EVERYTHING CULTURALLY WRONG WITH MULAN 2020 (And How They Could've Been Fixed)

Do better, Disney.
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[@XiranJayZhao]

Edit: I still constantly get white people in the comments acting like I personally desecrated their ancestors' graves for calling out this movie for having a majority white production staff, and I have to say that I was so angry because Disney SPECIFICALLY bragged about how "authentic and accurate" this movie was gonna be and acted like they were doing Chinese people a huge favor, only to come out with THIS. I'd have the same reaction if they employed a majority of any other non-Chinese people to make this movie while claiming that, but let's not act like Hollywood doesn't inherently favor white creators, lol. asdjf;slak y'all really liked this video, huh I want to make more about Chinese history and culture and stuff but with my current computer it took...20+ hours...to edit and render this video. I put a Ko-Fi link in the description, please consider supporting me if you wanna see this channel become an actual thing!

[@limxinyi7790]

Yes please :3

[@WhoTookMyMirr]

I'd love to see reviews of C-dramas too! Especially the terrible ones.... oh man...

[@gryranfelt5473]

I'm guessing part of what took a lot of time was the skipping around and having to find the right parts? To be honest, I'd be fine just listening to you talk about some topic without much clipping if that makes it easier for you. You have a lot of interesting points and was very engaging to listen to. I really want to hear you talk about some great Chinese litterature that's still accessible to common audiences. Or maybe your favorite Chinese myths or something :O

[@sophiathedandilioness]

Even if you only make one video every month or two or less, we're here for it!

[@PokemnTrainerRacheal]

I'm excited for your book and for more videos!

[@Mel-0n]

The biggest female empowerment this movie could achieve was making Xiran so mad about it they made a whole ass channel and a great critique because of how bad the movie is

[@yam1146]

I wanted to like, but it’s at a perfect 420 😌

[@XiranJayZhao]

Shlgljgss LMAOOOO

[@coppersense999]

And at 1.2k is well passed (past?) 420 likes. I love the new (resurrected, 2.0) angry feminist, with a hoarse voice and goth look and that classic deadpan cynical sarcasm that only the patriatchy can stir up in an intelligrnt person *wipes away tear. There is still hope for the future. And LEAD with the plug for your book, you bad ass!! It sounds hella good, I want to read it. Geez, multi-talented, I hope! We'll see.

[@sherrynoff]

@@coppersense999 wtf is this comment lmfao

[@skyjack1]

@Xavria.z xzm kzbin.info/www/bejne/bWrYiqt8h9uGlZY

[@mitarashi8091]

yeah I'm gonna say it, making 2 female characters "stronger" than every man in the film by giving them superpowers isn't making a strong woman, it's weak, it says they're not capable of even being equal to men without a large advantage.

[@emblemblade9245]

Obviously

[@notarealspy4090]

Obviously

[@LPSWeirdCow13]

Obviously

[@Grass-mc9ur]

Obviously

[@acaracsc9779]

Obviously

[@alexandradea4041]

The witch actually killed herself because the movie was so bad, she was like "i cannot do this anymore just let me die"

[@goawayleavemealone2880]

Seems accurate.

[@M.z.yoyevv]

I'd feel like her too

[@misusedchair]

@@M.z.yoyevv me three 💀

[@justaghostinthesea]

The actress actually jumped in front of an arrow because the film was so bad

[@gokairedwillcipher]

She was so done. "Mulan just kill me pls. I can't do this shi anymore"

[@rosamy2017]

My favorite part about the original was the ending. Mulan joined the army not because she wanted to fight, but because she wanted her father to live. She went home to be with him, and he was just happy to see her. Her love interest followed her home and introduced himself politely to her family. I loved that he did that, because Mulan never said she didn’t want love and marriage, and this way she gets it from someone who sees her as a true intellectual AND physical equal. The point was never to dismantle society, or as this movie seems to think, to become a man. The point was to have the choice of how to live your life, both within and outside of convention.

[@Mojo1356]

And then the sequel completely ruined it.

[@bayanmirza6956]

​@@Mojo1356 we don't talk about that thing. The Mulan animation only had one film we care to mention & know about.

[@aeoligarlic4024]

Don't forget the grandma Mulan: "Would you like to stay for dinner?" Grandma: "WOULD YOU LIKE TO STAY FOREVER?!"

[@21specter]

@@aeoligarlic4024 “dinner would be great”

[@kiwimusume]

No offense, but y’all have got to stop throwing a tantrum about the few movies that don’t centre romance. If I can deal with 95% of movies ending with at least one happy couple, y’all can stop acting like you’ve been given water in the desert when you’re given yet another happy couple ending.

[@docvince1491]

Kung Fu Panda was more respectful to Chinese culture.

[@alexanderbemu6190]

I think kung fu panda is THE movie of how to do chinese culture in a movie.

[@MyFictionalChaos]

@@alexanderbemu6190 honestly, knowing nothing abt Chinese culture, im so glad kung fu panda did it right

[@nine-vi7rw]

If this is true (from a Chinese perspective), I'd be happy to say I love those movies and they are severely underrated.

[@drakke125Channel]

thats why I love dreamworks followed by Pixar. No political bullcrap in DreamWorks and they keep it traditional for gender romance and family values like how it should be.

[@bigdipper1578]

@@drakke125Channel um,Abominable 2019? Yes... DreamWorks tried to suck up to Chinese govt with that movie. But at least that movie is watchable and not a total trainwreck. This,Mulan however....bruh... They didnt get a single thing right with this movie,not even the costumes

[@im_an_oyster]

there are two genders: daughter and warrior

[@jalifritz8033]

No it is before and after the vampire visit!

[@rachelleredd8803]

That makes Mulan genderfluid, which is about as close to representation we're going to get from Disney, so enjoy it

[@KeepCalmContemplateYourChoices]

@Depressed Gay Wizard *crying* hOw CoUlD tHeY

[@WlSTERllA]

@Depressed Gay Wizard right 💔

[@ctdaniels7049]

Lasers and Feelings.

[@catperson6683]

Just a reminder: Disney spent THREE YEARS studying "the physics of curly hair" for brave.

[@Lissy_YT481]

Yeah, that explains a lot...

[@AreCatsPlantsOrMinerals]

disney didn’t, the artists and animators did

[@catperson6683]

@@AreCatsPlantsOrMinerals they did it on company time working for... Disney.

[@Wroar2020s]

​@@catperson6683 PriVer Animation?

[@sgfuckinghuntress]

isn't brave pixar?

[@panman4459]

This channel is the equivalent of the story of Wu Zetian becoming the first empress of China. She got pissed. She showed how pissed she was. She rose to power.

[@boobitch_]

She’s also related to Wu Zetian

[@phoenix_waffles2122]

She also wrote a book about Wu Zetian

[@bbnagyu7704]

She's the first female emperor! Not the first empress :)

[@panman4459]

@@bbnagyu7704 Oh, I'm sorry

[@CesarACastillo]

Not to be a grammar cop but its “rose to power”

[@pastelcloudpainter]

All these reboots Disney keeps doing to make their films "more Feminist" just seem to make them more sexist instead

[@erocenturion2809]

Probably because what mainstream culture says is a "strong female character" is just a girl acting like a dude. :\ Most girls are feminine. Some are tomboys, sure (myself included), but there are just naturally a lot of differences between men and women. There's nothing wrong with that. We need to stop pretending there is. For instance, like Xiran mentions, the cartoon Mulan uses her wits to solve her problems. She's not naturally as physically strong as a guy, so she compensates by using her brain. Disney took that away in the 2020 movie, and now the character is bland. Come on Disney; you can do (and have done) better than this.

[@carolleboxill4044]

@@erocenturion2809 THANK YOU!! I don't want a movie to tell me I'm valuable because I can do the same things a man can, I want to know I am valuable for just being me, even if I like "girly" things. Girls need to know that "girly" things are valuable not that only boyish girls are. lol and I am also a tomboy but i hated any girly sides of me thinking it was useless.

[@zumhoferpreiss7774]

Exactly. It bothers me so much because all these feminist things they add just make the movies and characters bland and weird. Mulan is such a strong iconic character in the old movie. Why the hell did they have to change her? It makes no sense to me. Instead of making her train hard and just become strong, they had to add all that chi/qui (?) thingy and give her some sort of superpower gift? By doing that they're basically telling us that women need some strong chi/qui force to be as powerful as men. Like... that is not feminism at all. Also, the witch (had they just have her be a spirit) could have been such an awesome, strong character. The way she obeyed that bad guy despite being much more powerful than him and then just died really sucked.

