Eve and I travel to ancient China with Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan! This not-really-remake touts loyalty, bravery, and the importance of being truthful but still manages to dip into gender and magic questions. Disney combines the 8th-century legend and the 1998 animated classic to produces an engaging story that demonstrates interesting new levels of “Disney-fication.”
Mulan (2020) is directed by Niki Caro and stars Yiefei Liu as Mulan, with martial arts superstars Donnie Yen as Commander Tung, Jet Li as the Emperor, and Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan. Even Disney’s original Mulan, Ming-Na Wen, has a few seconds of screen time. The award-winning Harry Gregson-Williams composed the music. He did a great job maintaining the far east flavor and feel while making sure the music served the story for a Western audience.
Both this newest Disney version of Mulan and its 1998 predecessor retells the 8th-century legend of the titular character who seeks to save her father’s life by posing as a young man and joining the conscript army on his behalf. She goes on to show incredible military prowess but eventually chooses to reveal the truth of her gender to her comrades. In this version, China is threatened by the Rouran, seeking to disrupt trade and take territory along the silk road. When the emperor calls up an army, each family must provide one male. Mulan’s father, played by Tzi Ma, is a famous general who was permanently injured in a military campaign many years ago. Devoutly loyal to the empire, he accepts the call to arms, even though he will almost certainly not survive. To save her father, Mulan steals his blade, armor, and the imperial summons and reports to training under pretenses of being her father’s son instead of his daughter. From there, Mulan begins to understand the importance of the virtues, “loyalty,” “bravery,” and most importantly, “truth.”
First Impressions
Eve and I have very different experiences with animated movies in general. As a father whose children grew up during Disney’s resurgence as an animated feature film powerhouse of 1992 and on, I was exposed to 15 years or so of animated films whether I was interested in them or not because my kids were. Eve never really had to develop a taste for them and hadn’t seen the original Mulan since the 1998 original release. With a much cleaner palate, so to speak, Eve found that she liked this live-action “remake” better than the original. As a tomboy in her younger years, Eve was really able to identify with Mulan’s character, which was looked down upon because she showed incredible proficiency with chi, which in this movie is the sole domain of the male members of the society. She also liked the Asian legend-esque feel to the movie that reminded her of movies like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
For my part, I could not get away from my dozens and dozens of viewings of the 1998 original. For me, that only served to highlight how much Mulan departed from the original. Unlike the other live-action Disney remakes, this one doesn’t really have any scene-for-scene reproductions of the original’s content. This retelling included a major mystical element that I thought was unneeded. They added a witch named Xianniang that, at the start of the movie, supported the conquering Rouran commander, Böri Khan. They also took the millennia-old Chinese idea of chi and turned it into something far more like the Force from Star Wars than the Chinese culture’s universal life energy.
Mulan, unlike the 1998 animated film, is most definitely not a light-hearted musical. There are no musical numbers, though the beautiful score often contains wisps of homage to the original score. This version is also almost entirely lacking the comic characters, landing the movie clearly in the action/adventure/drama areas and nowhere near the comedy category.
Below this line, there be SPOILERS…
Gender Roles in Mulan
From the opening scenes, it is clear that Mulan is even more focused on gender discrimination than its predecessor. As she demonstrates uncanny martial prowess, the audience hears her father’s voice in prayer:
If you had a daughter, her chi, the boundless energy of life itself speaking through her every motion, could you tell her that only a son may wield chi. That a daughter would risk shame, dishonor, exile? Ancestors, I could not.
Over ten minutes or so, the film shows us how Mulan is “slowly” being cast out of her village’s society because she is too competent in the physical arts. While it can’t be denied that gender played a very significant role in how a person’s life would develop in ancient China, it wasn’t quite as bad as Mulan represents. The fact is that life was pretty bad, in general, regardless of gender. As a rule, women were related to the role of spouse, while men would do either what their father did or join the military. Sometimes both. The misogyny is important to this story, though—Mulan might be forgiven for slightly exaggerating it to drive the plot and help you invest in the characters.
