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

Sdílet
Vložit
  • čas přidán 9. 09. 2020
  • Do better, Disney.
    Mulan-era Makeup Infographics: / cep6zaqaaeh
    Get my #1 New-York-Times-bestselling & Nebula-nominated book IRON WIDOW, a sci-fi reimagining of China's only female emperor: ironwidow.com/
    There's also ZACHARY YING AND THE DRAGON EMPEROR, my Chinese Percy Jackson meets Yugioh book: zacharyying.com/
    Text Version of This Video: / everything-culturally-...
    Wanna see more videos by me? Buy me a Ko-Fi so I can upgrade my PC and not have to spend 20+ hours editing and rendering LOL: ko-fi.com/xiranjayzhao
    My Twitter: / xiranjayzhao
    My Instagram: / xiranjayzhao
    My Chinese History Tweet Collections: linktr.ee/xiranjayzhao
    My original viral Mulan livetweet thread: / 1302352476465590272
  • Krátké a kreslené filmy

Komentáře • 25K

  • @XiranJayZhao
    @XiranJayZhao  Před 3 lety +57514

    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
      @limxinyi7790 Před 3 lety +454

      Yes please :3

    • @WhoTookMyMirr
      @WhoTookMyMirr Před 3 lety +1013

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

    • @gryranfelt5473
      @gryranfelt5473 Před 3 lety +561

      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
      @sophiathedandilioness Před 3 lety +294

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

    • @PokemnTrainerRacheal
      @PokemnTrainerRacheal Před 3 lety +102

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

  • @gabsgabs1287
    @gabsgabs1287 Před 3 lety +3009

    "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
      @Tamaki742 Před 3 lety +260

      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
      @pokeperson1000 Před 3 lety +35

      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
      @Crawlingdreams418 Před 3 lety +7

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

    • @megangwilliam5343
      @megangwilliam5343 Před 3 lety +25

      Tamaki742 it’s fine she still had plot armor

    • @gabsgabs1287
      @gabsgabs1287 Před 3 lety +26

      @@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

  • @bluetube364
    @bluetube364 Před 3 lety +3190

    I like how “the witch” can turn into a bunch of birds but decides to turn into just one bird so that she dies instead of idk losing a finger.

    • @magsteel9891
      @magsteel9891 Před 3 lety +167

      Or maybe conjuring a shield would have been a good idea

    • @agnes6276
      @agnes6276 Před 3 lety +81

      *cough cough* peter pettigrew *cough cough*

    • @ChristHoon
      @ChristHoon Před 3 lety +30

      Liu Yifei encourages to kill the dreams and freedom of Hong Kong children and young people. She supports the Hong Kong police who are using tear gas against the protestors.

    • @helleswahn
      @helleswahn Před 3 lety +48

      or like she said just killing the dude instead of sacrificing herself lol
      that scene literally made no sense in any way

    • @sameerakhan7455
      @sameerakhan7455 Před 3 lety +28

      At this point, It seems like she WANTED to die😂

  • @alexandradea4041
    @alexandradea4041 Před 2 lety +3542

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

  • @rosamy2017
    @rosamy2017 Před rokem +2513

    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
      @Mojo1356 Před rokem +125

      And then the sequel completely ruined it.

    • @bayanmirza6956
      @bayanmirza6956 Před rokem +239

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

    • @aeoligarlic4024
      @aeoligarlic4024 Před rokem +210

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

    • @21specter
      @21specter Před rokem +71

      @@aeoligarlic4024 “dinner would be great”

    • @kiwimusume
      @kiwimusume Před 4 měsíci +1

      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.

  • @mitarashi8091
    @mitarashi8091 Před 3 lety +3808

    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.

  • @s.e.s.9146
    @s.e.s.9146 Před 3 lety +3164

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

    • @bennyton2560
      @bennyton2560 Před 3 lety +76

      that line had me ROLLING lmaooo

    • @kintamas4425
      @kintamas4425 Před 3 lety +33

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

    • @Abridgelion
      @Abridgelion Před 3 lety +1

      Is that a Charles Bronson quote?

    • @dorothygale9648
      @dorothygale9648 Před 3 lety +3

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

    • @FFWorldHD
      @FFWorldHD Před 3 lety

      10:43 best parts lmao

  • @catperson6683
    @catperson6683 Před rokem +2518

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

    • @Lissy_YT481
      @Lissy_YT481 Před rokem +45

      Yeah, that explains a lot...

    • @SeaguIISoup
      @SeaguIISoup Před rokem +323

      disney didn’t, the artists and animators did

    • @catperson6683
      @catperson6683 Před rokem +167

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

    • @Wroar2020s
      @Wroar2020s Před rokem +6

      ​@@catperson6683 PriVer Animation?

    • @sgfuckinghuntress
      @sgfuckinghuntress Před 9 měsíci +45

      isn't brave pixar?

  • @Irenicus91
    @Irenicus91 Před rokem +2020

    "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
      @Xisstillalive Před 9 měsíci +31

      i laughed harder than i have in a while!

