Mulan: Strong in the real way

With 2020 coming up they are quite a few films to look out for that may make a few waves when they drop. One of them is undoubtedly the live action remake of The Disney animated classic Mulan.

Society needs more films like this

Female heroes permeate most of Disney's animated movies, but this is the first time they've given her real strength. -Rotten Tomatoes; Jeffrey M. Anderson-

Strong heroines are few and far between

A young Mulan learns that her ailing father must join the Emperor’s army to fight the invading Huns. Worried about her father’s safety, she dresses up as a man and joins the army in his stead. This is highly frowned upon by the community as woman are raised to be good wives, look after their house and take care of their families well-being.

Stun Your Readers

"Mulan'' charts a new direction for Disney's animation studio, combining the traditional elements (brave heroine, cute animal sidekicks) with material that seems more adventuresome and grown up. - Roger

I feel like this film is really relevant looking at what is happening in the world and especially South Africa these days. With the steady increase in woman finding equality in the workplace and communities, society is still trying to define what it means to be a woman. In my opinion, to be a woman means that you are strong. The strength is not a physical kind of strength, even though woman can posses this to which was proven by Mulan, but it’s more a strength that comes with your mentality. You being able to take responsibility for your actions and make decisions that impact on the world around you.

Mula taught us to reveal our inner warriors

Historically speaking men where the only people that had the power to make such decisions. We see this in Mulan with all the positions of power being held by the men in this world. The film however attempts to challenge this by Mulan forcefully putting herself in a position of power, by replacing her father in the war. This automatically gave her more power as she was looked at as an equal, with the same level of respect a man would have that time.

Mulan is a film that teaches people to be strong in the real way (Steven Universe reference, lol) and to make decisions that you will be proud about. It teaches people to defend their rights and beliefs and that’s why more films like this need to be released. So that both young men and women can realise their worth.

Watch the trailer for the live-action remake