[@chillpeachie420]

Yesss like women being strong only because they’re born with it, no flaws, no character development

[@akiishitster1742]

Lindsay Elliss made a great video about this called "Woke Disney". The feminist part isn't exactly the main subject but it's one of the things that points out Disney's try-hard at pandering the modern generation

[@waffles8364]

They turned Mulan into a generic Western "Chosen One" story.

[@shadowmoon1657]

Most of these “chosen one” stories are Asian

[@queer-ios3155]

Which wouldn't technically be a bad thing, but pleeeaaase don't market it as culturally correct movie, because it wasn't. It was a fantasy story that kidnapped mulan's name and selective pieces of chinese culture.

[@feedesylvestre3200]

@@shadowmoon1657 Wait, didn't she said that half of the Eastern Asian stories are "work hard to earn it" stories?

[@usprulse]

Neo ~

[@arichan7599]

@@feedesylvestre3200 yeah but mulan 2020 is about being a chosen one and not hard work to earn the trust and loyalty

[@awesomeperson3342]

The witch being a bird spirit, and Mulan being accused of being a fox spirit would even give the witch more of a reason to empathize with Mulan!

[@yukishiro3287]

Fox spirit... A serious accusation you got here because this is usually applied when you're calling someone a "slut", in here should be applied when a woman seduces a man and manipulates his mind

[@ghost19101]

Also the witch used a shuriken, a Japanese weapon to try and kill Mulan. A *Japanese* weapon. 🤦‍♂️ Look I can give it a semi pass if the movie was based remotely around any of those regions and just was like a mixture, but this movie is about a *Chinese* story and it’s even more confusing that the armor is actually accurate to ancient Chinese armor. However, it could’ve worked if just as you said the witch was a fox spirit that instead of being from China was from Japan since those two countries have been enemies for who knows how long and it’s like Tamamo-no-Mae, a fox spirit who’s origins although were Japanese some versions state she was originally from China and was the reason the Shang dynasty fell and fled to Japan under a different name. Hence why she would use Japanese weapons

[@kingdionysus1867]

​@@ghost19101Wait, DEADASS??? I missed that detail then.

[@KF-zb6gi]

@@ghost19101 yep and fox spirit historically is used for demonizing woman so it fits, most famous was su daji

[@2fortsmostwanted]

"Mulan passes out for a bit, wakes up, stares at the FBI motto on her sword, and decides to take off her armor" this is the funniest thing I've heard all day damn

[@MagisterialVoyager]

😂😂😂

[@alexisfeynman9881]

"How fast is Mulan's horse?" clearly, the horse cultivates his chi

[@stylis666]

Hahahahaha! I laughed way too hard at that! It caught me so off guard. Well done!

[@HanQ28]

Maybe he/she is a horse spirit that’s on his way to cultivate into human form, with the goal of eventually becoming immortal. And if this is a fantasy romance C-drama, the horse spirit will fall in love with Mulan and give up his immortal cultivation in order to live an ordinary happy life with her (in his human form - does that make it less furry?😂). Then they’ll get married and give birth to a human/spirit hybrid child who later encounters severe identity issues. Then one day the gods/immortals will find out this “sinful” marriage between human and spirit, and decide to punish and separate them. And then blablabla omg the story writes itself😂

[@francesgreen3519]

@@HanQ28 that would probably be better than the mulan movie

[@FiddlebirdBlue]

@@francesgreen3519 I second this. Someone make it.

[@JundArbiter]

To carry more oxygen and stop his body from producing lactic acid.

[@LazyAlternativeBrat]

Disney: "we're remaking this movie because we wanted a redo in representing a culture that has been white washed and abused for years in Hollywood " Also Disney:

[@maia_gaia]

Just goes to show that Disney doesn't actually care about diversity. They only care about the marketing potential of pretending to care.

[@AgentSkidZ]

"I think not being racist is the new racism." - Jeff Winger

[@yucol5661]

It’s about getting you to pay for the movie not to like it

[@MrGrizzzlik]

@@maia_gaia All of the corporations do it, zoomers are a big market and all did the market research properly. What is even more disgusting is the way how they try to pretend they don't care about maximizing profits. Just remember Pride Month for Coca Cola, Bethesda and other corps posting "woke" ads everywhere but in Middle East and Russia lol. So much for "leading change".

[@diegotm4365]

@@maia_gaia yes

[@reitanthekiller]

I love how she says "That's not how women are demonized in chinese culture" at 02:50, like, the demonization of women is so common in basically every culture that one has to specify how they really are demonized in each culture xd

[@UnKnowmanNumber2]

People are demonized, how you get demonized varies according to your race, sex, beliefs, etc and depends on who is demonizing you.

[@GuiSmith]

The way people are vilified even changes strongly with time. Like the modern idea of a “witch” like they use in this is such a young concept. Pretty sure this vilification came around 1000CE, when paganism at large was being expunged in Europe and all forms of practice that related to the old religions were made illegal. This included traditional forms of medicine, divination, and so on. The movement to make witches truly be “evil” instead of just outside the law “helpers” or healers took a couple centuries and the publication of an awful book called Malleus Malifacaraum. So not only is the concept of “witch” here wrong for Chinese culture, but it’s 400+ years early by European culture of the same era. The fact that she’s a shapeshifter would’ve still been seen as morally neutral to Europeans at the time, too. They would’ve been instead freaking out that she’s using magic against the establishment, kind of like China would too to be honest. That’s the real crime, political and rival destruction, and yet this alignment was not explored. Like this just doesn’t line up anywhere anytime, honestly.

[@palofrasca1775]

Yeah it's weird, it's like women are not goddesses, but mere mortals to whom sometimes bad things happen. One thought they were immune to bad things because they don't poop. Cos they do not poop, right...?

[@hauthot287]

You’d be surprised how many cultures thankfully didn’t demonize women, like at least the great majority of Native American cultures

[@melanoc3tusii205]

Yes, everyone can be demonized, every culture does it in its own way. What a shocker.

[@doodle4178]

I will NEVER stop rewatching Xiran absolutely MERCILESSLY destroying this excuse of a movie.

[@BrennaBridRogers]

Excuse of a movie? Mulan 2020 was barely an excuse of a loud fart.

[@zihanwang4078]

@@BrennaBridRogers😂

[@kiwimusume]

I feel so bad for Xiran because you can see their…qi (see what I did there?) ebbing away as the movie goes on.

[@MetaphoricallyRose]

I’m a biracial Chinese girl and I strongly disliked this movie, it’s soooo stupid and disrespectful. And it’s not just that almost all of the writers/directors were white, Kung Fu Panda also had those and they did a great job. Why? Because THEY DID RESEARCH

[@lordmuhehe4605]

Everyone disliked this movie, lol.

[@oddeye2412]

Kung fu panda its amazing youre right

[@cutecloverrunevalyn2573]

Wow, does that mean kung fu panda is more accurate (though still a fantasy and not a historical fiction) than Mulan is?

[@ari-cs3ih]

as expected from kung fu panda 😌❤️

[@Isabelle-hv6ny]

@@cutecloverrunevalyn2573 Yes

[@gabsgabs1287]

"no songs because people don't actually sing in battle* *Mulan taking off her armor and letting her hair loose in the middle of the freaking battle for AeStHeTiCs*

[@Tamaki742]

Forget that historically armies would go into battle and break into songs as self and collective motivator. Modern armies still break into songs when they head to battles.

[@pokeperson1000]

She’s a superhero. She clearly doesn’t need it. :P They took as much use of wires as possible, and made sure that her actions mostly didn’t adhere to the laws of physics.

[@Crawlingdreams418]

That clearly showed the audience that she wouldn't be harmed, so she didn't need to worry 😂😂😂

[@megangwilliam5343]

Tamaki742 it’s fine she still had plot armor

[@gabsgabs1287]

@@claudia-7917 it's like everytime a girl fights she has to take some clothes/armor off. It doesn't even have to be sexual (like in LOTR or even Wonderwoman). That's the empowered aEsThEtIcS they keep going for

[@consumingkazoos]

"And don't tell me a woman can't be emperor. Wu Zetian did it, she'd be laughing at you from Chinese hell." literally the most iconic line of all time thank you for this masterpiece!!

[@yin4296]

the thing about chi absolutely killed me. firstly i’m a white person with no asian background, yet i learned what chi was in a single chinese course i took in high school lmfao. i learned the same basic concept in INTRO to religions when learning about daoism. it’s such an easy thing to understand that’s how you know the directors didn’t even google the world chi before using it

[@DancerVeiled]

They probably watched DBZ and figured chi is a battery you have to fill up to throw kamehameha waves.