    • @KF-zb6gi
      @KF-zb6gi Před 6 měsíci +34

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

  • @LazyAlternativeBrat
    @LazyAlternativeBrat Před 3 lety +3090

    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
      @maia_gaia Před 3 lety +215

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

    • @AgentSkidZ
      @AgentSkidZ Před 3 lety +96

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

    • @yucol5661
      @yucol5661 Před 3 lety +10

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

    • @MrGrizzzlik
      @MrGrizzzlik Před 3 lety +28

      @@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
      @diegotm4365 Před 3 lety

      @@maia_gaia yes

  • @illustryfe5354
    @illustryfe5354 Před 3 lety +3386

    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
      @wammert Před 3 lety +83

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

    • @lilithhecataniangoddessesm187
      @lilithhecataniangoddessesm187 Před 3 lety +33

      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
      @nosai10 Před 3 lety +4

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

    • @woofwoof8146
      @woofwoof8146 Před 3 lety +47

      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
      @miceatah9359 Před 3 lety +1

      @@woofwoof8146 i mean its also true

  • @panman4459
    @panman4459 Před 2 lety +3683

    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_
      @boobitch_ Před 2 lety +147

      She’s also related to Wu Zetian

    • @phoenix_waffles2122
      @phoenix_waffles2122 Před rokem +201

      She also wrote a book about Wu Zetian

    • @bbnagyu7704
      @bbnagyu7704 Před rokem +176

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

    • @panman4459
      @panman4459 Před rokem +25

      @@bbnagyu7704 Oh, I'm sorry

    • @CesarACastillo
      @CesarACastillo Před rokem +18

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

  • @reitanthekiller
    @reitanthekiller Před rokem +3304

    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
      @UnKnowmanNumber2 Před rokem +229

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

    • @GuiSmith
      @GuiSmith Před rokem +1

      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
      @palofrasca1775 Před rokem +69

      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
      @hauthot287 Před rokem

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

    • @melanoc3tusii205
      @melanoc3tusii205 Před rokem

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

  • @khamulthewack4732
    @khamulthewack4732 Před 3 lety +4378

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

    • @naomistarlight6178
      @naomistarlight6178 Před 3 lety +133

      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
      @mr559 Před 3 lety +35

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

    • @marthapozo4881
      @marthapozo4881 Před 3 lety +12

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

    • @Raccon_Detective.
      @Raccon_Detective. Před 3 lety +2

      @@naomistarlight6178
      Indeed brother

    • @Nassit-Gnuoy
      @Nassit-Gnuoy Před 3 lety +2

      I liked and subbed right there.

  • @tehdipstick
    @tehdipstick Před 3 lety +5171

    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
      @karlarao8736 Před 3 lety +185

      Couldn't have said it better 👏 🙌

    • @adzukibean2190
      @adzukibean2190 Před 3 lety +293

      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
      @ReyndommVideos Před 3 lety +227

      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
      @discordiadingle3203 Před 3 lety +85

      @@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
      @ReyndommVideos Před 3 lety +51

      @@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.

  • @awesomeperson3342
    @awesomeperson3342 Před rokem +981

    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
      @yukishiro3287 Před rokem +1

      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
      @ghost19101 Před 11 měsíci +151

      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
      @kingdionysus1867 Před 10 měsíci +31

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

    • @KF-zb6gi
      @KF-zb6gi Před 6 měsíci +19

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

  • @2fortsmostwanted
    @2fortsmostwanted Před 2 lety +478

    "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

  • @alyssasteed8227
    @alyssasteed8227 Před 3 lety +3129

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

    • @ClingyKiwi
      @ClingyKiwi Před 3 lety +43

      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
      @jim-bob3093 Před 3 lety +37

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

    • @karaqakkzl
      @karaqakkzl Před 3 lety +18

      @@jim-bob3093 Dante Inferno

    • @Spyno41
      @Spyno41 Před 3 lety +11

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

    • @1987MartinT
      @1987MartinT Před 3 lety +11

      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.

  • @walteracevedo5105
    @walteracevedo5105 Před 3 lety +3188

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

    • @loisannebarin6995
      @loisannebarin6995 Před 3 lety +52

      Great use of reference!

    • @sophchoi4678
      @sophchoi4678 Před 3 lety +20

      This 👌

    • @Nintendon85
      @Nintendon85 Před 3 lety +223

      "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
      @ItsAsparageese Před 3 lety +16

      @@Nintendon85 beat me to it by one hour lol

    • @salenebrom6476
      @salenebrom6476 Před 3 lety +2

      👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

  • @yin4296
    @yin4296 Před 2 lety +814

    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
      @DancerVeiled Před 10 měsíci +100

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

    • @auricstorm
      @auricstorm Před 9 měsíci +17

      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
      @andrewgreeb916 Před 9 měsíci

      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
      @andrewgreeb916 Před 9 měsíci +3

