Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Mulan

"China's most famous woman warrior lived and fought in the fifth century AD. Her father was conscripted to go to war, but he was too sick to fight, so Hua Mu-Lan offered to go in his place. Her father rejected the offer, but she insisted. She suggested they have a sword fight and if she won, she'd go. Mu-Lan won the fight.
She cut her hair, put on her father's armor and joined the emperor's troops using her father's name. For over ten years, she fought as a man without her true identity being discovered. Her bravery at the front lines and extraordinary fighting skill so impressed her general that he offered this soldier his daughter's hand in marriage. Somehow, the marriage never took place and Mu-Lan returned home and became herself again. A play written in her honor, the Mu-Lan Play ends with the following lines:
She had much fighting ability, and could act the leader. Her body passed through one hundred battles, always at the front, and compared to the fiercest soldiers, she was still better." this is the part how the legend is described in http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/huamulan.html most of us know Mulan as a famous women who was in a war when she wasn't supposed to be in a war because she was a women. We've all seen the movie made by Disney yes I admit the whole thing is cute but it shows that the West is superior to the East, the whole movie was based on Americas view of the world, well not the whole movie some of it was true, like Religion, Honor, Lifestyle, Beliefs. Well seeing as it was supposed to be a child movie of course they had to remove certain things like how they tie a womens feet so as to keep them small. This of course makes the foot deformed and is extremly painful when circulation comes back to normal. When they spare her life when it is clear she is women they would've killed on site once they figured out. I could keep going on about this the movie was a bit false but some parts were true so I guess I can't really keep arguing seeing as this was a childrens movie and wasn't really intended to show the evils of a country, just to reanimate a legend in Disney's point of view.

1 comment:

K. Flewelling said...

Great thoughts, Andres.

Do you think it is OK to tell half-truths (omitting others) so long as it is for a good purpose? (e.g. Not talking about foot binding is OK, because the story of Mulan is worth telling to children, and it reawakens people to this awesome story)?