Jesse Lin 0:06
Hi, I’m Jesse Lin.
Angela Lin 0:07
And I’m Angela Lin and welcome back to but where are you really from?
Full Transcript (Note: Transcribed via AI, may contain errors)
Jesse Lin 0:11
Whoo. All right, so this episode, we’re going to take some time to review spoiler alerts, Disney’s remake of Mulan. So just for those of you who have been sleeping or sitting, hiding under a rock, so Disney was supposed to release the remake of Milan, I believe in March. But obviously, like COVID pushed everything like way far out. And it was supposed to be like summer and then obviously, that didn’t happen because everything was so close. So then finally, they’re like, okay, we now have this captive audience. We’re gonna release it on Disney Plus, but you still have to pay $30 to watch it. So there’s kind of some like mucky muck suspiciousness behind it, because it kind of feels like they shuffled it around and then finally, they’re just like, well, we’re just gonna, like, release it. But like, make it unfavorable for people to watch because you have to pay extra money on top of your Disney Plus subscription
Angela Lin 1:14
It wasn’t even that it was extra money. It was like how much they were charging for it. $30 is so much more than a movie.
Jesse Lin 1:21
It’s a lot of money. Yeah.
Angela Lin 1:24
The fucking subscription is like, I calculated it, because I’ve Disney Plus, and it was like, a third of the subscription price. The annual subscription is for one fucking movie.
Jesse Lin 1:35
So let that be the first note, because I think I feel like part of the reason why it wasn’t received well, for a lot of people that I’ve talked to, not that anyone has specifically said this, but the fact that you have to pay extra money for it. And $30 I think, already soured a lot of people’s perspective on it before they even started to watch the movie. So like, I’ll pay $30 for it, it better be a really good movie. So let’s set the stage with that. Expectations?.
Unknown Speaker 2:03
I had such high expectations for it, which like, to be fair, I did. I did feel like maybe I shouldn’t have such high expectations. But like, when the trailer first came out, I was like, I like got a little emotional. The scene where the dad is walking towards the officer to take his order from the Emperor and his knee buckles and he falls to the ground. Let me just cry, right? Oh, because I was remembering the old movie, obviously. But like, yeah, and then production value of all these live action things. Like even if the movie sucks, all the production value has been phenomenal for like, every live action that they’ve done. Even if the end result movie was terrible, but it looks beautiful. And the part that I like was both I was like, hopeful and v-skeptical was they started including all these like Chinese traditional Chinese filmmaking techniques, right? Like, there was like, when more legit kungfu, and like the tropes of like, Ninja, like jumping on walls. And like, there’s a new character that’s like basically a witch that’s like, also in every other Chinese movie that exists. So when I saw that stuff, I was like, oh, well, I mean, that’s kind of cool that they’re like integrating legit Chinese filmmaking techniques. So maybe this is gonna be like, really legit, but I also was like, or maybe they’re just ripping off China and maybe this will suck. So it was like, I had high expectations and also at the same time, I was trying to tell myself like, don’t have such high expectations.
Unknown Speaker 3:39
Well, I will tell you my perspective on it. I love I mean, I loved the Disney Classics. But to be honest, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched any of them so I’ve like mostly forgotten all of them. So from that perspective, like I already was kind of like fresh like, blank slate like I remember the general story of Mulan obviously it’s like a very culturally relevant story. So we generally know it, but I remember the story so that’s basically like kind of the only expectations that I had plus some of the things you mentioned where I saw like okay, they’re incorporating some like wire-fu into it. There’s like a badass witch looking person which I’m into love me a well dressed villain. So I was like, okay, like I think these will be good plus like I don’t I didn’t have that like strong recollection of the initial Mulan movie so I wasn’t going to be like oh it but this is different and like here is different and there’s different so I feel like my expectations were pretty fair. I was kind of going into it thinking it’s like the Mulan story but with like cool wire-fu action and done in like Hollywood production budget level so it’s like really nice kind of situation.
Angela Lin 4:50
Well, also, let’s talk about the other expectation, which is like for the Asian American community, right? It was like oh, finally, we have – well not finally, we’ve had a few, we’ve had a few good you know all Asian cast movies with Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell, Parasite, even though that’s a foreign film, so it’s a little bit different, but like we’ve had a few English speaking all Asian cast things, but still not prevalent. So with Mulan, it definitely was another like, yay, here’s a win for Asians. So I think there was also just like, maybe pent up, like a lot of hopes and aspirations for this movie that maybe it could never have fulfilled just because like trying to represent for too much from a cultural point too.