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

    • @AsianIdiots323
      @AsianIdiots323 Před 9 měsíci +1

      @@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

  • @doodle4178
    @doodle4178 Před rokem +806

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

    • @BrennaBridRogers
      @BrennaBridRogers Před rokem +41

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

    • @zihanwang4078
      @zihanwang4078 Před 8 měsíci +3

      @@BrennaBridRogers😂

    • @kiwimusume
      @kiwimusume Před 4 měsíci +8

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

  • @merrittanimation7721
    @merrittanimation7721 Před 3 lety +5217

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

    • @ominousromanpillar238
      @ominousromanpillar238 Před 3 lety +372

      an extremely creative death threat

    • @poisonedvices6962
      @poisonedvices6962 Před 3 lety +144

      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
      @Mystique-zq9jy Před 3 lety +61

      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
      @lloydgush Před 3 lety +25

      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
      @MushVPeets Před 3 lety +3

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

  • @MarStam95
    @MarStam95 Před 3 lety +4398

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

    • @sgcl10658
      @sgcl10658 Před 3 lety +25

      So true

    • @NWolfsson
      @NWolfsson Před 3 lety +69

      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
      @xdfourhappymeatballs7175 Před 3 lety +3

      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
      @prinzfruhling3276 Před 3 lety +11

      @@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
      @lordmuhehe4605 Před 3 lety +29

      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.

  • @juniperrodley9843
    @juniperrodley9843 Před rokem +156

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

    • @HadridarMatramen
      @HadridarMatramen Před 8 měsíci +41

      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

  • @consumingkazoos
    @consumingkazoos Před 10 měsíci +158

    "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!!

  • @coni3538
    @coni3538 Před 3 lety +7265

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

  • @tagdavid9503
    @tagdavid9503 Před 3 lety +6234

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

    • @kariissmol9172
      @kariissmol9172 Před 3 lety +59

      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
      @ebrahimwadee7574 Před 3 lety +256

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

    • @smrtfasizmu7242
      @smrtfasizmu7242 Před 3 lety +99

      @@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
      @ametsunami4070 Před 3 lety +41

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

    • @haypochi1263
      @haypochi1263 Před 3 lety +5

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

  • @rebelturtle7494
    @rebelturtle7494 Před 2 lety +590

    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
      @testerwulf3357 Před rokem +102

      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
      @korsekil Před 6 měsíci +14

      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
      @Burn_Angel Před 6 měsíci +12

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

  • @ellahere2300
    @ellahere2300 Před 2 lety +93

    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.

  • @alexisfeynman9881
    @alexisfeynman9881 Před 3 lety +6669

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

    • @stylis666
      @stylis666 Před 3 lety +132

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

    • @HanQ28
      @HanQ28 Před 3 lety +242

      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
      @francesgreen3519 Před 3 lety +76

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

    • @FiddlebirdBlue
      @FiddlebirdBlue Před 3 lety +38

      @@francesgreen3519 I second this. Someone make it.

    • @Velereonics
      @Velereonics Před 3 lety +4

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

  • @happninmojo
    @happninmojo Před 3 lety +12667

    "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
      @fulalbatross Před 3 lety +765

      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
      @patrickcote4521 Před 3 lety +588

      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
      @hannahluke9381 Před 3 lety +166

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

    • @lolawhiterabbit
      @lolawhiterabbit Před 3 lety +380

      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
      @ryohoshi8445 Před 3 lety +71

      @@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
    @TWSTDSHDW Před 2 lety +288

    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^)

  • @HououMinamino
    @HououMinamino Před 2 lety +528

    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
      @inoli3164 Před rokem +18

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

    • @HououMinamino
      @HououMinamino Před rokem +60

      @@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
      @jeffreygao3956 Před 3 měsíci +1

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

  • @jenniferl.8111
    @jenniferl.8111 Před 3 lety +3963

    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
      @Isabelle-hv6ny Před 3 lety +196

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

    • @vicktoria4864
      @vicktoria4864 Před 3 lety +376

      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
      @strbourne Před 3 lety +104

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

    • @mrsucc2138
      @mrsucc2138 Před 3 lety +41

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

    • @khazms
      @khazms Před 3 lety +30

      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.

  • @viperblitz11
    @viperblitz11 Před 2 lety +483

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

    • @avivastudios2311
      @avivastudios2311 Před 2 lety +35

      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
      @viperblitz11 Před 2 lety +64

      @@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
      @barbieblues7639 Před 2 lety +1

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

    • @jharris3110
      @jharris3110 Před rokem +7

      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
      @avivastudios2311 Před rokem +4

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

  • @pnkpanther
    @pnkpanther Před rokem +124

    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
      @nanwijanarko1969 Před 5 měsíci +6

      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
      @pnkpanther Před 5 měsíci +4

      @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

  • @Mel-0n
    @Mel-0n Před 3 lety +16030

    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
      @yam1146 Před 3 lety +565

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

    • @XiranJayZhao
      @XiranJayZhao  Před 3 lety +2307

      Shlgljgss LMAOOOO

    • @coppersense999
      @coppersense999 Před 3 lety +120

      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
      @sherrynoff Před 3 lety +97

      @@coppersense999 wtf is this comment lmfao

    • @skyjack1
      @skyjack1 Před 3 lety +6

      @Xavria.z xzm
      czcams.com/video/79uYxFRvS_4/video.html

  • @pastelcloudpainter
    @pastelcloudpainter Před 3 lety +5293

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

    • @erocenturion2809
      @erocenturion2809 Před 3 lety +696

      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
      @carolleboxill4044 Před 3 lety +403

      @@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
      @zumhoferpreiss7774 Před 3 lety +198

      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
      @chillpeachie420 Před 3 lety +85

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

    • @akiishitster1742
      @akiishitster1742 Před 3 lety +62

      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

  • @zegeck
    @zegeck Před 11 měsíci +22

    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.