[@auricstorm]

Could they have made it chi-BENDING? Thought of that when they said "chi is like blood, would say Blood is only for warriors"...ooh blood bending 😈

[@andrewgreeb916]

I have a grasp of what chi is from acupuncture, and frankly it's just not magic. As far as the AMA is concerned it's voodoo. You have energy within you that can be harnessed to heal you, ease your pain, and enable you to recover from injury, not that modern medicine approves of any method that keeps patients away from their expensive drugs that do little to help.

[@andrewgreeb916]

​@@auricstormhemomancy, which is probably western as heck.

[@AsianIdiots323]

@@DancerVeiled Even in DBZ, ki is described as an innate aspect of your body that you harness. Ki isn't a fucking superpower lol. It's how you utilize your Ki that gives you power

[@khamulthewack4732]

"Have you ever seen a movie that pissed you off so bad that you made a whole KZbin channel just to roast it?" This is how legends begin.

[@naomistarlight6178]

I started my anime blog that I've had for 10 years just because I was mad that Barnes and Noble had stopped carrying my favorite anime magazines. Let the hate flow through you...

[@mr559]

Hahaha. Just like how the channel "Girlfriend Reviews" blew up after making a review on Red Dead Redemption 2.

[@marthapozo4881]

And I'm here for it! Let the shenanigans begin! :D

[@Raccon_Detective.]

@@naomistarlight6178 Indeed brother

[@Nassit-Gnuoy]

I liked and subbed right there.

[@tagdavid9503]

Chinese girl: Is born The father: Sorry child, no blood for you

[@kariissmol9172]

I mean... From what I understand a girl in a Chinese family meant just someone to marry off. Like... I try to understand but genuine love seems to lack in all I can find.

[@ebrahimwadee7574]

@@kariissmol9172 they were referring to to chi and blood analogy

[@smrtfasizmu7242]

@@kariissmol9172 the same was true in Europe for most of history, are you going to seriously argue that's evidence that the French are incapable of loving their children too?

[@ametsunami4070]

listen The more “civilized” an old culture was the worse it treated the girls.

[@haypochi1263]

Until she has her first blood that is... 😂... Or at least according to GoT

[@Irenicus91]

"And don't tell me a woman can't be emperor. Wu Zetian did it. She'd be laughing at you from Chinese hell." This brought me many serotonins thank you

[@Xisstillalive]

i laughed harder than i have in a while!

[@KF-zb6gi]

The chinese hell line is so funny because even the concept of hell is different between the chinese and european lmso

[@juniperrodley9843]

"Blood is for warriors, not daughters" would actually be kind of a great line to have a misogynistic character say

[@HadridarMatramen]

Oh, I would have loved it if that WAS the line, and Mulan answered really deadpan "So, I guess you haven't heard about menstruation, dad..." But I suspect that would have been a very different movie XD

[@still.ines07]

THEY LITERALY CUT OFF MUSHU BEACAUSE "THE DRAGON IS A TOO MUCH IMPORTANT ANIMAL FOR THE CHINESE CULTURE TO BE REPRESENTED SILLY AND FUNNY" AND THEN...??!

[@606aichan7O7]

I just thought they didn't want unnecessary additional CGI stuff

[@luchomscyfy]

@@606aichan7O7 opposite to what? Unneccesary CGI like a witch's superpowers?

[@606aichan7O7]

@@luchomscyfy I haven't seen it yet so I didn't pay much attention It's not opposite to anything? I'm just saying I thought they just didn't want to create a model of a dragon that would be somewhat realistic yet similar to the animation, because he probably would be in a lot of scenes. A whole model, as opposed to BG stuff just seems like a lot if they cared about world building..if that made sense....??? -but Chinese martial arts stuff usually has a lot of CGI anyway, so I'd assume that was kinda a normal decision

[@BattyButtercup]

that sounds like Disney making an excuse to not research whether black people hung out in ancient china (spoiler: they did and, vice-versa, chinese people hung out in africa as well). like, on the one hand, chinese dragons are pretty rooted to chinese geography - they bring rain and cause earthquakes and are rivers, etc - but, like, if they didn't want to just, idk check through 5000 years of chinese recorded history for existing instances of african immigrants &/or visiting dignitaries or whatever, they could have just. hired an actor who was both black and chinese? it would be a HUGE step in on-screen mixed race representation and plenty of people would jump at the chance to be involved, be it as a shape-shifted bird spirit, a dragon, or a dragon statue. but Hollywood apparently only knows that ethnic minorities can find each other attractive but NOT that, maybe, they'd end up having mixed-race kids together who might then go on to be actors and comedians struggling to find work because they're simultaneously not black enough AND not asian enough. the whole "dragons are too ~SACRED~" thing smells like Disney dodging the chinese government's ire at the suggestion that black people exist in chinese history &/or white Hollywood not being able to compute the idea of ethnic minorities teaming up outside shared tokenism in majority-white groupings.

[@shadowchu5940]

who cares about what happens next the whole movie is wrong anyway. Cries in offended Chinese.

[@coni3538]

The real hero of this story is Mulan's horse. It outran a whole avalanche and carries her everywhere she needs to go.

[@dream_candy2173]

HAHAHA trueee

[@sourlovee33_]

HECK YASS!

[@sadam-kd5ug]

He's the new Mushu

[@SHARKBAIT_HOOHAHA_]

EXACTLY

[@hanoisme7858]

Lmao yes

[@rebelturtle7494]

Even though I hate everything about the 2020 remake I finally decided to watch this one after watching your other two analysis videos. And I remember a really good explanation for why the "girl worth fighting for" transition hit so hard. Because the entire song they are singing about exactly that, but in a naive romantic light. But when they get to the village they find the girl they should have been fighting for all along in the doll that Mulan finds. The innocent civilians and children and little girls. There is no way I explained it as well as the random Tumblr post I saw but like... it hits hard when I think about it!

[@testerwulf3357]

It does..it's a light silly song about dreaming of a lover to fight for only to stumble on a destroyed village and realize they already have a reason to fight for; the women and children of villages, their families, their country, ect.

[@korsekil]

Exactly. All their dreams of glory and the burned village reminds them that it's not about what they gain if they win, it's what, or rather who, will be sacrificed if they lose. It's not just wanting to win, they HAVE to win for the sake of those they love.

[@Burn_Angel]

"Mercenaries fight for victory inspired for what they can win, heroes fight inspired to avoid defeat for what they may lose."

[@ellahere2300]

One thing I hate about this movie is how they... vilianize Chinese people. If a seven year old performed highly acrobatic acts, people would be impressed and praise her, and even call higher ranked people to witness her talents. She would quickly become popular, and even documented. This has in fact, happened before.

[@fishface8334]

I hated the movie because they removed Shang’s character and split him into 2 people. A really old general dude with no personality and a really hot dude that has no personality.

[@zoneanomaly4780]

@Lucky Lila Yeah, despite how much liberty the OG animation took with the Chinese cultural symbols, it at least had symbolism.

[@Dandidoodles]

Bisexual legend Shang! NOOOOOooooo......

[@EssentialBlue]

I'm so glad that I didn't watch it in the movie. When I first saw the trailer I was sstill looking forward to it. I didn't believe that it would be similiar to the animation but I expected that there would be some character growth and someone like Shang who would support her and makes her do her best. At least I didn't waste my time and money. This review is very entertaining.

[@marinadeburgos8666]

I read that they removed Shang because of the "person on a position of power- subordinate" situation might be insensitive, specially since the movie was made round the time Harvey Weinstein was exposed... They could have place Shang's father (who was in the animated movie) as the person in charge and place Shang in the same level as Mulan and it would have worked

[@demnbrown]

@@marinadeburgos8666 yeah but that Harvey Weinstein is a western thing that should have nothing to do with the peace that tries to be a period piece while also being mythological lore

[@happninmojo]

"She didn't need to let go of her father's probably very precious and expensive armor." That sentence was far more Chinese than Mulan (2020).

[@fulalbatross]

Oh man, I'm boiling at this very practice each and every time it turns up in a movie. Like wtf, people are just willy-nilly throwing 25 Ferraris worth of armor away in every other movie like it's any old trash. And weapons. And don't get me started on ropes... How I wish they'd stop doing that. It'd be such an improvement to every single one of those movies, for literally no effort what so ever.

[@patrickcote4521]

Most movies just really don't understand how Expensive and Effective ancient armor were. To them it's just cheap decorative thing that protect less than clothing ;)

[@hannahluke9381]

I don’t know who wrote that scene, but it feels like something a man would write

[@lolawhiterabbit]

When I saw this, I was soo confused, I was thinking “why did she just took off everything that was meant to protect her? And her hair too? The whole purpose of the hair up is to make it easier to fight and see. It’s not because she’s a women bc when women fight, we put our hair up”. That whole thing made no damn sense, only a dude would write that.

