Mulan (dir. Niki Caro)

For our September film discussion, we decided on Disney’s streaming release of the live-action remake, Mulan. It’s a film that is surrounded by controversy both domestically and abroad.

Yifei Liu, the actress who plays the titular character, sparked a boycott hashtag last August (2019) with a pro-police post on Weibo. More controversy hit the film as early viewers realized one of the filming locations is Xinjiang, where the Chinese government is holding Uygur (Muslim ethnic minorities) in “re-education” camps.

Host Jonathan Schwartz is joined by Alex Ago, Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, and Aubrey Hicks to discuss the film, its controversies, and the possibilities of theater in the pandemic.