Disney’s upcoming film Mulan is just not getting any luck lately. Aside from recently being delayed due to the Coronavirus, Mulan has now apparently been targeted for being “too white behind the camera” – according to Keshav Kant.
Keshav Kant is actually the editor-in-chief at Off Colour, and explained their criticisms for the upcoming Mulan film in an article for Metro UK titled “I’ve loved Mulan since childhood but the remake is too white behind the camera.”
As you can guess by the title, Kant has some serious criticisms with the crew behind the upcoming Mulan film. As Kant wrote:
“Finally, it premiered on 10 March, but as the cast of Asian excellence lined up on the red carpet for photos and interviews, they were followed by the crew – majority of whom were (un)surprisingly very white.”
Kant included that, “As a person of colour, this was incredibly frustrating to see.”
It’s here that Keshav Kant takes a much more hostile point of view against the crew of Mulan.
“We were promised that this remake would be a departure from the animated movie’s orientalist roots and a more accurate-to-origin retelling of the Chinese legend and folksong, The Ballad of Mulan, which the movie is based on. But seeing a whole host of white people parade onto that carpet and enjoying their time in the spotlight made it feel hollow.”
If that’s not enough, Kant explains that the Asian cast members in the film are only puppets for the white people behind the camera.
“It was a visual slap in the face – an undeniable message from Disney that the Asian people telling this story on screen are mere puppets on strings with no real control over how their own stories are told.”
In fact, Kant mentions that one of their issues with the actual film was caused by the removal of character Li Shang, something that Kant imagines was because of “white people”:
“I am disgusted by how a beautiful love story that focused on the woman taking control and allowed her to lead the relationship’s development is disregarded as a flippant justification for a creative decision made by white people who clearly don’t understand the story’s nuance.”
Kant adds:
“At this point, I’ve given up. This is no longer my favourite Disney story; it’s a white person’s chance to flex their creative muscles and cash a Disney cheque.”
Apparently the only solution, according to Kant, is to no longer allow “white people” any “leadership roles” or “creative control and authority.”
As Kant continues:
“Not everyone on the crew needs to be of a specific race and ethnicity that pairs with the story told, but those who are in leadership roles and have creative control and authority should be.”
Kant then further writes, “The director and screenwriters, for example, as well as the costume designer, who specialises in historically accurate clothing, and composers, who are familiar with the culture’s musical history and traditions.”
Finally, Kant’s last piece of advice to Disney is that they need “sensitivity readers” to help monitor all content as it develops.
“It doesn’t hurt to go the extra step, either. For instance, by hiring an on-set historian, sensitivity readers to review the script and screening rough edits to knowledgeable critics before confirming the completion of the film.”
It should be stated that Mulan’s director Niki Caro was chosen by Disney specifically because of her ability to properly respect the Chinese culture during production on the film. In fact, she and her accompanying crew went to great lengths to make sure that the film would please Chinese audiences. It goes to show that Keshav Kant is simply unaware of what actually happened with Mulan behind the cameras and only wanted to rant because the crew was “too white”.
Mulan is currently being delayed along with many other Disney projects due to the Coronavirus, so it will no longer meet its original release date of March 27, 2020.