[@ryohoshi8445]

@@patrickcote4521 It fell out of use because it stopped being effective against newer weapons--most of the changes in armor design have driven by that, and it only became fashion when it held on past when it was still effective. The thing is that if they really want to pull that kind of scene off? Just establish that we're at one of those points where the current style of armor just slammed into being an expensive & ineffective impediment because there's new weapons that punch through it and/or had a "And THIS is why you don't buy from the bargain bin at the cheapest used armor dealer..." moment. (The latter might be good if you want other people to have effective armor--it's just, well, our stripper bought the cheap sketchy stuff.)

[@TWSTDSHDW]

All right, Disney, that's it! Dishonor! Dishonor on your whole crew! Dishonor on your mouse, dishonor on your cash cows... DISHONOR!! *DISHONOR!!!* *_DISHONOR!!!!_* (^spits on 'Disney+' logo on the way out^)

[@offsewingdragons9142]

-your worst nightmare.

[@Baldwin-iv445]

Don't forget to dishonor China.

[@Mushroomelixir]

DISHONER ON YOUR MOUSE IS CRAZY-

[@HououMinamino]

I think it would have been cool if, instead of a witch, the woman was really the phoenix in disguise. I think I read or saw a story similar to that somewhere, in which a phoenix took human form. If they were wanting to replace Mushu, that may have been a good way to do it. The phoenix could have acted as her guardian spirit throughout the movie. In the scene in which the "witch" dies, the reveal that she was the phoenix all along could have occurred--she could have literally risen from the ashes. You know what? Instead of Mulan 2020, they could have given us a really good original story about this woman, but no. Instead, we got a vastly inferior version of an animated classic. What a wasted opportunity.

[@inoli3164]

The original Chinese phoenix is very different from the phoenix that rises from the ashes.

[@HououMinamino]

@@inoli3164 Yes, I know. The fenghuang is simply immortal. The whole "rising from the ashes" thing would be symbolic here--the phoenix merely shedding her human guise.

[@jeffreygao3956]

So, pitch instead a Deborah Sampson biopic that has her get super powers from blood pressure.

[@s.e.s.9146]

"She'd be laughing at you from chinese hell." i'm making you an altar

[@bennyton2560]

that line had me ROLLING lmaooo

[@kintamas4425]

I love the fact that is one of the many ways the movie craps all over political correctness while trying to be pc.

[@Abridgelion]

Is that a Charles Bronson quote?

[@dorothygale9648]

Just make it a 'historically accurate' one. You know, like Disney!

[@FFWorldHD]

10:43 best parts lmao

[@lonely1951]

Its like Disney didn’t consider the fact that Chinese people were actually gonna be able to watch and critique this movie

[@HanQ28]

Yeah but at that point, they already got the money😂 They just didn’t care......

[@eduardochavacano]

They know Chinese people will watch it... its a movie for kids... Unlike Maleficent, were the script has to change several times, Because Angelina Jolie is too Rich to sign up for a movie only 7 year old koreans will enjoy.

[@OdaKa]

I thought that was the whole point of making this movie... To fix the cultural mistakes of the original. But it just made me want to watch the original

[@naveerakhan9622]

But still wanted their money lol😂

[@xoventanaga2913]

Ima give you all a secret on why it performed badly in China. There are multiple Chinese pirating websites where people can watch Mulan for free lol. That’s how my entire family watched mulan

[@viperblitz11]

If the US saw animation as a real and legitimate art form, Disney would never have bothered with any of these remakes.

[@avivastudios2311]

They did see it as a real artform. They are making these movies to make extra money. That's all. And the sad thing is, it's working.

[@viperblitz11]

@@avivastudios2311 I meant more the culture's tendency to prioritize live action as some objectively superior form of storytelling. If there hadn't been a market for "better" versions of these childhood classics, Disney wouldn't have pursued them.

[@barbieblues7639]

American animation tends to look ugly and be shitty, to be fair

[@jharris3110]

Honestly out of the few I've had to sit through Jungle Book (2016) is one I enjoyed despite some of it's flaws

[@avivastudios2311]

@@jharris3110 a lot of people say that was the best Disney remake but I was just bored by that one.

[@pnkpanther]

Loved your breakdown scene by scene! I worked on this films VFX for about a year and I just wanted to add some even more upsetting context; I worked on the Phoenix character, and it was originally billed as a *physical* animal that started out looking kinda like a pheasant and slowly morphed over the course of the movie into the full blown colorful phoenix (and she was more of a comic relief character to replace Mushu, silent comic relief tho). We had DOZENS of iterations that looked better and months into the work they scrapped the whole idea seemingly because someone told them having comic relief AT ALL would have been in bad taste (???) Which I think is a great indication of the whole tone deaf direction of the film at large. The whole project felt like a half assed cash grab where the directors and on set leads were somehow convincing themselves they were doing something great by "making this adaption closer to the actual Chinese epic" while paying themselves millions instead of bothering to hire people who were culturally connected or even knowledgeable about the source material. In my 10 years of film work, I don't think i've ever worked on a film with such a wishy washy milk toast artistic direction from the client.

[@nanwijanarko1969]

Wait, you actually worked on THIS film? I think that idea was good though ... If we didn't get any character development of Mulan, at least we would have gotten the phoenix's 'character' development

[@pnkpanther]

@nanwijanarko1969 Yeah it was a huge mess project wise. I was doing lookdev for the phoenix for probably near 8 months, the client just really didn't know what they wanted. which i guess is why they ended up scrapping it and all the scenes of Mulan actually interacting with the character when they needed to cut stuff for time. what showed up on screen was only the final, fully evolved form. I do think it could have been a nice metaphor for growth, even if it was a bit of a standin for actually writing character development lol

[@byme.9183]

I’m not Asian, but my mother does acupuncture and she went into a 20 minute rant when this movie pulled the chi card.

[@allthatsheiz]

🤭🤭🤭😆

[@oddeye2412]

AS SHE SHOULD. PERIODT.

[@aliceinwonderlust]

Ur mom is a great person

[@TheSpawnfan]

I read many Manhuas and chi is not something you are born being able to Channel, but something you have to train to be able to use, such training, combined with martial arts so you can use the chi is called Cultivation, you also need a certain number of Meridian Roots so you can channel the chi and your Dantian, a region near the stomach has to be intact, and to get stronger you need herbs to make cultivation pills (screw up and you make poison pills instead), learn techniques and acquire different artifacts known as treasures, even a genius cultivator would need a sect or a master to refine the techniques, so, Mulan pulling those crazy stunts on her own, without prior training in cultivation is absurd, even by OP MC manhua standards because said OP MCs have decades worth of training under their belts, and they turned Mulan into a Mary Sue, to please China, a country that dislikes Mary Sues

[@dontestevens4831]

@@oddeye2412 you mean period?

[@possiblyvi]

Disney: "We got rid of Mushu since it wasn't realistic enough." Also Disney: *Adds witch character and magic*

[@teddiespicker]

PossiblyViv I WAS LIKE WHERES MUSHU?! WHERES MUSHU?! WHERES THE FLAVAH?!

[@alistair127]

I got so mad when they said they got rid of Mushu. He's my favorite charter ever

[@CONRADikal]

Adds mulan with superpowers that lets her kill people with giants spears afters she kick them like a masters sensi

[@mariapalomino803]

Rip Mushu 🙏🏽☹️

[@fatherchungus8416]

Nooo not Mushu!

[@nobodyimportant281]

2 years and I'm still returning to this iconic debut. The fact that she made an entire KZbin Channel just to hate on a movie! The level of dedication and pettiness I inspire to be!

[@certifiedmonsterfucker]

im like 6 months late but xiran uses they/them iirc!! not mad ya ofc

[@hunter_hiebert]

Only one good thing has ever come from this movie: It pissed off Zhao enough that we got this KZbin channel. I am so happy to have been here from the start and rewatching this a year and something later makes all her points hit even harder.

[@Tyurru360]

"How fast is her horse"? Clearly the horse was true to itself and connected to its chi.

[@wyntertheicewyvern6226]

It's chi is beyond imagining.

[@Tyurru360]

@@wyntertheicewyvern6226 Truly it will bring honour to us all.

[@wyntertheicewyvern6226]

@@Tyurru360 if you had such a horse, its chi, the boundless energy of life itself, would you tell it only a son could wield chi?

[@hellzbellz272]

HAHA this comment & thread made me laugh, thanks all.

[@nanami_akumudeadchannel7115]

XD

[@The_Olive_Dragon]

“They made her Asian Elsa” That basically sums up Mulan entirely

[@vexxi1470]

Olive _ Dragon its Asian Elsa but without any of the humor or iconic music/moments that excused the terrible story 💀😂😂

[@Fisinocean]

You know what Mulan lacked amd Elsa has? ELSA HAS PERSONALITY.

