a transfeminist movie.
It's funny because the Chinese phoenix doesn't do the whole rise from the ashes thing (they used the common Egyptian/Greek myth version lmao), and Mulan being born with mystical powers (a western trope) instead of working hard (which is what's usually portrayed in asian cultures) kind of cements how they just phoned this movie in. Not even one of the four screenwriters was Chinese.
Sorry, I'm sure you enjoyed it but if you've spent any time reading into Chinese mythology/folklore/culture etc. it's painfully obvious just how little respect they're giving Chinese culture in this film. It's a western film with an 'oriental' coat of paint at best. Just another step in Disney's live action erasure of their animated works to avoid paying royalties to the original writers.
I'm well aware of every single one of those things and plenty more.
They explain that aspect of the phoenix in the movie specifically because it is in the Western mythos; and they were obviously aware of the Chinese mythology because they use Dragon/Phoenix as guardian symbols of the Emperor/Empress too.Somehow there is one thing liberal media got right that internet leftists having not even watched the movie fail to realize, the CCP had Disney by the balls on this one.
I kinda hate how they took the whole theme out about Mulan having to work hard to become a warrior and replaced it with the individualist trope of the "chosen one" with magic powers. It didn't feel communist at all to me but maybe I read it wrong.
I thought that was a good criticism before I watched the movie.
When Mulan touches the ground before that avalanche she is just feeling to see if the boulder was effective.
It is precisely a materialism versus idealism moment; in material reality the ground shakes as ice cracks under the surface snow before an avalanche becomes visible, in the idealist view she is willing it to happen and the entire movie becomes incoherent.That is the only part of this movie I am going to explain here.
I didn't think this because of the boulder it was mainly all the chi/qi stuff.
I liked that Mulan made very little effort to conceal her femininity while she was in the army and all the bro-dude army soldiers just accepted her as a man.
And it's a little funny that they immediately kicked her out when she said "actually, I'm cis..."
Itd be so weird to live in a world with mandatory service for men but also transmen are always 100% accepted and must still serve. It put me in a weird headspace imagining the next 20 years as gender issues continue to progress to widespread social and legal acceptance but we're still stuck with imperialism.
I don't get it and I don't think I want to get it, I heard it wasn't that good
same. I'll watch it in a heartbeat if it's genuinely interesting on trans stuff but I've only heard bad things about it so far.
If you watch it and hate it then at least we still have something new to argue about.
qublics, you and I will never run out of things to argue about :)
point taken, though, and I'll make some time to check it out.
(I appreciated your last reply on mutable identity and sexuality - it's going to take me a bit to digest)
If you're interested in the Chinese communist approach to queer and gender politics then you should watch it.
The level of discourse around this movie, even from self professed feminists, is pathetic and shallow.If you like to read metaphors and symbolism, then it would be spoilers for me to explain more.
Was it likely unpopular in China because it took risks regarding gender and sexuality?
Yes and no, it is an English language film, and in my opinion it was never really made for Chinese audiences.
Everything is queer-coded but heavy handed to say the least.There are many odd and jarring things about this movie, but you have to assume those are intentional.