The change from Li Shang is concerning, and not only because it’s erasing a very distinctly bisexual character. Forget sexuality: even if you prefer a more platonic interpretation (which I don’t), Li Shang clearly respects, admires, and likes Mulan as Ping and as a person. He loves her as a friend long before he loves her as a woman, girlfriend, or wife. The entire point of the movie is that Li Shang loves Mulan as a person (platonically, romantically, either way), not just as a potential mate. The entire point of the entire ending is that people do not award women the same respect offered to men. (Mushu: “Huh? You’re a girl now, remember?”) The entire point of the finale is that Shang and Ping’s friends do give Mulan the same respect as a woman, because her gender doesn’t matter: she is still the same person with the same good strategic sense, and they’ll trust her whether she’s wearing armor or a dress.
If this “Chen Honghui” hates Mulan/Ping until he finds out that she is a woman, that isn’t just erasing Shang’s bisexuality: it’s also sexualizing Mulan and stripping her of all her agency and accomplishment. In this version, Mulan isn’t worthy of respect as a person. She is only worth admiring as a woman. He can’t like her as a warrior, as a strategist, as a friend, as a person; he can only like her as a woman. Let me rephrase this: Instead of giving Mulan a chance to earn the same respect Chen offers to all his other warriors, he’s only going to appreciate her once he sees her as a woman. As an “approved” sexual object. ONLY THEN is it worth noticing her or granting her basic human decency and respect. “Something like love,” as the description tells us, clearly has nothing to do with any of her personality and everything to do with genitalia. Even if he was completely and entirely straight, we should see that he’s at least befriending Mulan/Ping before the Gender Reveal. Straight guys can still recognize another man’s good qualities and appreciate them for what they are. If Ping isn’t even a friend before “he” becomes Mulan, then this isn’t “something like love;” it’s just lust and objectification, pure and simple. The “rivalry” is also bullshit. The fact that “rivalry” can change so quickly into “something like love” means only that for Chen, a set of imaginary genitalia is all it takes to completely shift his perspective on someone from “worthy of competition” to “worthy of sex.” What, so he’s just going to abandon the rivalry now that she’s a woman? Oh – because she’s only a woman. He doesn’t have to compete with her anymore, because that’s not what you do with women. A rivalry would imply that she’s still a man, and at least he can view a rival as a decent warrior; but now, she can be comfortably reduced to Sex Appeal.
Also… what about that personality? “Cocky?” A “mean, bullying streak”? Thinks of Mulan as “his chief rival?” Are you going to strip the male lead of EVERY shred of decency? Li Shang isn’t a bully: he is a soldier who pushes his men (and woman) to excel, because this is wartime and that’s the only way to survive. He genuinely cares about them and shows real pride when they show signs of improvement. He doesn’t see them as rivals; he sees them as friends for whom he is responsible. Sure, he doesn’t like Ping at first, but that’s got nothing to do with gender and more to do with the fact that Ping’s initial behavior is so inflammatory. (Dodges commander’s questions; starts fights in the rice line; holds the other soldiers back in training; cheats on assignments, even if that’s the result of Mushu’s intervention). Once Ping proves himself as a person and as a warrior, Shang doesn’t hesitate to reward Ping with all the admiration Ping deserves.
Disney is so concerned about removing every hint of bisexuality from its movies, it’s also utterly destroyed any decency they could have in a heterosexual romance. In their attempts to make everything nice and straight and cisgendered, they’re bending their characters WAY out of whack.
They’re taking Mulan – originally a woman who denies gender boundaries to prove that gender doesn’t matter to personal worth – and they’re turning her into a person who can’t earn respect,honor, or even the admiration of her fellow soldiers until she puts on a dress and can be seen, not as a warrior or as a person but as an object of desire.
And they’re taking Shang – originally a man who cares about his fellow soldiers and who respects Mulan regardless of her gender presentation – and turned him into a cocky asshole who only cares about himself and is only able to appreciate Mulan when she is female, and even then, only because he’d like to have some sex.
