Change Your Image
z-kharazmi
Reviews
The Return of Jafar (1994)
Another evidence for WaltDisney activities toward building an inclusive culture are Alladin adventures.
"The Return of Jafar" is produced by Toby Shelton and Tad Stones in 1994. The very short summary is the story of Alladin who steals the stolen jewleries to help poor people.He is an Arabic hero who had saved the country,defeating previous Sultan's Vazir. He loves Yasamin,the Sultan's daughter and they are going to marry.Alladin was a poor boy that now is going to be vazir. The last vazir's parrot comes back to take the revenge and you see the cotradictions between a dark and white monster who aid the parrot and Alladin toward victory. The Arabic land is a very primitive,dry ,non-colorful,non-bright and poor one which has a very simple,stupid Sultan. Even the palace or the princess are not luxurious and ellegant.The Arabian market is an old,non-fascinating one in which the camels and sheep are passing.And women are represented Muslims with complete Hejab. The main transportation is horses and Alladin has a flying carpet which is the main entertainment of Sultan.The Arab people are represented savage-like who are all the time fighting with swords. The American factors are articulated with the Arabic ones which all presents in the white monster.He travels all the world,so he is modern and he is always the saver of Arab characters even Alladin. He brings coffee,sunglasses,cigar,the picnic basket with lots of colorful and delicious food,camera,etc.The white monster has knowledge,to be a doctor, and skill,to be a firefighter and he can always use his abilities on time. The starting scenes accompanies with a song with a strange American accent which describes Arabian day and night shocking and amazing,however no Arabian project in the cartoon is so successful to be amazing.Just the Western and particularly American thesis is pragmatic.
Mulan (1998)
Mulan is the Walt Disney product of 1998, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook.
Mulan is an Chinese Legendary about a young girl and her voluntarily- facing adventures. Mulan is the story of the love of the land and sacrifices people do for defending their own national identity.Its genre looks adventure but at the same time comic and romance. The story has a happy start and of course a happy end but in very different settings. The start is the time Mulan gets ready to take part in a contest to be the perfect bride(daughter). The scenes are happy and colorful.It's comic when she is cheating to memorize the motto of the perfect bride and gets the help of a puppy to the house chores. These scenes accompanies with happy nice songs. While at the end the setting is very formal, all the country celebrates the countries victory against invaders and even the emperor bows against Mulan, followed by all other people. The story of Mulan takes place in a small Chinese town where people are living at peace her great ancestors and father as an old warrior makes them an honored family, but her failures, for instance in the perfect bride contest, make all except her father believe she is a black spot for the family and never can bring honor for the family. The time when the war begins is the climax, when the emperor orders all the families to sacrifice a man for defense of the Chinese Empire. Mulan's father who already gave service in the emperor army and was injured is the only male in the family who should fight and since Mulan knows his hard situation, joins the army, leaving home at night in his father's graceful helmet and sword. Since there are no women in the army she should pretend to be his father's son.That's a burden for her because he should also practice hard to be as strong as men, however none of the amateur soldiers are so brilliant. The commander, Shang, tries hard to make these ordinary sometime stupid and comic men a professional loyal army of the emperor. When the Army begins the war, the Emperor's army is defeated hard by Shan Yu's great number of soldiers, but this is Mulan who sacrifices and makes the situation vice versa. The perspective I'm looking at Mulan is something different. My stand point is on the cultural studies point of view. First let's don't forget that Mulan a crystal clear Chinese name is not a Chinese but an American cartoon. It is an American cartoon, but first let's extract the Chinese features which looks dominant in this cartoon. Mulan's story is an old Chinese legend which is the source of Chinese settings, characters, names and even themes. The cast and crew is listed on background that is an old hide on which many Chinese scripts were written during the ancient times. You see also the traditional Chinese designs being drawn in ink, so the start point is Chinese however its music is something between American and Chinese. The setting of Mulan's house is a Chinese house in spring and in one corner there is a Buddhist temple where the ancestors are buried. The faith in ancestor's spirits is distinctly perceptible. Another Chinese myth is the dragon which is the symbol of Emperor of China. His sculpture is in the yard and in next stage the ancestors ask him to protect Mulan in the war. The dragon in Chinese culture is the source of water and rain, so it is a holy feature that many refer their ancestors to dragon.3
When Mulan practices for the contest she gives you notions depicting an ideal traditional woman in China. She should be able to pour tea well and she should have the sense of dignity and refinement. The perfect Chinese girl should be quiet, demure, grateful polite and delegate. The question she asks after her failure in the contest is planned in the song whose refrain is "Who I am inside?". Even the time Mulan can save the commander's life, showing great courage, she sings "I can prove I can do things right". The third point that is clear to be heard is the time they discover Mulan is a girl and Chi-Fu, the emperor's consultant, sentences her to death. She asks them about the difference between Mulan and Pinn(her male name). All these suggest that the women in Chinese societies suffer from the misunderstanding about their actual abilities.