Jesse Lin 5:33
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I kind of feel like I missed a huge red flag because it kind of because the actors were all Asian, because normally, when you see a film that’s stacked with some heavy hitters, you’re like, that’s gonna suck they stacked it with heavy hitters for a reason because the film sucks. They’re just trying to staff up with people that you like. And I totally missed that because they have Gong Li, who is a witch loved her in Memoirs of a Geisha. They have Donnie Yen heavy hitter – IP man. They also have Jet Li is like, super super famous.
Angela Lin 6:07
Yo, it took me the whole movie to know that that was Jet Li.
Jesse Lin 6:12
Dude yeah he hit that Asian menopause really hard.
Angela Lin 6:24
No, I hear you. That’s true. I mean, there are a few movies that are good with a huge star studded cast. But I agree that when there’s too many, it’s usually a flag.
Jesse Lin 6:36
And I just missed it. I should have known. ,
Angela Lin 6:39
Well, spoiler alert, if you couldn’t tell by the attitude we’re bringing into this…
Jesse Lin 6:43
It was amazing…
Angela Lin 6:46
Best movie ever. No, so spoiler alert, we’re gonna go into for whatever, it’s worth our review of the movie. Jesse…thoughts?
Jesse Lin 6:59
Yeah, so we’re gonna do basically like, our thoughts about the movie first, and then we’ll talk about I guess, like some of the context drama around the release of a movie. Yes. So the movie…okay, what did I like about the movie? The cinematography was lovely. Like, the regions and the like background shots and everything was really beautiful. Like, if I was really in the mood for some like China geography landscape porn, I would be like this is it. Like NatGeo perfect. Yeah. Um, so lots of that if you’re into that you’ll really like the different scenes that it takes you through. And obviously as a Disney production, they had like exclusive access to shooting in specific locations that made the movie like really come alive. So like some of the fight scenes in the palace. I’m not super sure if that was like actually in the Forbidden City, but it kind of looked like it was it could have been, obviously as a Disney production, like costumes were also beautiful. Like, even like what everybody was wearing from Mulan’s, supposedly poor village. I was like, y’all look nice for poor people. Like all the way through, like the costume design was like really lovely. Like the witch you know, I said, I love a villain in a costume. I’m just like, why are you wearing this? Like, it’s so over the top like, You don’t look like you were outcast. You look like a rich bitch. But cool. Um, what else did I like about it? I enjoyed the wire-fu. I think this is controversial because some people will say the fighting scenes are not as good as some of the, like, low budget productions, but I thought it was pretty decent. Like it was there was no part where I was like, I can see this, I can see the wires. And there wasn’t the part where I was like, this is like so unbelievable that I I am no longer in this scene. So that was pretty good. And I thought there were some cute moments with some of the characters like the fat Cricket. And, like, try to introduce like a little bit of humor into it, but the overall tone of the movie was just like, so mehhh, those moments I feel like you were just like, you missed it because you weren’t expecting like levity there so you just completely didn’t even like receive it. So now I’m like moving into like the negative negative parts were to start. Okay, the main actress I I loved that they cast an Asian female lead, but I feel like there was no display of appropriate emotion through the entire movie. I felt like she was kind of flat. Like she was just kind of like, sad and forlorn and like withdrawn the whole movie. And I kind of get it because like, okay, you’re you’re hiding a big piece of yourself. And that’s like very, you know, stressful and anxiety causing but I’m also like, there’s no range. Like that can be the only thing that you’re feeling the entire time. You can’t just be like an anxious and sad and that’s it.
Angela Lin 10:02
You know, I don’t know how to feel about that. Because of all the things I didn’t like about this movie that didn’t completely stand out to me. But when you aren’t a native speaker of a certain language and you’re trying to act in that language, it’s kind of hard to convey emotions properly. Because it’s not your like, your brain is working kind of hard to like, translate what’s happening. And she’s, uh, I don’t know her very well, but I know that she’s like a actual, semi famous Chinese actress. Like she’s not this might be like her first American film that she’s done. So I don’t know how fluent in English she actually is. I would guess not that fluent. So like, I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt that like maybe if it was, if her emotions weren’t coming across that well is because there’s that language situation because like, if you think about some of the other actors like Tzi Ma, who’s the everyone’s dad in every Asian film, that’s his Instagram, like slogan is like Hollywood’s favorite Asian dad. He’s so funny. But like, he’s, I mean, he’s like, from Hong Kong, which also like, speaks English, as you know, a second Motherland country language, and also has been acting in Hollywood forever. So like, I think he has different range of abilities because of that. So I don’t know, maybe I’m giving her too much of the benefit of the doubt but.
