Writer's Blog #4 - Mulan

Something I realized this year, after watching this video, and the movie, too many times over my life.....

Captain Shang: "You're not suited for the rage of war.

So, pack up.

Go home, you're through."

If Mulan packed up, and went home, she would have still succeeded in substituting her father, and avoided the death sentence for lying to the imperial army. This was her original intention, and the story could have ended there.

Maybe, just maybe, China could have been saved by Captain Shang and his father.

The following scene is the segue into a plot turn - that, it's not enough to save her father, she wants to be a man, and doesn't like giving up.

Later on she becomes a man, when she kills 999999 huns, with 1 cannon when ambushed.

With that success, the notion of weakness, now corrected, challenges the notion of how gender relates to weakness. This is because we know she's a man, but actually female.

Then, the cast catches up, and everyone knows she's a female.

That she is actually a woman offers the 3rd segue - even if she is a woman, she wants to save China, despite being kicked out of the army.

By now, the plot has moved on from saving her father, to being a man, to doing the right thing.

Her decision to pursue the Huns as a woman, forms a transition into something we associate with the superhero genre, typically - going above and beyond, just because it's the right thing to do.

So many contrasting dichotomies.

In Mulan, it's internal / external, man / woman, weak / strong.

In DC / Marvel, the dichotomies are typically the superhuman, and the subhuman, but also:

1. immigrant (alien) vs non-immigrant
2. Disabled vs Abled.
3. Masked vs unmasked
4. Tragic Backstory vs. Happy Ending

The final segue is resolved when she is accepted as a woman, and saves China for the second and last time, with 3 feminine friends.

The final scene is the final resolution of many sub-tensions:

1. She is weak, father knows, and is annoyed.
2. She is conflicted, and father knows.
3. She saves her father by mistake, but father doesn't know.
4. She becomes a man, for herself, but father doesn't know.
5. She saved China (and her father) as a man, but father doesn't know.
6. She saved China, the Emperor (and her father) as a woman, but father still doesn't know.
7. She is no longer conflicted, and father knows.

Also another insight: basically.....

The father is the most useless character in the whole movie, serving as a fake instigator, and fake resolver.

Even Captain Shang's father died.

It just took Mulan 3 thefts, 1 inspiring song, 1 ambush, 1 sneak attack, and 2 hours of cinema time to realize that.