Coming from a Chinese POV

Rating: 10/10 (3 August 2000)

While most critics went into this movie expecting another typical Disney animated flick, I went in with another interest in mind: to see if Disney would give a respectable treatment to a Chinese subject. Asian culture and their stories get limited enough time as it is in the theaters, so, being of Chinese blood, movies like Mulan are something for me to look forward to as a moviegoer.
I am happy to say that I was delighted by what I saw. On the surface was, expectedly, a rather typical Disney treatment of the alienated heroine who fights for acceptance. However, it was framed within an uncompromising traditionalist Asian mentality, and I found it quite satisfying to see Disney pull few punches as far as this mentality was concerned: that women are inferior. They are worthless, secondary, and there only to support men. A Disney be-yourself story is perfect against this backdrop, and it was great to see the backdrop itself so relentlessly illustrated.
A normally watered down story might have featured a heroine set back by her own naturally limited abilities (such as Ariel's being a mermaid not allowing her to walk on land), but Mulan was stuck in a world where prejudices against whom she inherently was were not only unchecked but accepted as fact. As someone who has been repeatedly irked by the ridiculous traditional Asian/Chinese view that women are inferior, Mulan's presentation enthralled me as the perfect situation to triumph out of. Everything in the movie reinforced this. Mulan is to be presented like a piece of fruit to get married; she can not join the army under penalty of death; women are repeatedly referred to as not being able to do a man's job; etc. Even the songs were extremely well-written to reinforce this: "Be a Man" straightforwardly suggests that only a man is capable of being strong enough to go to war; "A Girl Worth Fighting For" has the troops objectifying women to what they look like and cook like; "Honor to Us All" has a great line: "We all must serve our emperor... our boys by bearing arms, our girls by bearing sons." Over and over again, the Asian mentality which I had witnessed so much myself firsthand was being pounded in to audience primarily made of impressionable kids! Let me tell you, it was great!
It was great to see that old Chinese mentality exposed, even if it was in a colorful musical, to a young audience. And it was great to see that mentality refuted by the story itself: that a woman could be resourceful enough to help win a war and defeat a major villain _without_ becoming a man. I really appreciated it. The extra touches of "Chinese-ness" were also appreciated: Mulan's exclaiming "ai-ya!", the Ancestors and their place in the family homelife, the reverence under which the Emperor was held, the wicked official (ancient Chinese history is full of them). One of my friends saw this in a theater full of Asians, and he said the audience received the movie with cheerful enthusiasm. Even my parents appreciated the effort put into the movie, with my mother, self-proclaimed cartoon-hater, giving it a thumbs up!
This movie did not go to lengths to misunderstand and poke fun at the Chinese. It really did a fine job getting the point just right, especially in the conveyed attitude toward women. Thus it scores on two levels: it shows that the Chinese can be heroic and that women are equal with men. It makes the kids happy and Asians can be in on the jokes. I think this was a great achievement.
P.S. For those of you who wonder about the actual story of Mulan: the story exists as a poem. Much of it is spent describing in detail how Mulan made herself to appear as a man, and then back as a woman after the war was over, and, so I've been told, not much else. The Chinese mostly regard it as one of those stories you've heard about, like the way Americans regard fairy tales. I think it was a perfect story for Disney to "raid," in its usual way :-)