The Mulan 2020 Remake Is Basically Jamie Oliver’s Egg Fried Rice With Chilli Jam And No 'Wok Hei' - "The 1998 Mulan movie was groundbreaking in its feminist message and all-Asian characters. The art style also set it apart from other Disney classics by referencing Chinese ink painting. Pale green backgrounds and snow-capped cliffs were used to create a poetic setting for Mulan’s quest. In Chinese painting, waterfalls and cliffs overshadow human figures to depict that self is found in the larger context of nature or society as opposed to individualism. This underlying philosophy cradles Mulan’s risk in impersonating a man for a bigger ideal—to help her father protect China. According to its IMDb page, the animated film was largely written and directed by Westerners. Yet, it showcased enough understanding of Eastern philosophy and aesthetics to enchant viewers from the East and West alike. The 2020 remake, however, falls apart on all levels."
Given that the 1998 version is well received despite being largely made by white people suggests that the insistence on yellow people doing everything is cynical identity politics
Meme - "Remove beloved and iconic songs to make more "serious" adaptation of original Chinese ballad"
"Produce movie with 4 white screenwriters, a white director, and a white costume designer"
"Turn Mulan from ordinary girl who proves herself with her wits and hardwork to a witch with mystical oriental powers"
"The movie gets roasted to hell and back by both Eastern and Western audiences"
Plus this uses the clown in makeup meme but with Mulan makeup stills
Facebook - "This Mulan remake has unbelievably terrible writing. Who the fuck is gonna believe an Asian father would hug his child, let alone apologize to them?"
Why China Hates Disney's 'Mulan' Has Nothing to Do With Politics - "Even though Disney bent over backwards to create a live-action “Mulan” that would appeal to China, disgruntled Chinese viewers have dubbed it “the worst ‘Mulan’ in history,” saying that it feels “wooden” and offensively inauthentic... Numerous viewers across all platforms slammed the new “Mulan” as being worse than another blockbuster that tried and failed to work both sides of the Pacific. “Even ‘The Great Wall’ is better than this,” one wrote. “After watching ‘Mulan,’ I want to apologize to [‘Great Wall’ director] Zhang Yimou and [its star] Jing Tian.”The most fundamental flaw, most felt, was that Disney’s new heroine starts out from childhood already equipped with superhero-like abilities, thanks to her extraordinary reserves of “qi,” the force that she cultivates and controls to excel as a fighter.Turning her into a superhero removes Mulan’s everywoman appeal, and leaves her with no room to grow as a character, huge swathes of Chinese viewers said.“It feels that this Mulan was born with eight-pack abs,” one wrote. “She has no shortcomings — and even small shortcomings can be overcome immediately. She’s lost the complexity of the animated version of the character, who is both a cute little girl and a powerful heroine. She has no process of gradual growth.”.. Surprisingly perhaps, many viewers have a nostalgia-tinged fondness in China for Disney’s 1998 animation. A good number bemoaned the loss of the animated film’s songs, humor and the dragon character Mushu... Disney’s new “Mulan” was initially celebrated in the West for being a landmark for Asian-American representation, thanks to its all-Asian cast. Yet many of the elements seemingly included to boost its authenticity have fallen flat with their target mainland audience.One viewer wrote that the script’s constant repetition of the terms “loyal, brave, and true” felt like “a Google Translate take on Chinese.”“The whole film is just shouting empty slogans. Where are these qualities even reflected in the film?” he asked, questioning the logic, for instance, of why Mulan simply throws away all of her protective armor in the middle of a battle. The choice is obviously nonsensical, but it is also highly unfilial, since the garb is a treasured heirloom from her father... In the wake of other films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” that were hailed as milestones for Asians in the U.S., but which failed to resonate in China, “Mulan” is most revealing entry yet in Hollywood’s rolodex of unsteady attempts to bridge the cultural gap between the mainland and the West."
Presumably the Chinese are sexist for not liking "strong female characters"
Disney’s Mulan hit with bad reviews in China as pirated copies circulate online ahead of theatrical release - "“It’s like that feeling when you go to a Western Chinese restaurant and have a pretty weird Chinese meal,” one user said of the new Mulan on Q&A site Zhihu... “It’s a Western film with a Chinese backdrop,” one Zhihu user said. Others added that Mulan’s chi is essentially treated the same as the Force in Star Wars... Other Chinese viewers also complained about some of the characters’ make-up, saying it reflects Western stereotypes of China rather than being a reflection of actual Chinese culture... “I don’t regret my $35 spent,” wrote one Douban user, possibly referencing the price in Canada or Australia. The reviewer gave the film four stars out of five. “It depicts a lot of beautiful Chinese scenery and has bright colours.”... Some reviewers characterise Liu’s Mulan as wooden. The criticism is also shared in China, where many film-goers like Liu for her elegance and beauty rather than her acting."