[@okaminotamashi7411]

tbh, Chinese Ma'Rey "Not Skywalker" Palpatine Sue would be much more accurate

[@zuzuzuko3947]

@@Fisinocean nah, Elsa only personality is her song. Anything else about her is bland. In my opinion, Anna is the more flesh out character

[@Fisinocean]

@@zuzuzuko3947 well then again, its a musical and most of elsa scene is a song while 'mulan' just fails man

[@josephmatthews7698]

Still haven't watched despite my unmitigated love and obsession with Chinese history particularly the Han dynasty. One thing I always loved about Chinese literature is the lack of boring "chosen one" storylines. You might get a portent or say something cool when you're young, Liu Bang's dragon and slaying of the white snake while drunk or Xiang Yang getting frustrated with swordplay because "Swords only let you beat one man I want to to defeat the world." But this always felt like "oh yeah cool things happened when you were young maybe we should have seen it coming" but they NEVER "get good" without busting their ass first. My only regret is that idiots in Hollywood instead of reading this as "this movie was bad" will interpret it as "America doesn't like or want East Asian storylines so we can't spend money on them for like another decade."

[@testerwulf3357]

Honestly I feel like the more likely response is "wow this didn't do good in asia which was the target of this movie..they must not appreciate our movies! Lets just avoid doing stuff on them so they don't get pissed at us for it"

[@justinbowers2749]

Han Dynasty huh? Cool! I’m a Ming Dynasty guy myself

[@zegeck]

Strategy and tactics nerd here: Marching your slow-moving, heavy infantry into a field battle with no cover against horse archers is a great way to die. The trebuchet/catapult thing was hilariously unnecessary. They could have just sat back and plinked away with bows until casualties or morale caused a rout.

[@kidsdomath1330]

Damn lol

[@merrittanimation7721]

"She's a woman! She can't have chi!" "Are you saying my daughter should be dead?"

[@ominousromanpillar238]

an extremely creative death threat

[@poisonedvices6962]

Look, if we're going to say chi is like blood, or he'll even life force, the fact that a woman can create life makes its own case

[@Mystique-zq9jy]

But no one will have such strong chi/Qi during birth because Qi has to be cultivated for many years until it reaches a certain level (Based on my experience of reading wuxia) So clearly the developers of this movie only did surface level research. Not sure if I can trust Disney anymore

[@lloydgush]

Fun thing is that chi is basically better translated as humor, if one wants to use western magical concepts to understand it, although humors don't have much of the flow thing.

[@MushVPeets]

I mean, if it means this movie doesn't have to happen...

[@LexiChannel]

The only person allowed to talk this much about honor is Zuko

[@arambles1]

H O N O R

[@DragonriderEpona]

Restore the H O N O R!

[@tinyspyro8163]

@Kopal Gupta hahaha 🤣😂 thank you for the laugh^^

[@TheCrispAlien]

"You have dishonored the franchise and so have dishonored me. The time has come to reclaim my honor you dishonorably dishonored by honorably honoring my honorable honor." -Dante Basco (the voice of Zuko)

[@Appleeeeeeeeeeeeee]

Zuko: My honorrrrrrrr

[@mikeor-]

"We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement; but to make money. If we continue to make movies, we will inevitably make history, art, a significant statement, or all three. Yet all of these come from our only objective, and to make money is our only objective." -Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney from 1985 until 2001.

[@digitaltailsmon4096]

At least they are honest. Still horrible but honest

[@mikeor-]

@@digitaltailsmon4096 Bob Iger is following the principles of Eisner. He also says that making money is Disney's only objective.

[@dianasmith8166]

In the 90's, a Chinese exchange professor at my college discussed Mulan with us. He also thought she was from the north. In his town, it was generally thought that while Mulan wasn't ugly, she had been considered "undesirable" because she was a farm girl. She would have been strong, and they thought larger than many girls because of better nutrition and exercise. An only child, Daddy may have spoiled her as far as social mores of the day. When the conscription notice came, she went, like the stories say, but the gender discovery would not have dishonored her. There had been female soldiers before, some of which were great warriors. It is more likely that she was left because of her injuries. He said that traditionally, Mulan (not her real name?) Went on to be a great general, an ambassador and to sit on the Emperor's council. That once, she even sat on the throne as his representative while he took a trip.

[@biancat7761]

They turned mulan into a superhero instead of telling a human story.

[@BearMeOut]

Executive meeting: people love the Avengers, how about we make more of it?

[@keyannalee2432]

Damn

[@Meri-Muru]

I love Marvel, but I wanted a Disney princess movie :/

[@Bradyboy26]

@Sean even a shot for shot line fore like remake of the cartoon mulan would have been better

[@littlefarmhouse3953]

Yeah that was my issue with it, the Mulan cartoon was amazing. It taught young girls that they can become strong even if they aren’t at first. And to never give up even if you might be put matched. But this Mulan was like “Oh I’m already a strong warrior” it just lacked growth and that was sad.

[@jenniferl.8111]

As a Chinese person, the original cartoon is a little stereotypical at times. But the live action is straight up insulting. They literally have no timeline or historical accuracy of China, the costumes are garish and ugly, the plotline confusing and the dialogue awkward. There really isn't anything good to say about it.

[@Isabelle-hv6ny]

I think that the cartoon has the advantage that it's pretty old.

[@vicktoria4864]

as a fellow chinese i agree. the cartoon has some flaws but it's enjoyable otherwise and is able to deliver the message right. but THIS MOVIE??? nope. not at all. cant even follow the original ballad right

[@strbourne]

Also the warped chinese makeup just feels like chinese backface and should be just as condemnable.

[@mrsucc2138]

The first Mulan was still good despite it's slight issues.

[@khazms]

There's no historical accurate timeline because it's set in a FICTIONAL fantasy universe. Do you think other Disney princess movies are based in a historically accurate time in Europe? Hell no. There is a historic period they're SET in, but that's really as far as it goes in regards to historical and/or cultural accuracy; so not accurate at all.

[@crowposting]

I fucking died when I realized that the cop apologist had an FBI sword because of course they gave the cop apologist an FBI sword.

[@dionemartins0212]

The ""witch"" is simply the only thing I liked in this movie, and I was pissed when she randomly went "Oh no the main character is about to die I have to save her!!!11!1" Like, she's a powerful threat, why is she even working for that idiot in the first place Plus, ever since I first saw this video, it just became my headcannon that she's a bird spirit lmao

[@illustryfe5354]

Mulan was originally a normal, average woman but she could do the same things as any man could: wield a sword masterfully, dutifully carry out stressful orders, hard labor, etc. The fact they had to make her have superpowers to even compete with her male, military compatriots degrades the original storyline. It makes it seem like she's still lesser anyway, as a female.

[@wammert]

Just like that one rabbit saying, they totally missed the point.

[@lilithhecataniangoddessesm187]

Also putting MAGICK in it IN MY PERCEPTION is like copying Elsa from Frozen, I DON'T THINK THEY WANT IT TO BE ACCURATE BUT RATHER A KIDDIE MOVIE

[@nosai10]

I mean, it's not like she's the only one that can fight like this.

[@woofwoof8146]

That is actually a really good point, I hadn't thought of it that way, but now I understand. You have to be something *beyond human* to best a man as a woman. That is deeply insulting.

[@miceatah9359]

@@woofwoof8146 i mean its also true

[@pastelsunset]

I hate how they excused cutting Shang as not wanting to portray rape culture or a toxic power dynamic, bc Shang and Mulan's relationship was literally 100% consensual and didn't even start until after the war was over. It wasn't a commanding officer abusing his power to force a girl into sexual interaction, it was two friends getting together in their own time bc they both liked each other. Disney probably just thought China wouldn't appreciate the bisexual undertones tbh

[@Gabi-yc1gf]

Yes!

[@Momocham23]

There's was never any bisexual undertone. Shang was never interested in Mulan that way when she disguised as a man. He saw her as a comrade in the army and then asked her out when he realized she was a woman. Idk where people got Shang was bi. Yall interpret two dudes having some semblance of friendship = romantic and that's kinda encouraging toxic masculinity. Pls normalize men having friendship thanks. And as a side note, the whole "girl cross dress as dude and end up with male lead falling" for them is EXTREMELY common in asian media (Hana Kimi, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Maiden Holmes etc). The month Mulan came out there were 2 Chinese dramas airing with woman disguise as man theme. The tired trope isn't play as the male lead is bi, it is more like he would always sense her "womanly pheromone" no matter how she disguise herself kind of thing since most of the time the actresses always look/behave feminine that they would never pass for a man realistic

[@Adam-pc2cm]

@@Momocham23 I’d recommend watching Xiran Jay Zhao’s video on Mulan 1998, she talks a briefly about why it seemed like he was bi.

