[Correspondent Diary] Watching the Controversial Disney Movie 'Mulan' in Person

Chinese Film Emphasizing 'Loyalty, Courage, Truth, and Filial Piety'... Strong Custom-Made Vibe
'Hong Kong-Style Martial Arts Action + Hollywood-Style Superhero Entertainment' Added

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] On the 11th, Disney's movie 'Mulan (Hwa Mokran)' was released in China. This film is a live-action version of the 1998 animation.

Mulan was a sensational hit when it was released in 1998. The story of Mulan is about a woman who goes to the battlefield in place of her father against foreign invasion, hiding her gender and becoming a war hero.

Although the story is nothing less than a heroic epic, the secret to its success was featuring a female protagonist, and not a white woman but an Asian woman, as the main character in an American Disney film. For audiences tired of Western-perspective films like The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), and Pocahontas (1995), Mulan was a refreshing shock.

The live-action version emphasizes 'loyalty, courage, truth, and filial piety' in its basic story. To add fun, it incorporated Hong Kong-style martial arts action and Hollywood-style entertainment that turns the protagonist into a superhero.

Whether this film will be as successful at the box office as the 1998 animation is uncertain. At least it can succeed in China, but global success seems difficult.

First, the production intention appears to be to promote the status, history, and cultural greatness of the Chinese nation through the movie Mulan.

The production intention, easily read as "Let the 1.4 billion people unite tightly to overcome the difficulties of the US-China conflict," perfectly suits Chinese tastes. Anyone can see that this is a Chinese film custom-made for Disney. This is why global success is difficult.

The lead actress of this film, Liu Yifei (Yifei Liu, playing Mulan), posted on Weibo (China's version of Twitter) in August last year, which also foretells the global box office failure. At that time, she wrote, "I support the Hong Kong police. Hong Kong should be ashamed." This post belittled the Hong Kong democracy movement and supported the Chinese government.

When news of the film's release spread, Joshua Wong, who is leading the Hong Kong democracy movement, posted on Twitter, "Liu Yifei openly supports the atrocities of the Hong Kong police," and urged "everyone who believes in human rights to boycott Mulan." The boycott movement against the movie Mulan is spreading like wildfire.

Unexpectedly, the Xinjiang Uyghur issue also surfaced. Disney included a subtitle in the movie's ending credits thanking the Chinese Public Security Bureau for allowing filming in Xinjiang Uyghur.

This drew criticism from the US political circles, accusing Disney of bowing to the Chinese Communist Party. The Xinjiang Uyghur human rights issue is as hot a topic as the Hong Kong democracy movement.

As China's core interest issues were highlighted contrary to Mulan's production intention(?), the Chinese government seems flustered. The Chinese government issued a ban on reporting about Mulan just before its screening. It may even be difficult for the film to succeed domestically in China.