While the live-action Mulan contains plenty for both kids and adults to enjoy, some elements
of the film will only be noticed by adults.
From symbolic imagery to systemic societal issues, here are some of the things only adults
notice in Mulan.
As Mulan prepares to meet with the village matchmaker, her mother helps her get dressed
and paints her face.
During this "getting ready" sequence, we see a number of laces and ribbons being tied tight
as Mulan grimaces, showing clearly how constricting she finds not only the clothing but the entire
affair.
When she emerges, she comments to her sister that the getup completely prevents her from
expressing herself.
"This is my sad face, this is my curious face, and now I'm confused."
This isn't the only time that binding imagery is used to convey Mulan having to suppress
who she really is.
Most notably, she has to bind her chest in order to pass as a male soldier.
Later the removal of those bindings help symbolize the "death" of her male alter ego, Hua Jun,
and the emergence of Hua Mulan as her true self.
Once she embraces her identity, she undoes the bindings of her armor and hair ties.
Kids will pick up on the idea that Mulan is shedding a false sense of who she was supposed
to be, but adults are more likely to notice that binding has been a recurring theme since
the very beginning of the movie, symbolizing not just Mulan's internal struggle but the
external pressures of what society determines women should be.
Mulan also makes frequent use of shadows, reflections, and other ways of showing characters
indirectly to illustrate how they struggle with identity.
Many of these devices factor prominently into how Xianniang is portrayed, and in showing
Mulan's journey to becoming a self-actualized warrior.
For Xianniang, whose life has taught her that her choices are to either hide who she is
or be shunned by society, we frequently see her through smoke and shadows.
Meanwhile, Mulan is often shown in reflections, which highlights the incongruity between the
person she feels she is on the inside and the image she has to project on the outside.
For much of the film, when Mulan looks at herself, her reflection wars with her own
perception of who she is.
The choice to frequently portray the film's two most powerful female characters through
indirect means helps convey their internal struggles with self-image and their fears
of showing the world who they truly are.
Kids probably won't think to question Mulan's unswerving devotion to the Emperor and his
dynasty, but adult viewers may wonder if Mulan's cause is quite as just as she believes.
After Mulan is banished from her regiment, Xianniang tries to explain to her that the
society in which they live has no room for powerful women like them.
Together, she hopes she and Mulan may be able to create a new society that won't reject
them.
However, Mulan doesn't even seem to consider what Xianniang is saying, and she rushes off
to save the Emperor from Böri Khan's attack.
As a matter of fact, Mulan never once seems to interrogate the idea of what unquestioning
fealty to the current system means for people like her, even though she previously felt
stifled by that very system.
The Emperor seems like a nice enough guy, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to wonder
whether we should really be rooting for Mulan to safeguard his dynasty.
Granted, the 1998 film also never questions the governmental structure Mulan vows to uphold,
but in 2020, it seems like a little healthy introspection may have been both warranted
and welcome.
As it stands, it seems a little alarming that Mulan fights so hard to maintain a status
quo that grants tremendous power to men of a certain bloodline, while keeping women as
a subservient class.
While Mulan makes friends with all her fellow soldiers, adults won't be able to miss that
the looks Honghui is giving Hua Jun contain far more than brotherly affection.
Fans who interpreted Li Shang as bisexual in the 1998 film will likely pick up on the
same energy in Honghui.
Although it's possible Honghui suspected that Mulan was female all along, the simpler explanation
is that Honghui was simply attracted to Hua Jun.
His demeanor toward Mulan remains much the same after her true identity is revealed,
implying that his attraction was never tied to her gender.
It remained constant whether she was Hua Jun or Hua Mulan.
Mulan contains a number of impressive battle sequences, but none of the foes Mulan faces
loom nearly as large as the sexism she encounters in every facet of life.
Whether she's trying to bring honor to her family through an arranged marriage or bring
honor to her country through her skilled fighting as a soldier, she's constantly butting up
against the societal constraints placed upon women.
She's told that her powerful qi is a liability for a woman, although it would be an asset
for a man.
And during training, women are forbidden from entering the soldiers' camp.
"Bringing women into camp or consorting with women in any way.
Penalty: death."
What's more, this same sexist oppression is what drove Xianniang to side with Böri Khan
in the first place.
She tells Mulan that she tried to find a noble path forward, but it didn't exist within acceptable
society.
The only options available to her were to either ally herself with an enemy of the kingdom
or deny her own power.
"The more power I showed, the more I was quashed.
Just like you."
Considering that Xianniang is instrumental in gaining Böri Khan most of his tactical
advantages during the film, it's hard to ignore that if society hadn't been so intent on oppressing
women, the Emperor may not have needed saving in the first place.
