mulan with the legendary poem, rather than any of the adaptations. While the 2009 Mulan film with Vicki Zhao probably isn't super historically accurate either (don't think Chen Kun's character was real), it stayed on the side of realism. In the 2020 film, Gong Li will play a sorceress...yeah. That being said, I know that many Chinese audiences will understand that the 2020 film isn't meant to be a historical retelling and will take it in stride as just another adventure movie.
Other
Personally, I think I'm struggling with the movie because I want it to be a serious movie, and one that is faithful to the Chinese interpretation of the legend as much as possible. This is because rarely are Asians featured in a big budget film in the Anglosphere like this. When I'd first heard that the live action remake had been announced, I'd wanted it to be a good movie. (That was before I'd become disenchanted with Disney's capitalist undertakings)
But there are too many aspects of the film that I think don't show off what's great about Chinese culture. The costumes is a big one. Those have always been one of my favourite draws, and what's in the trailer just don't look inspiring. There are plain-looking Chinese clothes that still have personality! (My recent favourite example are the guards' clothes from the Rise of Phoenixes. They're just guards, but their costumes are still so cool)
What worries me is that non-Chinese people will see this movie and write off all Chinese films because they didn't like this one film. But there are so many good historical Chinese stories! I guess this mindset comes from a sense of insecurity and inferiority. I want my culture to be validated by the masses.
I'm also a little skeptical about the action direction. We see a scene of Mulan flipping through the sky. This move is...a little suspect? I'm always worried about flips and high jumps in action because the fighter is letting gravity dictate where they fall, and the enemies on the grand can be prepared with their weapons right where you're going to land. Yes, we have Donnie Yen as the captain so we're probably going to get one good fight scene where Donnie Yen does Donnie Yen things and fights fifty people at one time. And I trust that Liu Yifei can fight too. Many women in Chinese film industries who act in Wuxia and action films come from dance backgrounds, and Liu Yifei herself has acted in both the Return of the Condor Heroes and Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. But quality always comes from the top down. I don't know who the action director is but we'll see.
Overall
I don't think I'll be eager to watch this movie when it comes out. I'm not even sure it'll be on my to-watch list. there are just a lot of things that bother me about it right now, and I think I need to wait until I'm in the right mindset before I can watch it. As I mentioned above, I'm wary of this movie because I don't want people to write off an entire culture because they didn't like this one film.
Despite my grumblings, there is obviously a chance that this might actually be a good film, and I'm just being an asshole.
We'll just have to wait and see ^^;;