I feel like that rep's pretty dirty, anyway: I lost 100 in the bounty, and am still net-positive on rep from the question in the last day or two. I'll be glad for a chance to launder it =)
@nitsua60 Dirty Rep is a movie with Bruce Willis and Clint Eastwood, about a retired cop who lost a battle with IA but is still pursuing a master criminal ...
@nitsua60 I made that up, riffing off of "dirty rep" sorry
@nitsua60 I am also awaiting a ruling on whether or not our "feed the homeless" event tomorrow will be cancelled by our pastor thanks to the COVID 19 frenzy ... I hope not ...
@Someone_Evil I was on the fence. It wasn't going to take much to tip me one way or the other. Aside: is there a reason that you did not capitalize Eberron? Also, thanks for taking the time to point out some of the other PHB+1 Q&As that also are not dupes.
So there are actual things that you might be able to complain about regarding Disney's live-action Mulan but one of the things I absolutely refuse to acknowledge is someone commenting that removing Mushu, the cricket, and the songs is removing the core identity of Mulan.
This is maybe the first time I'm actually going to complain about cultural appropriation because are you kidding me, Mulan existed before the 1999 animated film, get out of here with your nonsense.
Also, the original Mulan story was not about the concept of gender equality, it was a story about filial piety. That she was a woman is secondary to the fact that she joined the army to protect her father.
@Yuuki I generally maintain that the only good reason to do live-action retelllings of these movies is if you're going to try to shake things up, a'la Maleficent. Any other Raison D'etre, and I'm going to just assume that your real motivation is solely to refresh the Copyright on these properties for another half century.
@Xirema I'm assuming their reason in this case is to make something more in line with the original fable. The one without the ghostly ancestor spirits and mythical Eddie Murphy dragon.
@Xirema Technically, Disney can't copyright Mulan (or most of their other stories) since most of them are older than the US. Then can only copyright their specific versions of the stories, and related artwork.
Although given the recent hubbub, it seems that few Western audiences would be appreciative of a movie that dials back the gender equality message in favor of the original message of filial piety.
The animated Mulan film is interesting to me because Mulan is always lauded on social media (Twitter, Tumblr, etc.) as one of the Disney movies that's more progressive on gender values and maybe it's because I grew up in a different culture, but I never viewed Mulan as a particularly gender-focused movie. I suppose I saw it through the lens of Chinese culture as about duty to one's family.
Like, the whole bit in the beginning about the matchmaker. Mulan's shame isn't that she doesn't want to be married or she doesn't like girly things. She feels shame that she feels unable to do those girly things not because she doesn't want to.
@Yuuki Honestly, I can see why the primarily US audience would see it as gender equality focused, because we were just getting into the swing of the third wave of feminism
I mean, there are different ways of interpretation and if you get value out of a particular way of seeing the movie (like I've read that Mulan is popular among the transgender community), then more power to you. I'm just saying that, maybe due to my particular cultural lens, I saw it differently.
I am really interested to see a film made by a Western company that ostensibly focuses on certain cultural values that you either normally don't see in a Western adaptation or are minimized in a Western adaptation because they don't jive with the culture.
It's kinda like asking the question "does <culture A> really understand <culture B>?"
I got mixed reactions the last time that question was asked, with Bao. For the most part, people I talked to seemed to get it but some of the news articles that came out were... disheartening.
@Yuuki Appreciating the sincerity of the cultural discussion going on (and thankful we're a space where people are bringing lots of diverse knowledge to the table) I'm still headcanoning the idea that Eddie Murphy (IRL) is actually a mythical dragon.
@Yuuki Huh. It makes me think of how different animals will also have different approaches to raising offspring. birds will literally throw their young out of the nest right about the time when they're able to start flying on their own, whereas things like bison will remain part of the herd for their entire lives.
