Mulan in 2020 (Or, If the Sun Rose in the West)

“Mulan” (2020) is a fair and colorful action film, and dir. Niki Caro (of “Whale Rider,” a discourse on gender and society in a more serious tone) tightened the bootstraps on its feminist underpinnings. Though staggered at the outset by political controversy, “Mulan” (2020) yet offers a number of narrative points to pick over. Hold your opinion of the film until you understand the character Xianniang, the witch (Gong Li); consider the use of birds as a symbolic parallel and not an equivalence, and I assure, the musical homages and reimagined motivations make the live-action movie worth a thoughtful watch for fans of the 1998 animated film or the titular legend.

Thematic Implications: A Woman’s Worth

Understand, this film arrived in the midst of social turmoil. There is a sex-ratio crisis in China resultant of the One Child policy, the sociocultural preference for sons, and complement of sex-biased abortions accounting for a missing 20 million daughters.

In contemporary culture, China casts single young women as ‘Leftover‘ undesirables whose true duty to family and nation is to marry a man — but it wasn’t always so.³ Women’s rights were established in China during Mao’s socialist revolution of the 60s and 70s. Rather than possession to be bartered and bound, women were suddenly valid equals, appreciated for their necessary contribution to the rebuilding of the nation. Then, in 1980, China prepared to enter the global economy and feminism fell out of political favor.³ The spirit of the “strong woman” was propagandized as inappropriate in favor of the role of housewife and mother. Consider the fate of “The Iron Girls” and “Rosy the Riveter” essentially equal, gone the way of the dodo, with the notable exception that activists for women’s rights in China can be arrested and imprisoned indefinitely.³

Mulan: More than Iron

Nostalgic viewers will recall that the heart of in the opening act is the matchmaker sequence. Mulan’s parents want her to find a husband as she risks getting too old and becoming a leftover spinster. Flying in the face of the sociopolitical rhetoric above, Mulan is not inclined to marry. She is more than a someday-wife.

The film attempts to advocates equality (if not equity) in its primary conflict with Xianniang. While trailers keenly frame the paramount antagonist of the film to be Bori Khan (counterpart to the animated Shan Yu), the narrative swiftly tacks on Xianniang, a woman — and one of similar stigma to an unmarriable Mulan: Xianniang is a witch. The substitution of a woman adversary in for a man put this critical viewer on the backfoot. Could the more pragmatic live-action narrative not stomach the idea that a woman could defeat a man as in the less-grounded animated film?

Thankfully, Caro is better than that (if only by a hair, in this case). Mulan and Xianniang are indeed parallels, not adversaries. Xianniang is a more elaborate characterization of the animated Hayabusa, Shan Yu’s falcon. Mulan, on the other hand, is associated with her family’s phoenix herald and guardian, said to sit at the right side of the Emperor. Both woman are identified by their symbolic birds and their ties to important men. While Xianniang’s story deals with breaking away from a deceitful man, Mulan’s seems to passively celebrate picking the right side (or, man) without rumination.

But, She Eventually Gets Caught Naked?

Potentially a consequence of Mulan’s strict image of strength and equality, Caro doesn’t subject her to romance. While, as a westerner, I cherish any on-screen woman that escapes mandatory romance, Mulan’s freedom appears a touch too topical. She amounts to a legend here, in the narrative releasing her from social expectations. This theory suggests that Mulan is no more a woman than a white horse is a horse. If her accomplishments thus far are not retroactively removed from the sphere of all women’s capabilities by her new status, at the very least all that she does for the rest of the film cannot be attributed under the header of womanhood.

From the outset, the live-action film’s sober and conservative performance will start you wondering how the ‘outed’ scene is inevitably handled. You’ll wonder. And wonder. You’ll wonder far past the point in the plot where the animated film ‘outs’ Mulan. (Being disrobed after injury is a tad too risqué for the live-action’s dramatic gravitas). Instead, the pivotal moment of exhibiting sex identity cruxes on the narrative’s biggest cop-out: if Mulan is pretending to be a man, she just can’t reach her full potential in combat. This weaves into the character’s aspiration to honor her family by becoming representative of the three virtues born by her family’s sword: loyal, brave, and true.

Modern gender studies viewers will be left wondering what the contents of Mulan’s underpants have anything to do with the truth she has created and displayed over the course of the film until this point. Hence, Mulan’s ‘outing’ scene in the live-action film is, at best, an obligatory translation of prior iterations of the tale. It is not a new philosophy about sex roles and gender norms, and that’s a consolation considering it is Xianniang that motivates Mulan into her outed state. Xianniang narratively confirms Hua Jun (Mulan’s male moniker) cannot best the witch in battle, and therefore can certainly not defeat Bori Khan. The capstone moment sees Xianniang cut through Mulan’s armor with a thrown blade, making it impossible to conceal her bust.

Women & Brotherhood

“Mulan” (2020) follows the story beats of bonding with her fellow soldiers, especially Honghui (Yoson An)—a stand-in for the animated love interest Li-Shang. But Honghui is not Mulan’s love connection. The two form a friendship based in trust and it doesn’t turn into a cinematic, obligatory love — maybe because the narrative doesn’t see Mulan as a woman anymore, but hey! We’re resonating with “Pacific Rim” here. The characters are stronger for it, and asexuals, gray-asexuals, demisexuals, and aromantics in the audience get a rare day in the sun.

Intimacy is another topic which receives interesting treatment in this film. Proposal: if Xianniang had been male, would her incredibly touching final moments have ended with a kiss? Judging from the development of Honghui, the answer is no. But the theatrics! The lights! Those eyes! I am sad it did not go so far. The staff had no real issue conflating cultural periods and peoples or misusing contemporarily-relevant concepts, but they drew the line at gay!

Genderfluid lesbian witches aside, please acknowledge that Xianniang had no narrative reason to die. She takes an arrow for Mulan, yes, but she’s already been vindicated. We’re close to fridging territory here, except her death gives Mulan no more motivation than she had already, so we can’t even call it that. She has the opportunity to walk with Mulan on a journey of redefining the role of women and it is tragically taken from her. It’s sad for sad’s sake. Additionally, the true adversary of the story, the man who has been using Xianniang all along, gets to kill her. It feels a punishment for unfortunately associating with Bori Khan in the first place. Pah.

Still Worth the Watch

For what it fumbles culturally in the way of POC opportunity to tell their own tales in their own words,¹ “Mulan” (2020) does take a few fancifully-choreographed steps forward for the queer among us — even if the half of it is cause to question why something feels off. Otherwise, fellow 90s kids, watch it for the stunning realization that you do, in fact, remember the words to that Jessica Simpson song.

Bibliography

1. Botting, Eileen Hunt. Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women’s Human Rights, 209-10. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016, 209-10. Open Access E-Books.

2. Haynes, Suyin. “Is Mulan Based on a True Story? Here’s the Real History.” Time, September 11, 2020.

3. Larsson, Milène. “China’s Unmarried ‘Leftover’ Women.” Broadly, Vice Asia, October 5, 2018. Video, 31:56. https://youtu.be/WBMcoJWo92Y.

4. “Mulan.” Directed by Niki Caro. 2020. Film.