[@J_Lynn]

Jyuri is right, though it would be nice to have some more diverse representation, it's frustrating(as someone who is bi), when people see a friendship and forcefully interpret it as being romantic. Not everything needs to be about romance and, looking back, a romantic vibe wasn't really present in the cartoon, I don't think. That comment about "rape culture" is especially confusing.

[@pastelsunset]

​@@J_Lynn Ok yeah fair, the whole "Shang is bi" idea isn't accurate. It's more of a meme than anything tbh. As for the "rape culture" thing, that was my entire point: Disney claiming that's why they cut him is complete bs, since there really wasn't a romantic relationship between the two throughout the film.

[@k.b.4264]

Two years later, I'm coming back to watch this and I remember how angry I was when I watched the remake - but now, all I'm thinking about is how awesome Xiran Jay Zhao is. I'm just starting to read Iron Widow, and I realised the author was this youtuber I had already watched. This woman has endless talents, and I love everything she makes!!

[@hs-po9qr]

I'm sorry to hear that people have been acting offended by you calling out cultural inaccuracies but unfortunately people are ignorant, and the internet has given ignorant people voices louder than they would have otherwise

[@jaredfry]

“It’s like they want the money of Chinese people but don’t want to respect Chinese people” - well-supported, well-said

[@TheoCynical]

Black America: "First Time?"

[@moaiwbwp5690]

@@TheoCynical lmao

[@user-kf2pq8rt3r]

Theohybrid thing is America already been doing this to Chinese and other Asian Americans 😭 it’s just not as talked about/ reported on as black Americans

[@BruceLinderPT]

Good thing they didn't put any major Black actors in this. They would have had to erase them from every scene they were in out of respect for China's culture.

[@user-kf2pq8rt3r]

Truckin Mack this is such a dumb comment why would they even have non Chinese characters in a movie that takes place in China CENTURIES ago? That’s like saying “good thing there isn’t Latinos or Asians in Black panther or else they’d be erased”

[@Arterismos]

Disney: We're taking away Mushu because we want Mulan to be more historically and culturally accurate. Also Disney: *adds superpowers, a phoenix, and makes Mulan even less historically and culturally accurate*

[@LaurArt_UK]

this movie needed many things, but it especially needed Eddie Murphy

[@breezyfeer]

Right? I was excited about the historically accurate stuff so I didn't care about the things they removed. But 15 minutes into this movie and now I think the original is way more life-like than this one

[@ForeverDegenerate]

@Desdemona And a Witch! We can't forget Disney said talking animals were too fantastical and then turned around and gave us a friggin' Wtich! (facepalm)

[@mrokhaos8269]

It took me a lot of time to think What the fucking Chi is he talking about XDXDXD It is so confused to link the Chi in this movie to the Chi in Chinese culture XD Further more, if you can use Chi that powerful like that witch ancient Chinese will probably worship you as a god no matter what gender u r............

[@Godzillakingofkaiju1]

Yeah, wouldn't a phoenix be indicative of the Hua clan being of royal blood rather than a nobody farmer family?

[@nootcena6957]

15:42 Wtf is an auspicious moon? There is such a thing as an auspicious day. On auspicious days, there are weddings, haircuts, going on a long journey, trotting out the toddler, doing good deeds in the name of god, and etc.

[@zeromailss]

10:59 "She be laughing at you from Chinese hell" Okay, you win my sub Queen

[@alyssasteed8227]

"Half of great Chinese literature is just fantasy fan fiction of historical events". I laughed out loud at that.

[@ClingyKiwi]

You know I just wrote a small paper on what mythology is and its purposes, I used a great quote from a book... I wish I used this though.

[@jim-bob3093]

This just reminds me of all the bible fanfiction from Europe that i live for

[@karaqakkzl]

@@jim-bob3093 Dante Inferno

[@Spyno41]

Basically anything in writing is a fanfiction of a fanfiction of fanfictions.

[@1987MartinT]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a good example of this. The Three Kingdoms Era was a historical period of civil war in China, which lasted 96 years. The book is kinda similar to the Trojan Cycle, in that it depicts a historical conflict, featuring supernatural elements, hundreds of years after the event. Real historical characters are featured in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but like how Achilles is invulnerable except for his heel and the Greek gods keep interfering in the Trojan War, Yellow Turban leaders have magical powers and Zhang Fei has the strength of 10.000 men.

[@MarStam95]

“That is some white person tattoo nonsense” 😂😂😂

[@sgcl10658]

So true

[@NWolfsson]

It's also very visibly drilled/milled characters, not punched, etched, or chiselled. Which makes it look CHEAAAAAAP. I know martial arts movies tend to have a cheap look, but it's a cheaper look overall, but here it contrasts strongly with the quality (not talking about the pertinence) of the rest of the props. Also, it's not looking like a cheap *Chinese* prop, it's very much the look of a milled metal plate you buy at a Chinese shop for 2 bucks *in wester countries*

[@xdfourhappymeatballs7175]

Hhahah it makes me remember I saw a white person(without negative meaning)once and I saw his tattoo "父” maybe he thought it's two knives or something ? But actually it means "father "😂

[@prinzfruhling3276]

@@xdfourhappymeatballs7175 Dunno, maybe this person's father died and as he had a connection to that culture the tattoo is meant to honor him. Or maybe youre right, don't know.

[@lordmuhehe4605]

I really like that white people think chinese characters are cool, and tend to tattoo grossly mistranslated nonsense. Asians then go and print some engrish nonsense on a t-shirt. It just shows that in some ways, we aren't all that different, lmao.

[@TrueZoomerof2003]

You know it's bad when people create channels just to call out Disney for stuff like this. Let's hope it happens more often, so that Disney will have no choice but to actually learn their lesson this time.

[@khfan4life365]

There was literally nothing wrong with the Disney original movie. They portrayed Mulan more realistically in that movie than in this one. The original Mulan had to adapt and use her strengths (wit and logic) to make up for her physical shortcomings. She grew in the movie. This Mulan is already perfect to begin with. Hey, Disney, us girls like seeing flawed female characters. Stop coddling us with Mary Sues.

[@slumbercommentator]

There were some inaccuracies in the original that were *definitely* lined with racist undertones, but overall it’s infinitely better than this pathetic excuse of a “movie”.

[@andrewgreeb916]

​@@slumbercommentatorracist undertones, I've watched it a lot, never saw those, care to elaborate?

[@slumbercommentator]

@@andrewgreeb916 tbh I’m not the person to ask (I’m not Chinese, nor am I a history nerd), but iirc the poster of the video we’re commenting on has a video going over it that I have to recommend.

[@r4tt1s]

​@andrewgreeb916 the video about the animated Milan discusses it more but the nomads are portrayed in a really racist way I think is the big thing? I'm not an expert

[@deansbian5607]

@@r4tt1s yeah, the depiction of the Huns is really racist in the original Mulan. they are meant to be mongolian people

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

The original cartoon might have been inaccurate, but at least it was well-made and the makers cared about it.

[@user-wz8xz3jk8g]

I agree

[@user-wz8xz3jk8g]

It wasn’t perfect but it had a lot of heart poured into it

[@Bluey306]

also it was still faithful to the essence of the original ballad in a few ways: notably mulan having to work hard to become a capable soldier -- like she was still a bit of a tomboy in the animation, but more in the "kinda messy and all over the place" rather than the "not like other girls bc she likes swords and can do backflips" kinda tomboy, and regardless still participated in the duties expected in her as a woman -- that she did it precisely to protect her father and how she went straight home after the war because she wasn't doing it for notoriety or anything. there were western "flavourings" to the whole thing (establishing mulan as a bit "different" -- but again, mainly in personality and habits rather than abilities -- the over-emphasis of "honour", the musical aspect and animal sidekick, the haircutting, for example) but it had a central heart to the story, carried the core resonance from the ballad, AND knew what it was doing when it came to emotionally impacting the audience. i'm chinese and i remember talking to my mom about it, and she too thought the mulan animated movie was pretty well-done and was accurate to the ballad in all the right parts (don't even get me started on how the ballad is VERY short so i don't blame people for wanting to embellish things....just not like mulan 2020 please.) also at least when mulan cut her hair in the original animation it absolutely slapped. the music, the lightning, the reflection in the sword. THE CHILLS.

[@richerDiLefto]

Like pretty much any other Disney animated film ever made before the 2000’s, it was inaccurate but full of watchable fun.