Jesse Lin 11:31
I will join the devil’s advocate boat with you. Because the other thing that I noticed is that like, I kind of feel like a lot of the characters, her included, did not have a lot of dialogue. Like I was expecting her to talk more than she did. Like, I know, there was a lot of like action scenes, and there’s talking, like, interspersed with that. But there was like, no extended dialogue where I could, like, get to know her better as a character. So I think from that perspective, it was also it also kind of like handicapped her because not only if she’s fighting like a language barrier, but she’s also been giving a script where she is like, she doesn’t have a lot to work with.
Angela Lin 12:11
Let’s talk about the script. That’s script was shit. That script was awful and so cringe worthy in so many places. Like, can you not say I believe Hua Mulan, I was like, I’m dying, that you included that in the script and had four people repeat it to try to appeal to the woke audience because no one’s buying it. And this is awful. That was that was one moment that stood out drastically to me. What about you?
Jesse Lin 12:42
Just, yeah, just the choices and the choices that were made? I’m very confused. Like, for example, Jet Li as the Emperor has, like, also magic kungfu powers.
Angela Lin 12:57
Why do you need guards?
Jesse Lin 12:58
Yes, but somehow he’s like, stupid enough to get captured by the barbarian who has no kung fu powers. What else was like a choice but like a really extra? Oh, at the very end, where they defeat the Barbarian there was like a really extra thing where like, somebody deflected an arrow and then Mulan, like, kicked it into the barbarian from like, up in the sky. I’m like, is this necessary? Like, he’s on the ground like basically dead. And you have to do that. Like, why?
Angela Lin 13:31
There’s also to your point about Mulan’s character not having that many lines, like, there was so little character development for all the characters like the witch character. I was like, I’m sorry, how do you go from like, I’m a lone wolf. I’m never gonna help anyone. I’m only out for myself. So at the end, she like suddenly changes her mind and helps Mulan. And it’s like, we’re on the same team. I’m gonna have to die for you. I’m like, you don’t, I don’t know your story. This is doesn’t make any sense.
Jesse Lin 14:02
What do you think if you can make like one change to the film? What would you have changed to make it better? Like, what would have the most impact?
Angela Lin 14:09
Well, this is gonna roll into the controversy. So I really think you should have cast Chinese writers. Like there were no, one of the controversies, which I’m sure a lot of you are very aware of is that even though it was an all Asian cast, there were no Asian people in the crew. So like, of the people who made the movie, none of this more Asian. And I disagree that like that needed to be a fully Asian crew. I think that’s like, too much. And like, you don’t need to implement that kind of extreme. But when it counts, you should have Asian people – like it’s a historical movie about actual China. And like Mulan is a legend that is actually from China that’s existed for thousands of years, right? And like, you’re gonna have on Chinese people as part of the writing, that’s probably part of why it was such bullshit. So I think if I could only change one thing that would probably make a significant difference, I would have been it. What about you?
Jesse Lin 15:13
Honestly, I have to agree with you. I think that and not to, like, put everything on the people who were doing the writing. But I kind of feel like there was a step missed. Not even in the writing process, but maybe just the testing process of the film. I’m very surprised that came out the way it actually did. Because as I understand, and we’ll get into all this controversial stuff later, Disney did a lot of kowtowing to the Chinese government to try to get this film made, they got special access to film in different places in China, they really want to break into the Chinese market, because it’s a huge market for them. So I’m surprised that the film is so disjointed, because I can’t imagine that it would be well received by local people there either.
Angela Lin 15:58
Yeah. So even though we both love the beautiful scenery, and the landscapes, there’s a darker side to that shit, which is that they filmed exclusively in Xinjiang Province, right?And that is where all the Uyghur concentration camps are. And you know, just like illegal detainment of millions of people. But you know, I don’t, there’s just like a lot there. And I didn’t notice anything, but it was like, obviously, the internet picks up on everything. So people put screenshots of like, if you actually watch till the end of the credits, they named the like, essentially, the local Chinese government propaganda councils from Xinjiang as like, partners. Of course, you should have filmed it in China, because it’s about fucking China. But China is a huge country. And there is like so many things you could pick apart about China and the Chinese government. But that is like one of the worst things happening right now. So why would you choose to specifically film in that province out of like, anywhere else you could have filmed?
Jesse Lin 17:15
So the other thing that was I think semi controversial was the lead actress, I think, like, you know, a few months ago voiced her support for the police in the Hong Kong protests. And obviously, like a lot of people were not happy with, let’s say what she was putting out, because most people want Hong Kong to retain their democratic or pseudo democratic system. So that was also another I think, big thing for people to be like, don’t watch the movie because like, she supports the unauthorized expansion of Chinese authority into Hong Kong. And it was so hard because you were like, okay, as you mentioned, like, hey, we really want to support this movie, but then there’s like, the Uyghur stuff, then there’s like this Hong Kong stuff. And then the movie just was not that good. So you’re like, oh, man, like, this is like really rough. Because you like the same when Crazy Rich Asians came out, we’re like, let’s do this. Like, let’s have this experience. And that was great. There was like no weird controversies. No people saying things where you were like, nuh uh, and the movie was good. This was like, kind of the opposite of that. So it’s like a little bit of a letdown.