Facebook - "when a cast that includes Harvey Fierstien, Lea Salonga, Eddie Murphy, and Donny Osmond, accompanied by the songs of Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, tells the story of Chinese people more effectively than one with an all Asian cast, then some very bad choices were made.Mulan (2020) fails as both a cultural and fictional film.As a storytelling medium, it fails because of many reasons.From a technical perspective, the pacing is all over the place; with long, dragging shots of people crossing the room, but quick cuts of shots necessary for establishing the story such as Mulan’s left-behind comb. It’s clear that this film prioritized which shots were pretty as opposed to which shots were important or moved the story forward.The writing of this film is some of the laziest I’ve seen in these Disney revivals. Everything is needlessly spoonfed to the viewer, almost condescendingly... There is no Phoenix in Chinese mythology. There IS an immortal bird called Fenghuang, but it’s not a firebird that dies in a fire and resurrects from the ashes, but rather a bird that signals a new emperor or a new era. Not a phoenix that rises from the ashes. The phoenix as a bird that resurrects is a Western concept, so the Emperor telling Mulan to get up mid-battle and “rise like a phoenix from the ashes” makes zero sense, then have Mulan sprout eagle wings while charging at Bori Khan in what the director probably deemed to be a good cinematic idea... From the first scene of this version, Mulan is shown to be a martial arts prodigy, so her joining the army in her father’s stead is not only an expected and predictable move, but rather disappointing because there is no growth for her from that point on.Mulan as a character here has little to no stakes in the matter... In this telling of the Ballad of Mulan, the titular character is really just a lens to take us through the landscape of Ancient China as imagined by Niki Caro. From the beginning of the film, they have made it clear that they want the main themes to be “Loyal, Brave, and True” (which are engraved on Mulan’s father’s sword). Whether these concepts are effectively executed throughout the film is a different story.What does it mean to be “true”? In this film, it means to admit to being a woman, because only then can you unlock and control your chi. In this telling of Mulan, she willingly admits to being a woman beacuse it makes her a better fighter. Yes. Let that idiocy sink in for a minute. We good? Good, because the movie is not.The confrontation of Mulan and the witch Xian Lang is meant to bring out the theme of “true” because everytime Xian Lang and Mulan meet, there is an exchange about how they are both alike. Alike in what sense? Could it be the power they each have? Their uncontrollable chi? No. They are alike because they are women. Groundbreaking. Xian Lang tells Mulan she will fail because she is not true to herself, so she removes her armor and charges into battle without any gear. The logic went out the window here, but it made for a nice poster for the movie... For a film that droned on to spoonfeed its audience, it failed to effectively talk about the four virtues it harped on about, we were not taken through Mulan’s character’s journey, it is still unclear what womanhood and manhood have to do with anything, and we’re even farther from the ballad than the 1998 animated film.“Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow” (Mulan, 1998)"
Feminist script-writing = no character development
Faceboo - "I've already explained to a few people in my life why I, someone whose livelihood depends on Asian representation in the arts, am actively boycotting Mulan...
Firstly, and perhaps the most important one—Mulan was filmed partly in Xinjiang, the same place that currently holds the "largest network of concentration camps seen since the Holocaust". In the credits, Disney thanks the people responsible for the modern-day ethnic cleansing happening in China... The production team? It's completely white. Yes, in our 2020. Even the animated version from 1998, literally my birth year, did better than this and had a Chinese screenwriter onboard (thank you Rita Hsiao!)...
I don't know how a creative team can so exhaustively re-envision a Chinese tale into something so incredibly.. /white/. "Chi" suddenly becomes gendered (as opposed to something EVERYONE HAS). Mulan's hair is worn down and in a Eurocentric style to denote femininity, even though the same hairstyle in Chinese culture would denote madness or grieving. The FBI motto is engraved onto Mulan's sword"
Apparently having an Asian cast isn't enough - the high level crew need to be Asian too
