Director Niki Caro has defend Disney’s decision to hire her instead of an Asian filmmaker to oversee their live-action Mulan re-imagining. Although the movie is based specifically on the studio’s 1998 animated version of the Mulan story, the original poem, The Ballad of Mulan, has been a major part of Chinese folklore since it was written in the fifth or sixth century. For that reason, the hope going in was Disney would turn to either an Asian or an Asian-American storyteller to bring the legend to life on the big screen (again). And while they did reportedly reach out to directors like Ang Lee, the Mouse House ultimately hired Caro for the job, instead.
Judging by the trailers, Caro has done a nice job of refashioning Disney’s animated Mulan into an exciting action-adventure – one done in the style of a Wuxia martial arts epic – while still paying homage to the 1998 movie. That said, it’s hard to not see Mulan as a missed opportunity where Disney could (and, some would fairly argue, should) have brought in a person of color to oversee one of their tentpoles. Now, Caro has offered her two cents on the issue.
As part of a much-larger article on Mulan (one that also touches on how the coronavirus has impacted the film’s release and the controversy star Liu Yifei has caused by publicly supporting the police in the ongoing Hong Kong protests), THR asked Caro about the response to her being hired to direct the movie instead of either an Asian or Asian-American filmmaker. Here’s what she had to say on the matter:
“Although it’s a critically important Chinese story and it’s set in Chinese culture and history, there is another culture at play here, which is the culture of Disney, and that the director, whoever they were, needed to be able to handle both – and here I am.”
To be frank, Caro’s answer is disappointing. It skirts around addressing important issues of representation by implying there weren’t any Asian or Asian-American filmmakers interested in helming Mulan who’re capable of handling “the culture of Disney”. And though it’s fair to say not everyone is comfortable with the creative restrictions Disney imposes on their big-budget tentpoles (see also: how many directors has stepped away from Disney’s Star Wars movies and MCU projects by now), this suggests Disney didn’t really prioritize finding an Asian or Asian-American storyteller who was up for the task, in spite of reports claiming they did. Not helping matters, Mulan is coming out the same year as two major comic book films – Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and Chloé Zhao’s Marvel movie Eternals – that were helmed by Asian-American women, the latter of whom was clearly able to handle “the culture of Disney”.
Keeping that in mind, it does seem like Caro has done strong work on Mulan and delivered a remake that feels like more than just a paint by numbers reboot of Disney’s animated movie. And obviously, in an ideal world where all filmmakers had equal opportunities regardless of race and/or gender, Caro’s hiring wouldn’t really be an issue. But of course, that’s not the case and the question of who gets to tell which stories is one that needs to continue to be discussed in order to bring about the change so many are calling for. However successful Mulan ends up being as a women-fronted blockbuster, it’s too bad it only feels like a half-step forward (at best) in that regard.
Key Release Dates
Mulan
Release Date:2020-09-04