  • @hunter_hiebert
    @hunter_hiebert Před 2 lety +176

    Only one good thing has ever come from this movie:
    It pissed off Zhao enough that we got this CZcams 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.

  • @waffles8364
    @waffles8364 Před 3 lety +4499

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

    • @shadowmoon1657
      @shadowmoon1657 Před 3 lety +17

      Most of these “chosen one” stories are Asian

    • @queer-ios3155
      @queer-ios3155 Před 3 lety +179

      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.

    • @adam.n-steve
      @adam.n-steve Před 3 lety +57

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

    • @usprulse
      @usprulse Před 3 lety +1

      Neo ~

    • @arichan7599
      @arichan7599 Před 3 lety +15

      @@adam.n-steve yeah but mulan 2020 is about being a chosen one and not hard work to earn the trust and loyalty

  • @byme.9183
    @byme.9183 Před 3 lety +6289

    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
      @allthatsheiz Před 3 lety +84

      🤭🤭🤭😆

    • @oddeye2412
      @oddeye2412 Před 3 lety +453

      AS SHE SHOULD. PERIODT.

    • @aliceinwonderlust
      @aliceinwonderlust Před 3 lety +146

      Ur mom is a great person

    • @TheSpawnfan
      @TheSpawnfan Před 3 lety +248

      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
      @dontestevens4831 Před 3 lety +4

      @@oddeye2412 you mean period?

  • @nobodyimportant281
    @nobodyimportant281 Před rokem +139

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

  • @josephmatthews7698
    @josephmatthews7698 Před rokem +287

    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
      @testerwulf3357 Před rokem +13

      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
      @justinbowers2749 Před rokem +5

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

  • @deathsheadmothranch7188
    @deathsheadmothranch7188 Před 3 lety +4081

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

    • @oddeye2412
      @oddeye2412 Před 3 lety +247

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

    • @luisawashere4630
      @luisawashere4630 Před 3 lety +10

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

    • @BingDwenDwen
      @BingDwenDwen Před 3 lety +5

      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
      @pouncepounce7417 Před 3 lety +46

      @@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
      @BingDwenDwen Před 3 lety +4

      ​@@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.

  • @tylerlindsey4772
    @tylerlindsey4772 Před 3 lety +2032

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

    • @johnnyritenbaugh1214
      @johnnyritenbaugh1214 Před 3 lety +95

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

    • @DragonLandlord
      @DragonLandlord Před 3 lety +110

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

    • @marshmellow_melmel
      @marshmellow_melmel Před 3 lety +51

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

    • @thegrayyernaut
      @thegrayyernaut Před 3 lety +32

      @@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
      @wadhaal-marri9319 Před 3 lety +4

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

  • @jules3649
    @jules3649 Před rokem +280

    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

  • @dianasmith8166
    @dianasmith8166 Před rokem +31

    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.

  • @pastelsunset
    @pastelsunset Před 3 lety +4720

    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
      @Gabi-yc1gf Před 3 lety +108

      Yes!

    • @Momocham23
      @Momocham23 Před 3 lety +457

      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
      @Adam-pc2cm Před 3 lety +228

      @@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
      @J_Lynn Před 3 lety +189

      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
      @pastelsunset Před 3 lety +207

      ​@@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.

  • @hkc8544
    @hkc8544 Před 3 lety +3574

    "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
      @valentinmitterbauer4196 Před 3 lety +268

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

    • @HuyLe-yt8pw
      @HuyLe-yt8pw Před 3 lety +37

      Cheng I Sao?

    • @AetherKirin
      @AetherKirin Před 3 lety +27

      Fellow Extra Credit History viewers?

    • @artemis6703
      @artemis6703 Před 3 lety +28

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

    • @artemis6703
      @artemis6703 Před 3 lety +83

      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.

  • @crowposting
    @crowposting Před rokem +20

    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.

  • @mikeor-
    @mikeor- Před rokem +49

    "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
      @digitaltailsmon4096 Před 9 měsíci +10

      At least they are honest. Still horrible but honest

    • @mikeor-
      @mikeor- Před 6 měsíci +6

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

  • @aesthelie953
    @aesthelie953 Před 3 lety +2729

    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
      @InfernosReaper Před 3 lety +72

      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
      @slevinchannel7589 Před 3 lety +15

      It's an incredible Insult to the Source Material.

