Mulan is an upcoming film from Disney studios, a live-action adaptation of their 1998 animated
film Mulan, both in turn based upon the famous Chinese legend of Mulan, which is set during
the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). The basic story you likely know, and I won’t comment
on that: though you may be interested to know that the Northern Wei was founded by a clan
of the Xianbei, a nomadic people from Mongolia. The poem explicitly refers to the ruler as
Khan, though whether the historical Mulan, if she even existed, was meant to be of Xianbei
descent herself is another matter, and something perhaps for a future video.
What we’re talking about today is the depiction of the nomads in the two trailers so far released
for the upcoming film. Mulan has cost an estimated $290 million USD, so they weren’t stingy
on money for this. This is apparent with the Chinese armours. The impeccable Jack Huang
of Dragon’s Armoury has a great article on the Chinese armour shown in the trailers.
By film standards they are well done though he notes they are collected from a rather
wide period, from the Sui and early Tang, to late Tang and Song Dynasty. Credit is due
when its due, though they could perhaps have stuck to a century. The round communal home
in the trailer is from southern China from the 12th century onwards, an odd inclusion
for a story closely associated with earlier northern China!
The Chinese elements suggest a film set in the early Tang Dynasty. It’s not quite clear
who the ‘northern invaders’ are intended to be, -months ago I saw Gokturks mentioned,
Wikipedia now says Huns, and the trailers just say Northern Invaders, so I can’t compare
right now their armour to a specific group. Which is a shame, since it is terrible. The
nearly $300 million dollar budget went, it seems, into the Chinese armours, beautiful
cinematography, an army of extras and then had nothing left but rags to throw on the
nomads. It seems to be following the movie principal of ‘put the bad guys in all black
so you know they’re bad!’
Take, for instance, our first shot of the nomads from 59 seconds into the first trailer.
Clothing, horses, tack, saddle, everything is in all black. While black armour and clothing
is not itself unhistorical, it’s nowhere near as common as movies would have you think.
The rare surviving examples of textiles from nomads, and historical illustrations, generally
show them in bright colours, and a great variety of them. This was not a period of uniforms,
and warriors would have supplied themselves with what they and their families made, or
what they scavenged. According to the second trailer, this helmetless figure is Buri Khan,
and if he is in fact the Khan, then why isn’t he more decorated? These are proud horsemen,
those behind him presumably the Khan’s bodyguard. Feathers, horsetail plumes, should be adorning
gleaming helmets, dressed in lamellar, their standards vibrant and attention grabbing.
Swords should not be on their backs like a videogame, but hanging in bright sheaths from
decorated belts. And where are their bows and arrows, the most important weapon for
these so-called nomads? And none of the horses seem to be of the stocky steppe variety nomads
actually prized! The only thing in this image I do like is that there is a tugh, a horsetail
standard. Nice job Disney.
Here we have what appears to be a counterweight trebuchet, itself an anachronism for this
period. Again, everyone in matching black, which is cute. This helmet looks like they
had tried to resemble something historical at one point in production. He has some suspect
scale armour and shoulder protection, but one detail which is nice is the absence of
any hand armour: that’s historically accurate, as the hands needed to be left unencumbered
for using their bows, the primary weapon which it seems everyone here has. The bows don’t
look awful, but surviving archaeological examples from the Mongol Empire have even the bows
decorated: here, again, they are all black!
This shot is an improvement. I do have to give them credit for actually building the
siege weapon, even if it is a design centuries too early, and placed on wheels as well. Some
of these hats on the common soldiers, while they shouldn’t all be black, are actual
hats worn by inner Asian steppe tribes. The arrow quivers are on the belts instead of
the backs, which is correct. Further, everyone seems to have a bow, as they should.
Back to Bori Khan and his horsemen, who are now standing on their horses! Why? People
do this for trick riding, not for actual combat. There is no reason to do this in battle as
it makes you very unstable and less effective. The Mongols and others would stand in their
stirrups for shooting their arrows: no one stands on the saddle unless they’re performing.
All they’re doing here is making themselves a bigger target for enemy archers or more
likely to fall off the horse.
With the second trailer we get this: I suspect the filmmakers didn’t really understand
how nomads took cities, so here we have Bori and the boys vaulting off their horses to
Naruto run up the walls. Aside from the obvious misuse of gravity, it’s silly. A defender
on the walls just needs a good rock to drop on Bori, and now the northern invaders have
just lost their leader! For the Mongols, their generals tried to stay out of combat, ideally
in a position where they could see most of the battlefield and give commands as the situation
developed: this is very difficult to do if your leader is in the front line, and even
harder if he is killed in the middle of fighting. Few armies have their tactical ability improved
by losing the general.
Here’s a good shot of Bori Khan’s outfit: they did try to have the collar flaps present
in turkic outfits but made all black instead of colourful and proud. The shoulder strap
thing he has going on in is pure fantasy. His hair would better be in long braids rather
than loose.
Oh and there is a witch in this. That’as much a part of the Mulan poems as Eddie Murphy
is. I bet there’s a scene where she blows a hole in the Ming Dynasty Great Wall of China
for the nomads to get through. Her clothing has no historical basis, and neither does
people turning into birds.
So there, that is a look at the terrible armour of the nomads in Disney’s Mulan. Maybe in
the film there is some better nomad costumes, but I wouldn’t hold out much hope. We’ll
see if they have any historical tactics in the film, or just have them ride to the enemy,
dismount and fight in individual duels. If people like this, I may do a video on the
Northern Wei-Xianbei and the connections to the legend of Mulan closer to the film’s
premiere. Until then, happy new year!