Y’all know when Mulan is sitting in the rain and watches her parents silhouette disappear as the candle is blown out and then her eyes squint in determination and the music that starts to play and you see her go into the family temple and light a match and bow in respect and then sneak into her parents room and switch the scroll for her hair brooch and then the way her reflection is shown as she pulls the sword and cuts her hair?? It’s literally more iconic than any marvel movie
Y’all know that there is heavy symbolism in that scene to show that Mulan is the spirit of the Great Stone Dragon and that’s why Mushu wasn’t able to awaken it?
im sorry What!! i never knew this! my life feels fuller!!! ahhhh
Mulan sits in the rain underneath the statue of the Great Stone Dragon (who is looking down on her), and suddenly decides on a course of action. She looks up, resolved to go to war in place of her father and runs into the temple where she lights the match and beseeches protection for her family. The stone she bows to and that we see lit up by lightening strike is that of the dragon, whose eyes are looking out after her, lit from underneath by the candles. The scene transitions to the divider in the house that also has an icon of the dragon. where she replaces her hair comb with the summons. Then we see the sword hilt, also the dragon, and as she draws the blade we see her face replace it. She ties up her hair, then as she opens the wardrobe, the handles are also the dragon. After donning the armor, the view shows her facing us, with the hilt of the sword (the face of the dragon) in front of her face, where she then turns the sword to reveal her face, and sheaths it. As she leaves, we flash back to the temple, and the eyes of the dragon flash as her grandmother wakes up.
The Great Stone Dragon resides within her. She is the protector of the family.
After this explanation, the scene where Mushu cannot wake up the stone dragon makes so much more sense. I appreciate the symbolism so much more. I noticed the dragon but didn’t notice she was constantly juxtaposed with the dragon!
Canon accepted.
Bringing this back for all the teachers doing symbolism!
Y’all know when Mulan is sitting in the rain and watches her parents silhouette disappear as the candle is blown out and then her eyes squint in determination and the music that starts to play and you see her go into the family temple and light a match and bow in respect and then sneak into her parents room and switch the scroll for her hair brooch and then the way her reflection is shown as she pulls the sword and cuts her hair?? It’s literally more iconic than any marvel movie
Y’all know that there is heavy symbolism in that scene to show that Mulan is the spirit of the Great Stone Dragon and that’s why Mushu wasn’t able to awaken it?
Not to mention the score from this scene in particular bumps so hard I was almost compelled to cut my hair listening to it with my sister. Masterpiece of Cinema.
disney: in this live action mulan remake we’re getting rid of general li shang and replacing him with this new dude who doesnt like mulan until he finds out that shes a girl :))) also no songs
me: GENERAL LI SHANG LOVED MULAN AND PING AND WAS VERY OBVIOUSLY BI
I thought Mulan saw her father, despite being aged and crippled from a previous war, still getting conscripted (due to being the only male of the household) to fight the most feared army on Earth was why she pretended to be a man. You know, because he father wouldn’t have to face the certain death he, she, and everyone else knew he was limping towards.
But yet, it has somehow found a way to victimize women.
None of the main cast save for Shang had any business being in the war and otherwise would have died horrible, and painful deaths for the women of their country…based on nothing other than being male.
And it ignores the climax of the movie itself. Not only was she not taken seriously and told to leave even when people believed her to be a man, but she later fought as a woman (in a dress no less), won and was given a seat in a high position of power….as a woman.
She needed to pretend to be a man to get into the army, because they believed in protecting their women from all harm. She didn’t go out to prove herself as a woman at the start, she did it for her father who she loved who was being sent to his death just because he was a man. Keep in mind, Mulan wasn’t facing anything overly scary. She failed at being a bride so she wasn’t going to be forced into any marriage. She wasn’t running from an abusive family who was pushing her to do anything she didn’t want to (as evidence that her father, even faced with the shame of her embarrassing their family at the start of the film, clearly loves and cares about her personal feelings and makes a point to say more than once that no matter what she does she’s wonderful to him), the only thing she’s being forced to do is NOT die in a war.
The only belittled as a man, while being put through physical hell to go die in a war cause ‘fuck it, he’s a guy’. Later the only person who shows her the slightest cold shoulder is a man she lied to, and he only ever does so once. She lied, he had trouble believing her after said lie, but once he knows she’s telling the truth (not blindly following someone who kept up a lie for a few months at least), he puts literally all his faith and his life in her hands. Following HER plans because while she lied, he knows she at least capable.
She became a man to see the dirty, dangerous side of her world that she was sheltered from, and to save her father. Like watch the movie for fuck sake.
Hope: You’re… um…
Kling: Intimidating? Awe-inspiring?
Hope: Tiny.
Kling: Of course. I’m travel-size for you convenience. If I was my real size, Moe here would die of fright.
CaptainBubblebath 