Mulan (2020) - Review by Holly Anderson

Brief History of the Film:

Disney’s Mulan (2020) is a live-action retelling of the beloved animated movie of the same title from 1998. For many, the original animated movie was a symbol of feminism. A strong female lead who presents the idea that women can be just as active in warfare than men and even be stronger too! Mulan focuses on Hua Mulan a beautiful young woman who goes through rigorous trials to find a marriage partner as wished by her parents. Despite her future being chosen for her, everything changes when the Emperor calls for one male from each family to join the army to go against northern invaders the Khan’s. Mulan changes her destiny from bride to warrior as she snuck away disguising herself as a male and took up the role of being a soldier in her father’s place. Excitement grew across nations when Disney released that they were making a live-action remake of the classic animated film starring Liu Yifei (Hua Mulan), Gong Li (Xian Lang) and Jason Scott Lee (Bori Khan). Disney had been searching for an actress to play Mulan for quite some time, with a global casting call it was expected that director Niki Caro would sit through a thousand auditions with no luck till Liu Yifei entered the scene. Caro wanted to focus on an all-Asian cast as in the past, Disney has been accused of whitewashing their voice actors despite the characters ethnicity being non-white. An example of this is the 1992 animated film Aladdin where the voice actors of Aladdin and Jasmine were both white. However, with all the excitement of Mulan (2020) coming to theaters, it was a great disappointment to learn the movie had quite a negative impact on audiences.

Critical Analysis: -The inaccuracies-

Within the film there are prime examples of historical inaccuracies, one such example is the time frame of the film compared to the original Ballad of Mulan. The Ballad of Mulan was created in the 6th century by an unknown author[1]. By examining the ballad historians were able to determine that the ballad was written during the Northern Wei Dynasty as indicated by the geographical locations mentioned in the poem such as the Yellow River, the Black Water's and the Hills of Yen and the historical battles fought in the areas [2]. However, knowing that The Ballad of Mulan was written in the 6th century gives a time frame; in the Mulan (2020) version it is set during the Han Dynasty which was during the 1st-2nd century[3]. This time frame is inaccurate historically since the Ballad of Mulan was set during the 6th century which succeeded the Han Dynasty. As mentioned previously, The Ballad of Mulan was said to originate from the Northern Wei Dynasty which were derived from the Xianbei people. The Xianbei people spoke a type of turkic-mogolian language[4]. In the Ballad, Mulan refers to the emperor as "Khan" instead of the Chinese translation of Emperor as Huángdì[5]. The term Khan is used to mention Mongolian leaders. This allowed historians to come to the conclusion that Mulan was indeed not Chinese but was of Xianbei descent. However, since the ballad has been shared amongst different cultures it was bound to be changed. This would make sense as to why in the live-action adaption of Mulan, Mulan is portrayed as a Han Chinese. Mulan being represented as Han Chinese goes back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907); this sudden change may be due to prejudice against the Northern dynasties being seen as alien barbarians[6]. We can see this reflected in the housing unit of Mulan. In the movie, Mulan is seen riding her horse into an earth made circular structure known as a Tulou. The Tulou are housing structures made by the displaced Hakka people dating back to the Han Dynasty[7]; these Tulou structures are located in Southern Xianbei during this time lived in tents[8] in Northern Wei territory. This is especially evident given that the Ballad of Mulan originates from the Northern Wei Dynasty and not the Han dynasty which was when Tulou structures can be date back too[9].

[1] Anonymous. “The Ballad of Mulan.” In the Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, 267–. Columbia University Press, 2001, 1 [2] Haoyin, and Matoush. “Filial Daughter” 215 [3] N/A. “Stream Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic in Canada.” Disney+. Accessed October 14, 2020. https://www.disneyplus.com/en-ca. [4] Haoyin, and Matoush. “Filial Daughter”, 216 [5] Suyin, Haynes “Is Mulan Based on a True Story? Here's the Real History.” Time. Time, September 11, 2020. https://time.com/5881064/mulan-real-history/. [6] Haoyin, Matoush. “Filial Daughter, Woman Warrior, or Identity-Seeking Fairytale Princess: Fostering Critical Awareness Through Mulan.” Children’s Literature in Education 43, no. 3 (September 2012): 213–222, 215 [7] Richard, Yelland “History Made for Tomorrow: Hakka Tulou.” Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland) 5, no. 11 (November 14, 2013): 4908–4919, 4910 [8] Charles, Holcombe. “THE XIANBEI IN CHINESE HISTORY.” Early Medieval China 19, no. 1 (1, 2013): 1–38. doi:10.1179/1529910413Z.0000000006, 6 [9] Charles, Holcombe. “THE XIANBEI IN CHINESE HISTORY.”, 6