[@useddirt7500]

The original had so many powerful scenes and messages. Mulan was my favorite Disney Princess when I was a kid because I always tried my hardest in sports and I wanted to be strong and smart like her.

[@walteracevedo5105]

Disney: "I command you to love this movie." Everyone: "The mountain does not bow to the wind."

[@loisannebarin6995]

Great use of reference!

[@sophchoi4678]

This 👌

[@Nintendon85]

"No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it." Sorry to be pedantic, it's just such a cool line I needed to put it out there.

[@ItsAsparageese]

@@Nintendon85 beat me to it by one hour lol

[@salenebrom6476]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@_xx.love.goddess.xx_1988]

“they made her Asian Elsa” SENT ME😂

[@jeffreygao3956]

Frosta is Asian Elsa and she's cute!

[@lovealthea3309]

i was 4 when i watched Mulan the cartoon one and now being 12 years old watching the live action makes me think like: wheres shang? mushu? the best grandma? where is mulan? i mean the mulan we loved?

[@sammygecko_]

Her sword just feels like the equivalent of “Live, Laugh, Love”

[@ATEReacts]

Lmaooooo 🤣🤣🤣

[@outbymidnight]

correct

[@stephanieamanze6763]

LMAO

[@monicaraybrandt]

does this mean that mulan is a karen

[@sully1492]

raybrandt and shops at Hobby Lobby

[@ritamvfernandes96]

Even Mulan's horse in the original movie has more personality in the first 10 minutes than live action Mulan in 2 hours

[@Grey_di.ant_420]

That’s so true. I got more entertainment from the cricket then the entire live action film. I got more entertainment from the background soldiers then the entire 2020 movie

[@magnusbane420]

You mean cow

[@shaunaray1]

Damn every horse in that movie

[@lourenrose1967]

Cow* ugh people these days can't even identify an animal 🙄

[@tonywoutrs]

She's Chinese Rey Skywalker, what can you expect

[@BJ64Th3M0v13f4n]

You just made one error. This live-action Mulan is not "Asian Elsa" as you say. You see Elsa started off as too strong, but she learnt how to embrace her powers without going into one extreme or the other because she was considered too strong and dangerous. And then in Frozen II she learnt how to use her powers for a bigger cause because she was considered not strong enough. Mulan in this case is considered perfectly strong from start to finish, without any genuine life lessons to learn as a form of progression. So basically she is not Asian Elsa but rather Asian Rey Skywalker.

[@jules3649]

Mulan 1998: no matter who you are, if you work really hard, anything is possible. Mulan 2020: anything is possible if you have super powers

[@deathsheadmothranch7188]

“Cutting your hair dishonors your parents.” Proceeds to leave her fathers armor behind in the middle of a war.

[@oddeye2412]

Disney: *i'm gonna pretend i didn't see that*

[@luisawashere4630]

Aaaa I was the 505 like! Anyone knows that AM reference??

[@BingDwenDwen]

you didn't pay attention, that wasnt her fathers armor she ditched, she got a whole new set of armor when she joined the army. if you going to hate at least check your facts.

[@pouncepounce7417]

@@BingDwenDwen even in european medival times armor was either privatly owned or from your landliege, the only part of the army that had issued armor was the tiny standing army they had, levee troops had them not issued. I doubt it was different in China. Everything not akin to an knight or house guard had gambeson and an helmet, at home, so they where able to defend the place they where living in. To equip an whole army would not be practical for exact this reason. So the armor she ditched was either her fathers or historical inaccurate armor. She wears what would have been top notch stuff, expensive stuff, never issued to normal troops.

[@BingDwenDwen]

​@@pouncepounce7417 we are not talking about historical facts here, we are talking about the movie. the armor she wore to get to camp was a different and oversized armor than the one she went to battle with, it look totally different. check the movie again.

[@hkc8544]

"And don't tell me a woman can't be Emperor. Wu Zetian did it. She'll be laughing at you from Chinese hell." Why did this crack me up so much

[@valentinmitterbauer4196]

The greatest pirate that ever lived was a woman. Chinese as well, for a matter of fact.

[@HuyLe-yt8pw]

Cheng I Sao?

[@AetherKirin]

Fellow Extra Credit History viewers?

[@artemis6703]

@@valentinmitterbauer4196 yep, i feel like more people should know about that

[@artemis6703]

lol that cracked me up too, but i think she forgot to mention that wu zetian was also one of the better emperors of the tang dynasty in china.

[@ianrose6218]

Honestly though, I would have loved seeing the 'Witch' being a spirit, who turns against Bori Khan when he tries to kill Mulan. It sort of sells the whole "I understand you because we're both women fighting against the oppression forced upon us" angle. Hell, Khan grievously wounding her with his last breath because of her own overconfidence at least makes more sense than what they did in the actual film. Can't say whether it's closer to the original story or not, but at least it creates a solid theme and pays off a clear setup line from earlier. Then again, I'm white and have never read the original story, so maybe I should stop before I make an ass of myself. Disney still needs to rediscover the concept of emotional resonance and catharsis regardless.

[@Roadent1241]

I literally just watched this film after waiting for a year or so. I THOUGHT THE OBVIOUS TWIST WAS THAT SHE WOULD ATTACK BORI KHAN. OK, Disney took me by surprise by not going that route. I think I only liked it well enough (More than Lion King 2019 and I ADORE The Lion King in the other formats) because they used the music, even if Reflection never hit that high note. I still prefer the original and am well aware I'm a white disabled girl lucky enough to not be locked away like I probably would be there. And very blind to whatever problems are in China compared to Britain. I may go and copy-paste Grandma into this film now.

[@VanNessy97]

Honestly, I was led to believe that chi/qi was essentially an incorporeal body part. Like your muscles, it can be strengthened and developed.

[@iagorincon]

So basically this film failed as a western hero’s journey, and a Chinese epic. It takes skill to screw up this completely.

[@m1santhropist410]

Well disney spent the last five-seven years ruining other franchises, I guess it wouldn't have taken them too long to start screwing their own shit, right?

[@Dargonhuman]

It takes skill but still somehow lacks talent.

[@Methus3lah]

It’s the spork of movies: below average at two different things

[@juanarocha8629]

No it just takes Disney

[@CyberBlastoise]

@@Methus3lah don't insult sporks like that.

[@yellowsubmarine2261]

I remember watching a GDC talk from the map designer of Untitled Goose Game about trying to capture the vibe of a small british village. Apparently a lot of the team grew up watching various british kids shows and wanted to emulate that setting but they knew just watching those old kids shows wouldn't be enough. Their research involved showing their map designs to british people and asking for feedback and to point out details that didn't feel quite right for the setting, and looking at various small villages on google street view. It feels like Untitled Goose Game had more research put into it's setting (at least there was more care put into getting things right, all for a funny goose game). The game's setting was so spot on that I was actually a bit surprised to find out it was made by an australian team.

[@BobSmith-tm2kj]

Found you recently and been loving the absolute BAJEEBUS out of your videos c: Hope I can learn a lot more about Chinese culture from you! Thanks for all the work you put in (And for the entertainment/education!)

[@slhpproductions6707]

Omg. Did she literally make this channel JUST to roast Mulan, and her only video got over a million views. What a power move

[@fukkthisnewupdate8882]

She got over 60,000 subscribers from one video

[@Arcessitor]

She actually made it to roast white people, while being fully westernized and out of Chinese culture herself. But sure.

[@christhomas1503]

@@Arcessitor Well she might know to speak in chinese but then who would watch it

[@takemeaway5548]

@@Arcessitor why are you so mad

[@29rbs]

@@Arcessitor Aw are you offended that someone didn't like a bad movie because it was about something they knew nothing about :((((( are you a little baby snowflake :((((

[@kettle_called_black4999]

"that is some white person tattoo nonsense" this movie in a nutshell

[@eldritchcupcakes3195]

Like I’m 100% white and know that chi isn’t a superpower from a year of karate, yet these people who claim to have done extensive research act like it is?

[@poison_raine5219]

one time I saw a white person with a tatoo 大傻逼 and I nearly fell over in the middle of the street in nyc

[@mary-bethholland2871]

@@poison_raine5219 What does that translate to?😂

[@poison_raine5219]

@@mary-bethholland2871 it means big stupid uhhhhh bleeeeeeeeeeeeeppppp it can be interpreted in many different ways depending on your region

[@bluet7777]

@@poison_raine5219 LMFAO YOU’RE KIDDING 😭 that is hilarious

[@Hgoenge81]

Just found your channel, and find it both interesting and informative as was hilarious. 😊 you have a great dry sense of humour, which I appreciate. Also: massive kudos for getting directly into the subject at hand. No ten minute intro. 👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@Phegmore]

Three years later and I still love this genesis of a video.