    • @White_Recluse
      @White_Recluse Před 3 lety +39

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

    • @user-qd5gq9ec8k
      @user-qd5gq9ec8k Před 3 lety +16

      Bwhahahahahaha it’s Panda Express

    • @wendyokoopa7048
      @wendyokoopa7048 Před 3 lety +1

      You guys forgot mulan was a brave transgender woman

  • @still.ines07
    @still.ines07 Před 3 lety +2598

    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
      @606aichan7O7 Před 3 lety +87

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

    • @luchomscyfy
      @luchomscyfy Před 3 lety +205

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

    • @606aichan7O7
      @606aichan7O7 Před 3 lety +19

      @@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
      @BattyButtercup Před 3 lety +125

      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
      @shadowchu5940 Před 3 lety +13

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

  • @nootcena6957
    @nootcena6957 Před 10 měsíci +15

    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.

  • @KateCat420
    @KateCat420 Před rokem +70

    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!!

  • @Arterismos
    @Arterismos Před 3 lety +9467

    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
      @LaurArt_UK Před 3 lety +532

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

    • @breezyfeer
      @breezyfeer Před 3 lety +503

      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
      @ForeverDegenerate Před 3 lety +383

      @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
      @mrokhaos8269 Před 3 lety +157

      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
      @Godzillakingofkaiju1 Před 3 lety +114

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

  • @seanmaclean1341
    @seanmaclean1341 Před 3 lety +1238

    "Half of great Chinese literature is just fanfiction of historical events"
    *nods in Romance of the Three Kingdoms*

    • @infinity-gn9xq
      @infinity-gn9xq Před 3 lety +12

      😂😂

    • @XiranJayZhao
      @XiranJayZhao  Před 3 lety +279

      Romance of the Three Kingdoms is just Zhuge Liang Gary Stu fanfiction pass it on

    • @rubenaalexander5007
      @rubenaalexander5007 Před 3 lety +16

      Oh right, I did laugh because I understood that. If even I, as a westerner that knows next to nothing about anything in the whole continent of Asia learnt all of that from C-dramas, maybe it indicates that the directors did less than that.

    • @johnmccarron7066
      @johnmccarron7066 Před 3 lety +6

      @@XiranJayZhao She ain't lying!

    • @thetalantonx
      @thetalantonx Před 3 lety +4

      @@XiranJayZhao As a Saltine American Zhuge Liang fanboy, LMFAO. I would love your thoughts on 2008's Red Cliff.

  • @hs-po9qr
    @hs-po9qr Před rokem +65

    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

  • @zeromailss
    @zeromailss Před 2 lety +21

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

  • @fishface8334
    @fishface8334 Před 3 lety +4788

    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
      @zoneanomaly4780 Před 2 lety +238

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

    • @Dandidoodles
      @Dandidoodles Před 2 lety +145

      Bisexual legend Shang! NOOOOOooooo......

    • @EssentialBlue
      @EssentialBlue Před 2 lety +18

      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
      @marinadeburgos8666 Před 2 lety +41

      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
      @demnbrown Před 2 lety +7

      @@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

  • @SailorSaturn4
    @SailorSaturn4 Před 3 lety +1574

    “And don’t tell me a woman can’t be emperor. Wu Zetian did it. She’d be laughing at you from chinese hell” 🤣🤣🤣

    • @heneralantonioluna8725
      @heneralantonioluna8725 Před 3 lety +3

      Chinese Hell? I think I would just credit it as the underworld. Are you Chinese?

    • @milkweechris8181
      @milkweechris8181 Před 3 lety +77

      JGN CHANNEL dude, the creator herself said Chinese hell and she’s Chinese. Watch the video before accusing someone Dingus. It’s at 11:03

    • @SailorSaturn4
      @SailorSaturn4 Před 3 lety +27

      JGN CHANNEL chill. I only quoted what she said. See the “ ”? The only thing I said was the three emojis.

    • @heneralantonioluna8725
      @heneralantonioluna8725 Před 3 lety +10

      @@SailorSaturn4 My apologies, I'm actually one of those person who watches a video while scrolling on the comment section. I'm really sorry.... Imma subscribe to say sorry

    • @UncleSheogorath
      @UncleSheogorath Před 3 lety +18

      ​@@heneralantonioluna8725 地狱 basically means hell in Chinese. Why are you correcting others when you don't even know our culture?

  • @dionemartins0212
    @dionemartins0212 Před rokem +58

    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

  • @Phegmore
    @Phegmore Před rokem +7

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

  • @jaredfry
    @jaredfry Před 3 lety +3109

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

    • @TheoCynical
      @TheoCynical Před 3 lety +106

      Black America: "First Time?"

    • @Oblupupupupupup
      @Oblupupupupupup Před 3 lety +10

      @@TheoCynical lmao

    • @user-kf2pq8rt3r
      @user-kf2pq8rt3r Před 3 lety +36

      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

    • @BruceLinderDPT
      @BruceLinderDPT Před 3 lety +6

      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
      @user-kf2pq8rt3r Před 3 lety +32

      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”

  • @possiblyvi
    @possiblyvi Před 3 lety +3643

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

    • @teddiespicker
      @teddiespicker Před 3 lety +74

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

    • @alistair127
      @alistair127 Před 3 lety +55

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

    • @CONRADikal
      @CONRADikal Před 3 lety +45

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

    • @mariapalomino803
      @mariapalomino803 Před 3 lety +10

      Rip Mushu 🙏🏽☹️

    • @fatherchungus8416
      @fatherchungus8416 Před 3 lety +7

      Nooo not Mushu!

