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Mulan’s decision: film Analysis
Mulan is about a girl who changes her identity just for her dad. This is the scene where she makes her decision to become a man. This scene is very important because it’s showing how women are strong and capable of hard things because at the time people thought men were more physically stronger than women. Some girls aren’t very feminine and they are very confident about their decisions. In my essay, I will be looking at symbols, camera angles, sound, and visuals.
The first element I will be examining is the use of symbols in the film. The first symbol I noticed is the dragon statue she is sitting under. Dragons represent China, and they are very bold, confident and shows strength and structure in China. Mulan feels sad and scared at the moment, she doesn’t know who she is. The second symbol I noticed is the flower hair comb. In this part, she switched the flower comb with the scroll to show that she left at her home. Her culture likes girls to be tidy and clean for events. The third symbol I will be examining is the thunder and rain. The thunder makes it more powerful and loud because of the banging
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When she is about to cut off her hair it was a medium shot, but then it went into a close-up. She has a completely different identity. Mulan doesn’t want to be forced to be who she isn’t. The reason why she has decided to become a man is that she wanted to go to war for her dad because she feels very worried for her dad because he is very fragile. She also didn’t want her dad to get killed or harmed. The second camera angle is a high shot. This is when she prays to her ancestors at the temple. This part is important because it shows that she respects and follows her culture. The third angle is a low angle shot. Her horse was scared of Mulan because she changed her identity. After Mulan calmed the horse down they went off to
The third symbol is Bobby spray painting the wall. Bobby paints a self-portrait of a “Pale Ghost Boy” referring to himself and he is also holding a faceless baby in a carrier. The faceless baby could represent feather lack of identity because he’s new to the world. And Bobby painting himself as “pale” and “ghostly” because he could be scared and could feel like no one supported him. This symbol is important because it shows how he isn’t fully mature because he is spray painting but it shows how lonely he feels being a single parent taking care of Feather.
Various symbols are used in "The Lesson," by Toni Cade Bambara, to represent the social and economic inequality faced by the children in this story. The children, not that they asked for it, are dealt the bad hand by fate. It is up to them to decide what to do about it or even to do anything at all.
Another film technique used in Mulan is a medium shot of when Mulan’s Father sees her for the first time, this scene is then put into a low shot as mulan gives the sword and emperor's crest to her father, a high shot is then shown in perspective of mulan watching her father look at the gifts. Then a medium shot is shown looking at mulan and her father hugging, this scene is truly heartwarming as mulan and her father meet for the first time. This was Mulan's return to her journey through the chinese war, this seals her hero's journey as she saved china and turned into a true hero.
Each symbol exhibits Janie’s development as she faces freedom, rebellion, authority, destruction, and individuality. These symbols sculpt Janie’s journey into success and mold her into the woman she becomes.
...ic meanings that still are puzzling art historians today. Some of the key symbols that Stokstad points out in the text is the dove, representing the Holy Spirit; the white lilies as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. She also points out, two rather unknown symbols to the sacrilegious, the date of the Annunciation in signs of the zodiac on the floor, as well as the lone stained glass window that is symbolizing God rising above the three windows that are placed in the background behind Mary. These three windows represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Overall, the Disney movie, Mulan, demonstrates gender roles, socialization of gender roles, and consequences of breaking the gender roles. By Mulan going to war for her father, in China, many things were at risk, life, honor, and the country of China, itself. Displaying the characteristics a man had was the only way for Mulan to survive, granted, she was not great at displaying woman characteristics in the first place. Being caught in war, as a woman, meant death, but Mulan was lucky for her bravery when saving Captain Li Shang, for he spared her life, which allowed Mulan to help save China and the emperor in the end. Even though China had very strict gender roles, Mulan broke them to save her father’s life and became the person she was meant to be.
William Shakespeare once said, “[My] honor is my life; both grow in one; take honor from me, and my life is done.” The idea is touched upon in both the book Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as well as Disney’s Mulan were family honor is more important than anything else. Mulan was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film Mulan retold the story of a woman warrior who took her father’s place in battle and became a savior of China.The movie uses many elements from the original story told in the chapter “White Tigers,” but adds many modern twists in order to make the story more appealing for a newer generation. In both stories of Fa Mu Lan the elements of sacrifice, silence and voice, cultural practices of ancestor worship and filial piety, and Chinese stereotypes are present.