It drives the plot to establish that a woman strong in chi would eventually be cast out as a witch. Not much later, we are introduced to exactly such a woman—the character of Xianniang. She also grew up strong in chi and was cast out. She embraced it, was exiled for it, and eventually fell in with the Rouran army. What’s more—throughout the movie, she demonstrated truly mystical powers. We’re not talking power like in kung-fu movies (ever seen Hero?) but bizarre stuff, like the ability to shapeshift into an eagle or a swarm of bats, or the ability to become incorporeal and possess other people.
While Mulan doesn’t really dive into the issue of transgenderism the way you might expect from a “socially conscious” company like Disney would, it can’t help but make you think of it. Mulan is clearly uncomfortable hiding among the men. She did everything she could to protect her secret, including avoiding a bath for days (or weeks) on end. Mulan might be a good springboard for discussion among your friends and family into the conditions of gender dysphoria and the dangers of the increasing acceptance—even encouragement—of transgenderism.
Famous women warriors are hardly new, though. Two of the judges from the Book of Judges are women. You might have heard of a young woman named Joan of Arc? Check out these impressive lists of legendary warriors here and here. Clearly, God can use anyone for anything He desires.
In Proverbs 31:10-31, the Bible lists the following characteristics of a noble woman: Trustworthy, Good-hearted, Discerning, Industrious, Frugal, Strong, Attentive, Generous, Planning, Honorable, Wise, Teaching, Watchful, Faithful, and God-fearing. Which of these properties preclude the role of a warrior? I would argue that none do. A man and a woman are intended to become one flesh—a single unit in the service of God, but when it comes to being a believer, there is no gender:
There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
Living a Lie
The other major theme in Mulan is that of “loyal, brave, & true.” It is the oath that the soldiers of Mulan take. The words are inscribed on her father’s sword. The concepts have been imbued in Mulan since she was a child. She believed that she lived out those values when she took her father’s place in the conscripted army. As she worked through her training and understood these values from the soldier’s perspective, she began to struggle with the third virtue: truth. Her motives and intentions were pure, but her course of action has been to live the lie of an impostor. It corrupted her comradery and prevented her from being a truly great soldier.
Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. (Ephesians 4:25)
Once she confessed to her commander and unit, even knowing it would mean expulsion and disgrace—he was made whole. Much like:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
As Christians, we are already made whole and freed from our corruption, our bondage to sin.
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
The Force. . . er . . . Chi
As we mentioned before, for Mulan, Disney took the idea of chi and made it gender-specific, but they also made it a mystical force that enabled a person to do magical things. In one scene, the army command explains:
The chi pervades the universe and all living things. We are all born with it. Only the most true can connect deeply to his chi and become a great warrior.
Throughout the movie, you really do get the feeling that they were taking the millennia-old Chinese idea of chi and stuffing it into the Star-Wars idea box of the Force. In particular, they made it specific to martial arts and divorced it from everyday life just as completely as they divorced it from women.
For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)
As Paul tells us, the power and glory of God are written on the hearts of every man, woman, and child. It is spelled out in creation. Perhaps that is what this culture was trying to explain when they first started discussing chi?
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)
Dishonor to you! Your family! Your village!
Dishonor was a genuine, terrifying threat in ancient China (and many other cultures), and we see it portrayed in Mulan. For the training soldiers, it was only a slightly worse fate than the other punishment: death. But faith in Christ is a different thing entirely. When we are called to leave everything, when we accept Christ as our savior, we are called to willingly set aside our entire society to worship and follow Him.
Peter began to tell him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more, now at this time—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and eternal life in the age to come.” (Luke 10:28-30)
Christ doesn’t just say that we might face ridicule for following him, but we will. Even to the point of our society cursing us: Dishonor to you! Your family! Your village!
You can see what this might have meant for Christ’s apostles in the series, The Chosen. It is a fictional account based on the truth of scripture. The Chosen seeks to help the viewer understand what the first followers of Christ faced. Including how they gave up everything to follow Him.
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