[@aesthelie953]

This movie is less celebrating Chinese culture and more like celebrating western chinese takeout restaurants! Disney went more with fortune cookies than chinese mythology and culture

[@InfernosReaper]

Fortune cookies are something American Chinese stole from the Japanese. Chop suey is what you're really looking for. It's a food dish that's the epitome of westernized Chinese cuisine.

[@slevinchannel7589]

It's an incredible Insult to the Source Material.

[@White_Recluse]

Aesthelie I like how this movie doesn’t even appeal to the Chinese or western markets

[@user-qd5gq9ec8k]

Bwhahahahahaha it’s Panda Express

[@wendyokoopa7048]

You guys forgot mulan was a brave transgender woman

[@tehdipstick]

Disney: We're gonna cut "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" from the movie because it's sexist. Me: B-but isn't that kind of the point? The juxtaposition of hearing the gender-biased lyrics while at the same time being shown Mulan doing as well in her training as the men? Disney: Too subtle. Let's just make Mulan superhuman and incredibly skilled from the start. Strong female characters shouldn't have to struggle or grow. They should be put on a pedestal.

[@karlarao8736]

Couldn't have said it better 👏 🙌

[@adzukibean2190]

I’ll make a man out of you was FIRE! Damn you Disney! Just give us a shirtless man who sings! Can’t I just have this one?!

[@ReyndommVideos]

A pedestal where, *crucially*, actually human beings cannot get to them. You cannot aspire to be a superhuman magical hero lady; it's not attainable. "We can't give actual women or trans or non-binary people (or any other oppressed group) a decent role model that they can aspire to be. That would give them more sociocultural recognition and actually empower them."

[@discordiadingle3203]

@@ReyndommVideos I feeeel that. I really *really* want to like Captain Marvel, but her only flaw was a damaged memory. They made her so powerful, they couldn’t even put her in most battles because there would be no struggle. And when she was in the battles and struggled, it didn’t feel accurate to the amount of power they gave her.

[@ReyndommVideos]

@@discordiadingle3203 Saddest thing about Captain Marvel to me was how boring it was. I was never interested or engaged in it. It was profoundly wrote and unsurprising and there was basically no tension whatsoever. And then I think about how much money was spent on it and I just feel angry.

[@Calamity556]

I am so glad I found your channel! As someone who has become very interested in Eastern culture, it is very great to hear your explanations about the different aspects of Chinese customs and how different media may or may not get it right.

[@cymraegandconfused9721]

what I'm getting out of all this is that the _only_ good thing this movie did was kick-start Xiran's YT career.

[@tylerlindsey4772]

I remember when people used to say cartoons aren't cinema, now cartoons are the only thing that have tangible emotion and beauty.

[@johnnyritenbaugh1214]

Switch to real Asian dramas. They still get it right. Hollywood is so lifeless right now.

[@DragonLandlord]

Hollywood forgot animation is just a format. Japan's full-on embraced it and China's just remembered.

[@marshmellow_melmel]

i hope people in the west start seeing animation as a serious medium rather than just "cartoons for kids"

[@thegrayyernaut]

@@DragonLandlord I agree. Animation isn' a genre, it's a medium/format, just like the type of film a movie is shot on, or whatever.

[@wadhaal-marri9319]

And try to be accurate where the animators and storytellers research before working on it, which is why they take years to complete.

[@tillydee933]

Even as a white girl, I was offended by Mulan being "magical." I love Mulan because she is a normal girl who trained her butt off to places she was denied. It makes her impossible to attain. I prefer attainable heroes. Thank you for the information, because I honestly didn't know how inaccurate this movie was.

[@nautilume7114]

Agreed!

[@PrincessMavenKittyDarkholme]

2009 is better

[@galactic_worm6393]

exactly!

[@rabidL3M0NS]

Exactly. As someone with blue eyes, I’m getting sick of all these new protagonists in movies being skilled and powerful right from the get go, with no character development. It happened with Rey in Star Wars. Disney just sucks.

[@a_gal.in.your.basement]

@@rabidL3M0NS EXACTLY!

[@thomasmurrell9832]

After a while, I did find ONE (repeat: ONE) genuinely good thing to take away from this movie. It will DEFINITELY be used as a case study for filmmakers and PR trainees on everything to avoid doing like it was their in-laws during Thanksgiving. They made so many mistakes with this movie AND the press around it, I genuinely feel like this film will be valued for how good it can be to study basic level film making and how to NEVER piss off your target audience.

[@digitaltailsmon4096]

Amen to this! Now can I have some coffee? You look like someone who would sell good coffee

[@thomasmurrell9832]

​@@digitaltailsmon4096 oh of course, good friend! How about a nice hot cup of Wilkins?

[@chromegecko3908]

I keep putting this on for background noise but end up getting distracted and watching the whole thing each time 😭 keep up the good work bruv 👍

[@LCBanga]

The fact she created a whole channel just to critique/complain about this movie is awesome lol

[@slevinchannel7589]

You know, it's hard for me: Normally, i would seperate the actual Movie 'Mulan' from the Real Life. Look at them seperately. But this... THIS is just an extreme case and i dont know how to do it here. All this is so insane. The Movie is full of Cringe, Fake-Feminism and Plot Holes - yet, the Real Life has way crazier problems and I'm starting to think China is so off-track from the rest of humanity that some Nation should - no kidding - invade China and take over, so the Supression ends... Or something like this! I know this normally isnt right, but... i believe there is a 'Point' where such a thing is justified. Of course this point is by no means easy to reach, but... it's possible to reach, you know? Oh, i don't know.

[@eclair6910]

I personally thing that since we live in an age where anyone on the internet can interact. That actual Chinese people should make an adaptation of the Ballad of Mulan. Just look at all the high quality web series that are out there.

[@rogerfaint499]

@@eclair6910 There are tons of China-made Ballad of Mulan and they are way better than the Disney adaptation.

[@RadenWA]

and she got like 30k subscriber just with this video! 🤣

[@irony373]

@@slevinchannel7589 ok, dial back the imperialism bro.

[@cursapear]

"Half of Chinese literature is just fantasy fanfiction of historical events." LMAO

[@Towkeeyoh]

Cursa Pear she has so many amazing lines!

[@zhaoyun255]

She's not wrong. Romance of the Three Kingdom mixed both Historical and Fictional event.

[@hpqphpqp]

This applies to most literature to be honest (e.g. in Europe: Illyad/Odyssee, Sagas, Arthuriana, etc.)

[@ChewThePRO]

Not to mention journey to the west. It supposed to be a solo trip but ends up with a bunch of nonsense 😂 but at least thanks to journey to the west we have dragon ball

[@zerocalvin]

yeah, that is pretty much it... the story of Wong Fei Hung for example, it's all fictional made up by his student but it is base on the real person with a museum dedicated to him back at his birth place Fushan. China have alot of story like this, it's fiction that base on real event.. Romance of Three Kingdom is the most well known fiction that kinda loosely base on historical event...

[@ceres090]

I can't believe this was just a year ago! I'm so glad to see your success.

[@rishikaprasad5473]

also the solider walking down the middle stairs also wrong? wasn't the center staircase only and only for the emperor to use? like even the empress could only walk the center staircase on her wedding day. (not very sure but i think that's what the guide at the forbidden city said)

[@kkohi]

"they made her asian elsa" I'm dead-

[@jeffreygao3956]

We have Asian Elsa already. Frosta from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and she’s adorable!

[@eldritchcupcakes3195]

@@jeffreygao3956 she would probably punch your eye out for calling her cute

[@jeffreygao3956]

@@eldritchcupcakes3195 That's cold!

[@billystokes3917]

We have Scottish Elsa too, but without the superpowers. She's just a great archer and her mother has great fashion sense.

[@Local_commentor]

@@jeffreygao3956 puns are too funny ahahah

[@sapphiree.unordinary]

Disney: We’re taking out all your favourite characters and songs to make it more “realistic” Also Disney: Haha magic chi goes brr

[@graceus5101]

Sapphire Wolf 💀😭

[@ashley-annbenoit-gagnon5239]

This made me burst out laughing 😅🤣

[@ororaborealis3992]

Lmfao 😂😂😂

[@ilovecats3778]

LMAO, ikr

[@Kai-bz9ym]

BAHAHAHAHAHA

[@memeempress3600]

after 2 years seeing your contant, i finally could y your bok. its absolutly amazing how long you have come, is just being here since the begining, i love you, and your contant, just keep going and doing your absolutly amazing work!!

[@fictionlover695]

I have seen plenty of ur videos before this one as it keeps getting mentioned as the first. I gotta say...ur Chinese knowledge is boundless...I m learning so much and enjoying it! Thank u 💓