Another main concept of Chinese culture is the Family honor. Mulan failure in the contest makes her and her family believe that she can not brings the family honor. The lack of males is inferiority for the family because when old men called to war their sons as their representatives answer, but Mulan, who is more courageous than men, has to pretend to be a man to fight.
Loyalty to the emperor and Chinese values are very significant,but the American concepts and signs are also crystalized in Mulan. Mulan has a potential satire about Chinese culture when it's indicated with superstitious and not very pragmatic beliefs like faith in ancestors spirits and Chinese dragon.The figures totally look Chinese but they actually look white and the heroine herself is dressed up, to look more beautiful and appealing,using thick make up.The beauty,as Americans are well-known to value, is outstanding for the girls to be accepted in the society high ranks. The very influential parts of the cartoon are the songs which are not in Chinese or in complete Chinese music and the English language with a thick American accent is sure dominant.
Yesterday (2004)
Yesterday is a typical African woman,
Yesteday was an impressive movie for me since I have never looked at AIDS in such a near and tangible way.The start point of the movie is a long road in African beautiful deserts where is restricted with barbed wire from the rest of the world. When you see the sky and the earth touch each other as they are ready to press a young slim black woman and her little daughter. Yesterday has a nice innocent face which crystalizes her heartily pain and eagerness to keep on for Beauty very well. The little girl,named Beauty,is the representative of a new African generation,not satisfied with her primitive life, asks about being a bird to fly or having a motorcycle to be speedy and comfortable.That is admirable while Yesterday illiterate is so ambitious for Beauty to start school.It gives you the sense of progress of the continent which always was narrated inferior and savage. Another justification the movie gives for African roughness is the low-level facilities exist.Yesterday and her husband are victims of AIDS because poverty makes them so far from each other that her husband betrays the family for whom day and night he overworks. Yesterday's illness is also distinguished very late and she should make a quarantine for her husband when there is no bed for him in the hospital.However, it sounds people got used to it and even such a terrible disease is faced with deep understanding but coldness. The movie is very female-oriented in a society which looks a masculine one.The most successful and efficient characters are women like Yesterday,the teacher and the doctor. Yesterday is the representative of the traditional society,too. She is given AIDS by her husband, but she bears his kicks and harshness. The movie music which is African well transfers the nature of Africa to the audience. The movie clearly is ordered to inform about AIDS but in an efficient story and setting.
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
It is a movie about the burden the first generation took to build up America. However it is narrated by Whites.
Drums along the Mohawk I,as MA student of American cultural studies,Tehran university watched the movie accompanying my classmates.It was a great help to review the history cource for the time before the Revolution. The movie is produced in 1939 by John Ford. He won Oscar for four times besides many other awards. His other famous movies such as Gone with the Wind, Mr. Lincoln, How Green was My Valley and The Grapes of Wrath are all world famous. The theme looks common among them are the history and adventure. The story of Drums along the Mohawk was derived from Walter D.Edmands, however it was rewritten for several times by Sonya Levien and Lamart Trotti.It also got Oscar prize for the color and the best actress in supporting role. Its main characters are Lana and Gilbert played by Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda. Colbert had played more than forty movies and she won the Oscar prize for "It Happened One Night". Fonda also is a famous actor in Hollywood who won Oscar for "On Golden Pond" in 1981. The time of the movie backs to the time before the revolution period. It starts with a wedding party. It is an agrarian society, so the young couples look for new chances in west, in Mohawk valley, where the Indian Territory locates. The couple and their neighbors try to make farms, cooperating closely. They are invaded by Indians who are intrigued by British. The man and his colleagues fight to demolish the Indians, but they return shattered. They are determined to start again,but they are invaded for the second time at their so-called home. The young man, running for one day, brings help from George Washington's army. Then people come safe and the country announces in dependency. It's a western movie with all the stereotypical features. These characteristics include the improving America due to white immigrants' hard work and advancement westward, the family life which starts in marriage, continues with their romance, bearing children and founding a union. The pious and virtuous community encounters native savages bravely and ultimately reaches success. The story lacks suspense, but its beautiful views are eye-catching. Especially its music by Alfred Newman gives a nice sense of romance, war and glory of a country to audience. The historic perspective of the movie backs to 1779 when British-descent Americans had divided into two groups, one pro-revolution and the other con-revolution called Tories. Tories were also called loyalists since they were loyal to the British kingdom. On the other hand, the Iroquois tribes whose territories were occupied by whites (the movie protagonists), cooperated and tempted by Tories to invade them. However the history shows that after America Independency, the British didn't even name them. Another interaction between whites and Indians is about Blue Back. He is an Indian integrated into whites. He is Christian, a church goer, speaks English and even during the war he is against other Indians. The director wants to depict, despite the fact the historian wrote, the Indians who adapted themselves to white civilization were accepted with open arms. Moreover, the movie can be a description of Washington's first armies. They started while they were not trained, professional soldiers. There were informal relationships among commanders and soldiers and they drank a lot. That's Washington who made them in order and leads them to have American flag in the territory with his policy for Indian extinction. Drums along the Mohawk is not as brilliant as other Ford's works but it can be an exact Hollywood product with all its stereotypical features.