  • @BJ64Th3M0v13f4n
    @BJ64Th3M0v13f4n Před rokem +39

    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.

    • @darthcinema4262
      @darthcinema4262 Před 18 dny +1

      Meanwhile animated Mulan felt more human and relatable.

  • @yellowsubmarine2261
    @yellowsubmarine2261 Před 8 měsíci +9

    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.

  • @sardiniapiedmont
    @sardiniapiedmont Před 3 lety +2447

    “And don’t say a woman can’t be emperor. Wu Zetian did it; she’d be laughing at you from Chinese Hell” 🤣🤣

    • @zamiraarts5435
      @zamiraarts5435 Před 3 lety +206

      @@Scortch-lo3xy she killed a lot of people on her way to the throne including her children and grand children

    • @zamiraarts5435
      @zamiraarts5435 Před 3 lety +108

      Wu Zhetian being one of the most successful Emperor of all of China

    • @MikaMoonlight
      @MikaMoonlight Před 3 lety +29

      I laughed SO HARD at that moment I had to pause xD

    • @FiddlebirdBlue
      @FiddlebirdBlue Před 3 lety +31

      @@zamiraarts5435 Strangely the "A-Z awesome women of history"-style picture book owned by the small girl I nanny failed to mention the child murder in their "W" entry ...

    • @trvekxnt8867
      @trvekxnt8867 Před 3 lety +37

      Wasn’t it proven she didn’t murder her children? Since the rumour started like 400 years after her death? I may be wrong, but this line is still hilarious

  • @oscarmedina7368
    @oscarmedina7368 Před 3 lety +834

    She literally just said "Fine, I'll do it myself"
    And started up a youtube channel to roast the f outta this film lmao

    • @BradLad56
      @BradLad56 Před 3 lety +21

      Too bad there's no real infinity gauntlet to snap it out of existence.

    • @elisefication790
      @elisefication790 Před 3 lety +12

      and getting 70k+ subscribers for it

    • @bennyton2560
      @bennyton2560 Před 3 lety +10

      this women is bomb, intellectual AND savage ?! subscribed

    • @petercselik5674
      @petercselik5674 Před 3 lety +1

      Too bad the whole youtube is about to roast this dumb movie in this month so... yeah.

  • @lovealthea3309
    @lovealthea3309 Před 2 lety +21

    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?

  • @cymraegandconfused9721
    @cymraegandconfused9721 Před 2 lety +23

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

  • @KrysPGator
    @KrysPGator Před 3 lety +1720

    “They made her Asian Elsa” is not the hot take I thought I was going to hear, but I’m here for it

  • @catherineliu472
    @catherineliu472 Před 3 lety +2565

    The thing is literally all children in China who have gone to school are taught the Ballad of Mulan and have memorized it. My mom can still remember the ballad from literal decades ago. So Disney literally could not have afforded to misinterpret or mess up the poem, because basically everyone knows the poem.

    • @freelemonade9695
      @freelemonade9695 Před 3 lety +27

      Not if they didn't hire any Chinese people ;)

    • @applesauce3873
      @applesauce3873 Před 3 lety +82

      welcome to what whitewashing a production team does to an attempted 'culturally accurate' movie

    • @jalifritz8033
      @jalifritz8033 Před 3 lety +30

      It is even read in Germany in elementary school when we talk about China.

    • @akut1793
      @akut1793 Před 3 lety +39

      ya i was taught the poem when i was in 6th grade and mulan was a normal girl who was sewing something and only became a fighter to save her father because he was too old and she didnt want him to die in war. she also didnt have superpowers oof disney rly went and westernized it😔

    • @freelemonade9695
      @freelemonade9695 Před 3 lety +9

      applesauce gdi imagine America doing that 😔 uncultured gang. I think I'll read it in my own time because I appreciate parts of chinese history and my ties to it since I'm partly chinese and I am so mad at this suburban wine mom take on an otherwise good movie that I need good writing to wash away the feeling of "oh wow, the stupid actually hurts".

  • @ianrose6218
    @ianrose6218 Před 2 lety +45

    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
      @Roadent1241 Před 2 lety +5

      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
    @VanNessy97 Před 2 lety +18

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

  • @tillydee933
    @tillydee933 Před 3 lety +5543

    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.

  • @spoopyd.8910
    @spoopyd.8910 Před 3 lety +1433

    That movie brought dishonor to not just my family's cow, but to EVERYONE'S family cow. Truly dishonorable.

  • @khfan4life365
    @khfan4life365 Před rokem +102

    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.

