"Fun" Blog Post
Maybe not all Disney cartoons should be made into live action movies. The live action remix of Mulan was a miss, and not just because of missing Mushu, Cricket, Shang, the entire soundtrack, and having a generally lukewarm plot.
The plethora of issues starts with lead actress Liu Yifei publical expressing her support for the Hong Kong police, infamously known for utilizing brute force, over the pro-democracy protesters. Moreover, Disney was under fire for shooting parts of the movie in the Xinjiang province where millions of Uighurs are being held in internment camps. Disney stated that the majority of the film was shot in New Zealand with only 20 locations being filmed in China but nevertheless, #BoycottMulan trended on Twitter with many people criticizing the film's execution. Hollywood has always had a difficult time navigating the Chinese movie industry considering the web of censorship laws and I assume that several of the modifications made to the movie were meant to appeal to the Chinese government for the sake of marketing.
An issue I had with the film was its misrepresentation of feminism and the Chinese culture in general. Chinese citizens described the film as having a "superficial understanding of China" and turns out, while people on screen were asian, everyone one behind the camera from the writers, costume designers, and directors, were all caucasian. Growing up, I never saw asian people portrayed in mainstream media beyond the token nerdy and awkward side character. However, as Hollywood became more racially aware, films such as "Crazy Rich Asians" became a monumental step of progress. I am disappointed that what could've been a fantastic step for asian representation in media has become quite an embarrassment to associate with. Do filmmakers in Hollywood have a responsibility to progress social change? To what extent can they pursue a dramatized and not entirely accurate narrative?
Los Angeles Times How Disney’s ‘Mulan’ became one of 2020’s most controversial movies
2 comments:
Though this movie was played by Asian actors and actresses, the lead's controversial tweets and support for the brutal Hong Kong police have definitely made Disney's reputation worse in the media. This film was specifically meant to be more culturally accurate as Disney faced immense backlash for their cultural appropriation in the previous Mulan movie, but has clearly not worked. I personally thought that Disney's decision to cast well known Asian actors as major leads to gain support was shallow and not well thought out, as it seems as though they attempted to cover up the flaws of the film with popular faces and names. I do believe that the filmmakers in Hollywood have a great responsibility to progress social change in America, especially because they have such a large platform in the world. Promoting social change and cultural acceptance is right at their fingertips and I don't believe it's difficult for Hollywood and the media to do so. It's not always about who the face of the film is (though still important), but the content and writers are equally and sometimes more important in the process to get points across through the screen. Something so that has had so much attention drawn to in the media should've been done correctly.
Hollywood seems to care about nothing except money. As controversial as everything surrounding the actor's endorsement of police and the filming of the movie in Xinjiang province, it's not even a single bit surprising. They did the same thing to Star Wars: The Force Awakens where the main black character was shrunk in the poster for China. It's ironic how Disney will virtue signal for certain issues in the West then proceed to immediately support China's actual police brutality and ignore the concentration camps.
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