Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu throws some serious shade at Disney's live-action Mulan. Liu joined the MCU at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 when Kevin Feige introduced him to fans as the franchise's Shang-Chi. He'll make his onscreen debut next year when Shang-Chi arrives in theaters; the film was originally scheduled for February, but it was later delayed to May because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Production was shut down back in March, but after several months of being on standby, Shang-Chi began filming again last month. Liu and his co-stars are currently in Australia working on the film.
This past weekend, Disney released its live-action Mulan on Disney+ in countries where the streaming service is available and in theaters elsewhere. Even before it was released, though, Mulan found itself grappling with a fair amount of backlash and controversy for several reasons. In addition to star Liu Yifei's political views triggering a boycott online, Disney made several alterations to the film in an attempt to create a more culturally sensitive Mulan. However, many have noted that those changes mean very little because there were very few Asian crew members working behind the scenes.
Liu took to social media recently to seemingly throw shade at Mulan, though he never mentioned the film by name. It seems Liu's issue with Mulan stems from having white voices take on an Asian story, which therefore leads to some stereotypes. "BRB though I gotta think about my honour for the fourth time this hour," Liu wrote, "it’s very important to me, as you can tell from movies that your people have written about my people."
The concept of honor plays a large role in both the animated Mulan and the live-action. In fact, there's a whole song in the latter, "Honor to Us All", that emphasizes Mulan's need to act perfectly to honor her family instead of shaming them. This isn't the first Asian story to come from white creators that also emphasizes honor, with Avatar: The Last Airbender coming to mind (Prince Zuko, anyone?).
Liu has every right to feel dissatisfied with this portrayal, and hopefully Shang-Chi will manage to avoid overused stereotypes. Mulan has been greeted with a decidedly mixed response, for while critical reviews were largely positive, audiences haven't fallen in love with this remake. The fact that Disney is currently charging Disney+ subscribers $30 (or an amount around that) for the chance to watch Mulan likely isn't helping matters. Liu is far from the only person to express their frustration with Mulan, and he surely won't be the last. In the future, it might be best for Disney to strive for more diversity behind the scenes.
Source: Simu Liu/Twitter