    • @laced_crane
      @laced_crane Před 9 měsíci +16

      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
      @andrewgreeb916 Před 9 měsíci

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

    • @laced_crane
      @laced_crane Před 9 měsíci +3

      @@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
      @r4tt1s Před 6 měsíci +1

      ​@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
      @deansbian5607 Před 6 měsíci +4

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

  • @emmajeanwilson4318
    @emmajeanwilson4318 Před 9 měsíci

    This is one of the best videos on CZcams. The way you articulate your points so well, and incorporate your evidence is textbook-levels of masterful. Thank you for providing us with accurate information, and really discussing the issues of this film past surface-level reasons

  • @biancat7761
    @biancat7761 Před 3 lety +1771

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

    • @BearMeOut
      @BearMeOut Před 3 lety +13

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

    • @keyannalee2432
      @keyannalee2432 Před 3 lety +1

      Damn

    • @Meri-Muru
      @Meri-Muru Před 3 lety +11

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

    • @Bradyboy26
      @Bradyboy26 Před 3 lety +1

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

    • @littlefarmhouse3953
      @littlefarmhouse3953 Před 3 lety +16

      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.

  • @ritamvfernandes96
    @ritamvfernandes96 Před 3 lety +9423

    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
      @Grey_di.ant_420 Před 3 lety +423

      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
      @magnusbane420 Před 3 lety +177

      You mean cow

    • @shaunaray1
      @shaunaray1 Před 3 lety +46

      Damn every horse in that movie

    • @lourenrose1967
      @lourenrose1967 Před 3 lety +109

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

    • @tonywoutrs
      @tonywoutrs Před 3 lety +29

      She's Chinese Rey Skywalker, what can you expect

  • @Calamity556
    @Calamity556 Před 2 lety +1

    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.

  • @TrueZoomerof2003
    @TrueZoomerof2003 Před rokem +41

    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.

  • @MetaphoricallyRose
    @MetaphoricallyRose Před 3 lety +2767

    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
      @lordmuhehe4605 Před 3 lety +90

      Everyone disliked this movie, lol.

    • @oddeye2412
      @oddeye2412 Před 3 lety +246

      Kung fu panda its amazing youre right

    • @cutecloverrunevalyn2573
      @cutecloverrunevalyn2573 Před 3 lety +101

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

    • @ari-cs3ih
      @ari-cs3ih Před 3 lety +69

      as expected from kung fu panda 😌❤️

    • @Isabelle-hv6ny
      @Isabelle-hv6ny Před 3 lety +22

      @@cutecloverrunevalyn2573 Yes

  • @annashamory2574
    @annashamory2574 Před 3 lety +2560

    Disney: has millions of dollars for their budget
    Also Disney: won't even hire one historian who coulda fixed most, if not all the historical/cultural inaccuracies

    • @Astralify
      @Astralify Před 3 lety +71

      Propaganda doesn't care for "historical/cultural accuracy".

    • @peronkop
      @peronkop Před 3 lety +2

      Did it have to be historically accurate?

    • @sambradley9091
      @sambradley9091 Před 3 lety +137

      @@peronkop Yeah because they intended to make this historically accurate to start and they failed incredibly

    • @starandfox601
      @starandfox601 Před 3 lety +46

      @@peronkop considering how much work went into the original and modern times when it comes to culture.yes.

    • @peronkop
      @peronkop Před 3 lety +11

      @@sambradley9091 its hard to believe that was the goal when they included magic as a corner stone of their story.

  • @josephmatthews7698
    @josephmatthews7698 Před rokem +45

    Whoa you wrote a book inspired by Wu Zetian? That's amazing I'm totally buying it! I'm glad I found you!
    I'm in the process of writing a fantasy epic heavily inspired by the founding of the Han dynasty and Romance of the 3 kingdoms as well as some western stuff that vibes into Game of Thrones or Tolkien.
    One of the things I've struggled with in the source material is giving female characters a bigger stage and more agency in the story like Sun Shang Xiang and Diao Chan as well as Zhuge Liangs wife. With the help of my wife I'd like to think I succeeded but I'm sure your book will be a huge help and inspiration.
    I'm excited to check it out.

  • @Hgoenge81
    @Hgoenge81 Před rokem +10

    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. 👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

  • @waterdrop827
    @waterdrop827 Před 3 lety +578

    "And don't tell me a women can't be Emperor, Wu Zetian did it. She'd be laughing at you from Chinese Hell." I screamed 😂😂😂

    • @vampkilmer
      @vampkilmer Před 3 lety +4

      🤣 I mean, you're not wrong!

  • @ravager240
    @ravager240 Před 3 lety +550

    The fact that Kung Fu Panda did better representation of the culture shows A LOT.

    • @nujiarts
      @nujiarts Před 3 lety +14

      Kung fu panda was fye and you can't change my mind.

    • @nujiarts
      @nujiarts Před 3 lety +1

      @Myka Ruest ohp-

    • @jonathonmccaffrey685
      @jonathonmccaffrey685 Před 3 lety +1

      yeah, cause KFP didn't have CCP agenda

    • @TheLatiosnlatias02
      @TheLatiosnlatias02 Před rokem

      Tai Fu Wrath of Tiger and Legend of Airbender film were much more entertaining than Mùlán

  • @fictionlover695
    @fictionlover695 Před rokem +1

    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 💓

  • @memeempress3600
    @memeempress3600 Před rokem

    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!!

