Compare The Representation Of Women In Mulan & Crouching Tiger Hiden Dragon, (CTHD)

Media essay Perry Scofield-Lamoon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was directed by a man called Ang Lee and released on the 9th December 2003. CTHD is aimed at an older target audience; the action packed film, set in China has scenes woven together from romance to fighting. It starts off as Li Mu-Bai surrenders a legendary sword that has been in his hands for many years. He asks Shu-Lien, a close friend to take the sword to Sir Te, a long-term friend to keep safe in .

A masked thief steals the sword from the property of Sir Te. The thief is chased by guards and by Shu-lien. The thief turned out to be Jen. To get the sword back Mu-Bai fights with Jen on several occasions, but he doesn’t want to kill her because he sees her potential and wants to train her. In the end Mu-Bai does kill Jade Fox but dies of poisoning because she shot him with a poisoned needle.

Mulan released in 1998 set in China has many genres to it, such as , , and . It is aimed at a younger target audience as it is a Disney film, therefore being animation. The basic plot of the story is Mulan disguises herself as a man and goes in the army as her dad because he is injured from previous wars and can’t walk properly. Her family send a dragon to stop her, but the dragon eventually joins with Mulan and helps her through the war. Mulan and the other troops got trough training camp and went off to stop the Huns. After being spotted by the enemies the small Chinese army realise that they are out numbered, so Mulan did something really brave and ran at the Hun army with the last cannon, but instead of shooting them she shot the mountain above them and caused an avalanche and killed most of the Huns. However as she did this the Hun leader sliced her with his sword. Her identity as a girl is revealed but at the same time her bravery saved China.

The media concept of representation could be seen as a stereotype of certain groups, places, people, events and ideas although this may not always be accurate

I am going to be arguing that women are represented

Un-stereotypically and a little negative in both films.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The media concept of representation could be seen as a stereotype of certain groups, places, people, events and ideas although this may not always be accurate

I am going to be arguing that women are represented

Un-stereotypically and a little negative in both films.

In the Disney film Mulan, Mulan dresses up as a man and goes into the army because her father can’t as he is injured from a previous War. Unlike a stereotypical Chinese women staying at home taking it easy doing the cleaning and cooking etc, this shows us that Mulan has a lot of courage and is very outgoing this shows us that she isn’t a stereotypical Chinese women.

Women are also represented negatively in some ways such as I said before staying at home doing the cooking, washing etc instead of being allowed to go to war. Women are also considered to be weaker than men, once again so they are not allowed to be in the army and go to war. I can support this by the scene where Mulan has to steal her father’s army gear and disguise her self as a man just to go to war instead of her father.

Another negative point to women in Mulan doesn’t want to get married and wants to be a free spirit but has to give in and marries the captain, this shows us that women are being ordered/ bossed around and aren’t allowed to have a free spirit and choose their own future.

Back to the un-stereotypical side of things Mulan done something out of the blue that took a lot of courage and something not even the men would think of doing, let alone a Chinese women who is supposed to be at home, she takes the last cannon and runs at the Hun army, and instead of shooting them she shoots the mountain above them and causes an avalanche and kills them all however unfortunately gets sliced by the Hun leader as well. This was very clever and brave of Mulan to do this as she saved China from the Huns.

In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Jen is engaged to have an arranged marriage just like Mulan is in the Disney film. However in CTHD Jen has been arranged a marriage with a man she doesn’t love and tries all she can not to get married to him. This suggests that women are being ordered around just like in Mulan, but unlike a stereotypical Chinese woman Jen doesn’t just give in to them she fights for what she believes. This suggests that Jen not a stereotypical Chinese women and the producer could be trying to make the point that woman should get to choose their own future not parents or family choosing for them.

Also women are not allowed to be trained as Wudan worriers, just like in Mulan women aren’t allowed in the Chinese army. This is both sexual and stereotypical because there just thinking men are better than women and that men are stronger as well, but just like in Mulan, Jen proves that she is just as good or better than any other man, she proves this by going into the bar with the green destiny, looking like a man, so everyman in the bar get’s up and challenge her to a fight for the green destiny. Jen goes on the beat every man in there and even some at the same time. This is suggesting that woman could be better than men and not to look at them all stereotypically.

Basically in my essay I have argued that Mulan and CTHD have represented women as un-stereotypical and a little bit negatively more in CTHD than Mulan. I think I have a good argument here; I think I have proved my point by using the PEA (point, example, analysis) structure to help me explain and get my point across. I have backed all my point with scenes or acts that happened in both films and then analysed it too.

-Page -