Angela Lin 18:32
Yeah. I mean, it’s interesting, because when you think about it, I wonder how much of that has to do with the mix of cast that’s included, because when you talk about Crazy Rich Asians, those are all Asian American, Asian-British, like, you know, Asian blank, people as opposed to like, Chinese people or Japanese, you know, like, from the country people. And Mulan was more leaning towards like, actual Chinese people. They’re like, even the the actors we know, are actual Chinese, like they’ve, you know, been in Hollywood forever but they’re, they’re from China and Hong Kong and whatnot. So I wonder how much of that has to do with it for like, the potential for controversy, because even when you were saying that I was like, I mean, I’m not, you know, I’m not pro, the hostile takeover of Hong Kong by any means. But at the same time, I’m like, you’re kind of asking for a lot for a Chinese actress to be pro Hong Kong. Like, what did you expect? She’s from China? Like, I don’t know. Okay, let’s sweep behind this negativity. And I mean, it’s a little bit negative still, but I want to bring some fun back to this. Maybe we move into our closing Fortune Cookie?
Jesse Lin 19:56
Yes, please.
Angela Lin 19:58
All right. So for fortune cookie is still a little bit of shitting. But it’s in a fun way we want to talk about our favorite character that was missing from this movie because they they made so many changes which like was necessary because of the type of film that they were trying to make. But like, there’s so much like fun and like personality and specialness that was missing because it cut out a bunch of the best characters that were in the animated version. So, Jesse, do you have a fav that you wished was part of it?
Jesse Lin 20:34
Yes. My favorite character that was missing was Mulan’s. humor. No, just kidding. Well. I mean, that was missing. My favorite character that was missing was Mushu obviously Mushu as I mentioned, I don’t have a really like clear memory of the animated Mulan but Mushi was like the clearest thing that was missing – Mushu had a character arc I remember there’s a part where he’s like, oh, like cuz he went from like, teeny useless dragon and there’s a part where he turned into like a big giant dragon and he had like a full character development for this like Eddie Murphy sad dragon thing.
Angela Lin 21:13
He was an outcast and then became a hero, yeah.
Jesse Lin 21:16
Yeah so Mushu was a big miss. And there was nobody or nothing that they put in his place like there was nothing that went through that character development.
Angela Lin 21:30
You don’t think the Phoenix was a good Mushu replacement?.
Jesse Lin 21:39
What about you?
Angela Lin 21:40
You know I have a hard time answering this because I miss – I pretty much miss every character that they cut out because – hear me out – every every single character that they cut out added like 20% extra like fun and like something like special so for example, characters that said nothing the cricket, the sassy ass horse. Like all even those characters have more character development than half the humans in the fucking live action movie. Like the horse was the sassiest motherfucker, the cricket was like went from like being scared all the time to like being a hero. There’s like all these you know, little arcs. And the grandma, the grandma who is horny because at the end, when Shang comes by to find move on, she’s like, mm, break me off a piece of that. You know, she was like, she was awesome. And yeah, her love interest, I think his name’s Shang, but love interest sucked in this one. Like there’s barely any character development and their love story. You weren’t rooting for them. There was nothing there. And he had nothing. Because the original one he was a son of the captain. So he wanted to like prove himself. That was what was driving his competitiveness. And this was just like some dude who like was trying to compete. I was like, who cares?
Jesse Lin 23:06
Now, to be fair, they were both hot. There was some ABS action.
Angela Lin 23:13
Yeah, well, his face didn’t get any screen time
Jesse Lin 23:16
Oh, true.
Angela Lin 23:18
Yeah, so my answer is all of them. Because all of them – to be fair, all of that there’s only had like a few scenes, but there are a few scenes combined where like, all the specialness that was missing,
Jesse Lin 23:29
So basically…
Angela Lin 23:31
I basically miss the whole old movie that they chose to ruin.
Jesse Lin 23:38
Well, on that note, we hope you guys enjoyed our trashing of the Mulan movie in the form of an ill disguised review. If you watched Mulan and you have the same opinion, different opinion, or if you work in the film industry, like we’d be really interested to hear like what your perspective is on representation from writing, to directing to casting to crew, all that jazz. So, yeah, drop us a note. Feel free to reach out on Instagram or you can email us at our email – telluswhereyourefrom@gmail.com that’s Y-O-U-R-E. Take us to the close Angela.
Angela Lin 24:15
Well come back next week for a fresh new episode because we got some fun shit left for you this season and until next time.