  • @colachan91
    @colachan91 Před 3 lety +2818

    Disney: Gathers an entire cultural team of people from Polinesian islands to make sure Moana is culturally accurate.
    Also Disney: This

    • @BelleFlower15
      @BelleFlower15 Před 3 lety +533

      The people making the animated movies and the people making the live action movies are clearly from different universes and there's no one in authority trying to make sure Disney's movies have any kind of quality assurance

    • @sillau9
      @sillau9 Před 3 lety +217

      Moana was awesome,but it did had some things that wasn't accurate..They basically took the many different islands within Polynesia and mashed them together in the movie..and how they visually depicted Maui(when Maui was visually depicted different in Polynesian myth)..and some parts they made up..like the chief stone part and such..but other than that,I still loved the movie,even tho it had it's flaws and plot holes and whatnot,but no movie is perfect..and I was just glad that they did a Polynesian character/movie that was enjoyable(same when they did Lilo & Stitch).

    • @starburst98
      @starburst98 Před 3 lety +86

      Yeah, it's mostly about intent, moana wasn't perfect but the intent was good.

    • @mighty_polar_bear3786
      @mighty_polar_bear3786 Před 3 lety +61

      And moana wasn’t even that culturally appropriate. My dad and I are Polynesian and we... where disappointed in the cultural accurate aspect of the movie BUT I still watched it over and over because at least it was entertaining

    • @sillau9
      @sillau9 Před 3 lety +4

      @@mighty_polar_bear3786 lol,right..which Polynesian are you guys from..

  • @kettle_called_black4999
    @kettle_called_black4999 Před 3 lety +5348

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

    • @eldritchcupcakes3195
      @eldritchcupcakes3195 Před 3 lety +137

      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
      @poison_raine5219 Před 3 lety +77

      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

    • @poison_raine5219
      @poison_raine5219 Před 3 lety +93

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

    • @bluet7777
      @bluet7777 Před 3 lety +33

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

    • @poison_raine5219
      @poison_raine5219 Před 3 lety +26

      @@bluet7777 sadly i am not. I feel bad for that person if he ever visits china

  • @ceres090
    @ceres090 Před 2 lety +3

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

  • @geekgirl_luv4262
    @geekgirl_luv4262 Před rokem +15

    This video did an infinitely better job of teaching me about Chinese culture and history in an engaging and comprehensive way than the movie(or any of my history classes if I’m being honest) ever did.

  • @cliff_hange7284
    @cliff_hange7284 Před 2 lety +7460

    The original movie is: She's exactly like the other girls, but was treated as one of the guys for a short time and her potential to be a warrior and be as strong as the other men around her was reached. She's a girl and she doesn't need to be different to be strong, all she needed was the practice
    The live action: Well, sorry, girl, but the only way you can be as strong as men and be equals is by having literal super powers

    • @animelovergirl8461
      @animelovergirl8461 Před 2 lety +355

      Which is what I call a "Mary Sue" for the live action.

    • @literateartist9304
      @literateartist9304 Před 2 lety +53

      fr tho-

    • @anamazing2297
      @anamazing2297 Před 2 lety +125

      Cartoon: Boys and girls are both capable of fighting for and protecting loved ones, but girls aren't allowed in the army, so *disguises!* (Also, bigger range of emotion.)
      Live action: Too bad I was born a girl. Woe is me, I have to lie. 🤷
      Yup, totally agree. Funny how the animated version has more depth than the live action abomination.

    • @jamesconlin5099
      @jamesconlin5099 Před 2 lety +51

      aka CHINESEs jedi powers

    • @lanceducusin4696
      @lanceducusin4696 Před 2 lety +235

      The cartoon: I'm an ordinary girl who uses my own wits to solve problems and save my country
      The live action: "i'M noT lIkE OTher GiRLs!"

  • @ericthered2963
    @ericthered2963 Před 3 lety +2418

    Xiran Jay Zhao: "Have you ever seen a movie that pissed you off so badly, that you make a whole CZcams Channel just to roast it?"
    Me: *stops the video* "Hold up a minute." *Opens her CZcams page*
    CZcams: "Checks out. Only one video"
    Me: "Allllllright then. This is gonna be gooooood."
    *resumes playing the video*

    • @HI-fh2mj
      @HI-fh2mj Před 3 lety +111

      I gave the video a like immediately after I heard that line

    • @Luinta
      @Luinta Před 3 lety +73

      Omg me too. I checked the channel. Now I'm subscribed.

    • @jeanetteb009
      @jeanetteb009 Před 3 lety +40

      Did the exact same thing lmao

    • @litaraduodox5799
      @litaraduodox5799 Před 3 lety +20

      same lol

    • @Digmer
      @Digmer Před 3 lety +31

      that was the best shade ever.

  • @BobSmith-tm2kj
    @BobSmith-tm2kj Před 2 lety +11

    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!)

  • @chromegecko3908
    @chromegecko3908 Před 2 lety +1

    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 👍