Last year we watched the new Mulan after watching the original animated Mulan a year before that. Accented Cinema did an excellent comparison on these movies. Everyone else also properly panned the new show as well.
The live-action film movie has stunning locations marred by ridiculously outlandish characters. I understand why the actors would take the gig, but I don’t see why any self-respecting Asian would pay money to watch this new movie.
It’s a mish-mash of exotic Asian-ness, as respectful of the culture as the cheesy dub on a bad kung fu flick.
Then again, as an Asian American, I’ve always had a tortured relationship with Asia on the big screen. I’ve avoided movies like Lost in Translation or Last Samurai because I am particularly uninterested in a film centered on a white protagonist in an Asian setting. But as an American, a truly Asian film is too foreign to be relatable.
When I studied abroad in Paris, I met an Algerian who dropped the perfect line about immigrant life, “living with your ass on two seats.”
To be honest, life as an Asian American is pretty good. Things are a bit crazy at the moment and I’m well aware that things could turn much worse. But generally, the worst I have to deal with is being constantly aware of my otherness. Then again, I presume white kids have plenty of hang-ups from their adolescence that they have to deal with.
Even so, it does suck to never see yourself well portrayed on the big screen. However, I’m not a big fan of movies, so maybe it’s my lack of interest to blame? Maybe it’s a chicken and egg problem?
I’ve heard of some recent offerings that I should most likely watch at some point, but I keep going back to that exchange at the end of Chan is Missing. It perfectly captures the tension of being Asian American – life as an immigrant and a native and always an other in both worlds.
Mulan has only diminished further in my mind’s eye as time passes. I’ve heard good things about the new Shang Chi movie, though Accented Cinema did a pointed critique, “Shang Chi and the Perpetual Foreigners” that has cooled my interest in film as well, not that I’m going to a movie theater any time soon.