...sh and adore. However, next time, do not let yourself be so easily grabbed by the catchy musical numbers and seemingly revolutionary story that is told. Yes, Mulan is an unorthodox heroine who changes all the rules, but she does so by conforming to a flawed system and affecting change from the inside, under the guise of a man. In lieu of doing it as a woman, it is not as girl power filled as many of us would like to believe. She, for the most part, affects all of this change as a man. Once she’s discovered, all her hard work in the training and the relationships she’s forged are all tossed to the wind and she’s quickly relegated back to her place as a lowly woman. However, despite its flawed execution in being a girl power story, it embodies a quintessential feel-good, be true to your heart film that will leave you wanting to affect change in the world around you.
The first symbol was a tall, bronze ladder that was narrow and stretched all the way to Heaven. The ladder represents the path that everyone must climb in order to get to Heaven. On the ladder are iron implements, all of which were various weapons, and that if you were not careful, you would be "torn to pieces" (2). The iron implements were the tools that were used to torture people, especially in the arena where the Christians were killed. One could also see the implements as obstacles that people face while trying to live a good life and get to Heaven. The dragon found at the bottom of the ladder is representative of the temptation of the devil (2). When the dragon put his head down and Perpetua stomped on it, it showed that she had power over the devil and that she was able to resist his temptations. The huge expanse of garden symbolizes Heaven. The white-haired man milking his ewes and dressed like a shepherd is referring to God watching over all his people like a shepherd watches his flock. The thousands of people dressed in white are either representing the angels and saints in Heaven or the thousands of believers that have died before and now live in Heaven. Finally, in her vision, Perpetua is given a small morsel, and she accepts it with both hands, and the people say "Amen". These actions symbolize those of Eucharist and that she was receiving the Body of Christ. After this had happened,
In the Disney film Mulan, the character for Mulan plays an important part to support the example of a woman not satisfied with her state of being and subordinated position in society and therefore, takes action to show others her true capabilities and qualities. This prototype is scarcely depicted in today’s cartoons and films so that children rarely identify with this image. “Mulan” helps to promote this role model of an intelligent woman and could be the first step in breaking gender constraints. In addition, it might teach children that they have to find their own state of happiness rather than trying desperately to fulfill society’s expectations.
By standing up in her father’s place and defying ancient Chinese rule, Mulan developed and acquired courage. Mulan thought of her father before herself as these wars were brutal and often ended with tragedy. This is demonstrated in the following quote where Mulan stood up to take her father’s place, “From the Fa family! No father, you can't go!” Unlike Dragonkeeper, the quote uses alliteration to focus the audience’s view and emphasises the dread that Mulan experienced. This technique consequently highlights Mulan’s developments as a character. By standing up in her father's place and defying social customs, she demonstrates and further develops an extreme amount of courage. These developments subsequently highlight the theme of self discovery within the film. Similarly to Dragonkeeper, Mulan accepts the role of protect her country demonstrating extreme bravery. This bravery then allowed Mulan to gain a greater insight into her character. Therefore, texts represent developments in characters through the use of figurative language. Subsequently, these developments of courage and bravery highlight the theme of self
The symbolic interactionism is a theory concerned with the ability of humans to see themselves through the eyes of others and to enact social roles based on others’ expectations. In the film, Mulan’s abilities as a woman were not be accepted and recognized before she joined the army. For example, at that time, she was defined as a weak woman and helpless daughter. Although she worried about her old father, no one thought that she could help her father, and no one respected her thoughts. Her label made her only needs to obey and wait the results of war. However, when she came home after the war ends, her label also changed. This is because she met other’ expectations and played men’s role successfully. She mastered more capability like fighting a battle. Her label also became a hero and her family guardian. From the beginning to the end of the film, Mulan’s identity and label changed a lot because of her changing
Mulan pushes gender inequality by reinforcing masculine and feminine stereotypes through the songs that it presents throughout the movie. The roles of what it means to be a man is simply laid out within the influential song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.” This song occurred when the fresh new soldiers appeared to be very weak and unfit, so Captain Shang sang of how they must become strong like real men should be. Captain Shang asks the question, “did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?” (Mulan), implying that women are unfit for the conditions of
The third symbol is the most important symbol of all and that is the ugly yellow wallpaper the narrator has to spend her time staring at and in the end g...
Mulan reinforces the traditional ideas of masculinity in the song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” (Mulan 1998). The lyrics, “Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns. Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?”(Mulan, 1998) portrays the traditional gender roles of men; it claims that male is the only sex that is able to fight. The goal of this scene is to “make a man” out of the new recruits. The movie Mulan asserts that being feminine is detrimental to the war effort. Instead, the docile, feminine recruits have to be transformed into men. This song in Mulan argues that one should strive towards being a "man";