The meaning of "true"
Throughout the film, Mulan is constantly trying to embody the three pillars of virtue.
Early on, she strives to live out these virtues and make her family proud through restraining
her impulses in order to present herself well and make a good and respectable match.
Later, she experiences a crisis of conscience when she realizes she can't possibly be "true"
while also deceiving everyone around her.
Ultimately, she comes into her own when she rejects both the societal expectations of
women and the pretense of being a man, and embraces her own unique skills and identity.
It's interesting that for the majority of the film, it seems as though everyone in Mulan's
life, including Mulan herself, assumes that being "true" means to accept her place and
to stop bucking traditions and questioning cultural norms.
"You are the daughter.
Learn your place."
If Mulan had remained a demure and subservient daughter, everyone would've thought that she
was being true to the role that had been given to her.
But by the end of the film, we're shown that what's actually "true" for Mulan is a path
that didn't even exist before she carved it out for herself.
While kids will likely embrace the film's themes of self-acceptance on a surface level,
adults are more equipped to unpack the complex idea that our understanding of who we are
and how to live truthfully can evolve over time.
In all the promotional material for Mulan, it seemed as though Xianniang was going to
be the main antagonist of the film.
But by the end of the film, Xianniang has seen an alternate version of herself in Mulan,
and she ultimately sacrifices herself to save the younger woman.
Kids won't miss Xianniang's sacrifice, but what they might fail to see is that Xianniang
was never really a villain at all.
Xianniang tells Mulan that she joined forces with Böri Khan because he was the only one
who provided a place for her and allowed her to be who she was.
But as we see before their encounter, she's really more of a prisoner than a lieutenant.
"Now I know, I serve you.
I am the slave."
"And you would do well to remember it."
While she does Böri Khan's bidding for much of the film, her true motivation is to create
a society in which she can be accepted without having to diminish herself.
In Mulan, she sees the possibility of that society, and she gives her life to help it
come into being.
Rather than an antagonist working against the hero, Xianniang proves herself to be a
tragic figure who was ultimately working toward the same goals as Mulan.
By the end of the film, Mulan has returned home to her village, seeking to beg her family's
forgiveness for how she left and restore their honor.
But when she's reunited with her family, they're not angry with her for leaving, but rather
relieved that she finally came back home.
Her father then tells her that he recognizes that she's a warrior, and that he should've
seen that all along.
Considering we've just seen Mulan defeat Böri Khan single-handedly and get recognized by
the Emperor, this exchange makes complete sense.
But what young viewers may not have quite pieced together is that Hua Zhou wouldn't
actually know about her accomplishments in battle yet.
As children, it's easy to assume that the characters know whatever we know, but as adults,
the flow of information becomes a lot clearer.
When her father says he sees that Mulan is a warrior, he didn't come to that revelation
because he'd heard of her great feats in battle.
Instead, it's because he finally admitted the truth he'd always known about his daughter.
It turns out that none of Mulan's accomplishments were necessary for her father to finally see
her.
He'd known who she was from the beginning.
By the end of Mulan, it seems like women's rights have taken a big step forward, with
Mulan being invited to serve as an officer in the Emperor's guard.
But while Mulan herself has come a long way, not much has been done for any of the other
women living alongside her.
She returns home to find her sister excited about her upcoming arranged marriage, with
the other women in her village still in exactly the same circumstances as when she left.
Granted, none of the other women in Mulan have given any indication that they want anything
else for their lives, but that could be simply because they never considered that other options
might be open to them.
Xianniang, the only other woman who wanted something more than what society was prepared
to offer, is dead by the film's end.
Kids may be satisfied that Mulan herself is able to finally lead the life she wants, but
adults may wonder how much has really changed.
Mulan accepting her commission as an officer in the Emperor's guard is presented as a happy
ending, but Mulan likely has an extremely hard road ahead of her.
Remember, the army that she's going to join is the same one that, earlier in the film,
reminded its soldiers that the presence of a woman in the camp was punishable by death.
Although the men who fought beside Mulan against Böri Khan are ready and willing to accept
her as a warrior, there are plenty of other men in the Emperor's guard who don't know
her personally.
They aren't all going to be thrilled at the idea of admitting a woman to their ranks,
much less as a leader.
Not all men will find it easy to let go of the way things have always been done in the
past, and it's probable that at least some of Mulan's fellow soldiers could decide to
make her life particularly difficult in order to "prove" that women have no place among
them.
Mulan was able to earn the respect of her peers once before, but that was only after
she'd previously earned it as a man.
Her new career as the only female officer in the Emperor's guard will no doubt be a
tremendously challenging one, but we are sure she's up to the task.
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