Xianniang is the movie’s most vibrant creation and an original addition to the Mulan chronicles. Despite her double life, Mulan has soldier friends and one justly anemic romantic prospect (she’s at war, dammit), but no one gets into her head like Xianniang does. Xianniang is unfortunately saddled with the main villain, Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee), whose name and grimace evoke Genghis Khan, the Mongolian ruler who conquered China. The scholar Louise Edwards has noted that over time, Mulan has gone from fighting for an ambiguous country to fighting unambiguously for China. Here, she is up against a largely faceless enemy whose headscarves read as Orientalist fantasies.

Source: New York Times September 03, 2020 15:56 UTC