The placement of Mulan's hand suggests she's also writing in the correct direction, but she's left-handed?? interesting

And yes, this is indeed how you hold an inkbrush.

About this, I don't think I've ever seen "punctual" listed as a feminine virtue in ancient china though lmaoo. Most of them were in the house 24/7. They ain't got anywhere to be.

THIS is the proper size of an art scroll. Most Chinese families have one hanging on their wall. And the random plant is accurate too lol

COMPUTER,ENHANCE

The strings of chilis and garlic ARE very Chinese, but chilis weren't brought to China until the 1600s. Native Americans didn't spend thousands of years cultivating crops like it, potatoes, corn, and tomatoes just for us to pretend like they were there all along

Moon gates are an iconic element of Chinese gardens. They're meant to make things super serene by making it so only one person can enter at a time (possible social distancing tool?)

This ancestral temple confuses me in SO MANY WAYS

Why is it in a gazebo? Why are they using the FLOOR instead of an offering altar? Why is he burning the incense SIDEWAYS in a dragon dish the Fa family should not be allowed to have when they're not royalty?!

I saw in a Behind the Scenes that they designed this shrine during their trip to China after seeing people pay respects to their ancestors' tombstones. But the team clearly never went inside an actual house, or they would've seen that family shrines should have wooden tablets

Here, the tea is possibly herbal medicine, which was the main way of treating illnesses in ancient China. The doctor gives you a list of herbs and you go to the pharmacy and they gather everything on the list from these tiny drawers

This shot shows a diverse variety of the various modes of transportation in ancient China. A rickshaw for normies, a palanquin for nobles, what I'm assuming is a messenger on a horse, and laborers pushing carts.

There's no way her mom's name is Fa Li. Chinese women don't change their family names after marrying. If that's her mom's actual family name, then she wouldn't have been allowed to marry Fa Zhou. It'd be considered incest.

She could potentially be called Aunty Fa, which is basically referring to her as a wife of the Fa family, but this wouldn't be her name

Also, since this movie went for the Mandarin pronunciation of Mulan, the family name should've been Hua. "Hua Mulan" means Flower Magnolia.

if they would've copy and pasted grandma into the 2020 movie space jam style i would've forgiven the whole thing

Mulan getting everywhere on a horse is accurate. This was the peak era for women riding horses. Though she probably wouldn't have done it in a dress like this??

Folding screen and wooden bathtub are accurate!

BUT THIS ENTIRE MATCHMAKING SEQUENCE IS NOT

I find it very unrealistic that Mulan would have to go to the matchmaker's place, instead of the matchmaker coming to her house

She also goes to like 3 different locations for various parts of her makeover?? Why...Feels like there should be a single all-inclusive place

This short furniture she's kneeling on is accurate for the era though. Tall-legged furniture weren't fully a thing yet in China.

The background ladies have much more accurate hair and clothes compared to mulan lol

the kids' hairstyles are spot on. kids were allowed to have their hair cut because...well, it was their parents doing it for them lol

COULD'VE MADE IT MORE CHINESE BY HAVING MULAN USE LIPSTICK PAPER

Pale face powder (usually made of ground-up rice) is accurate, but her eyeshadow wouldn't be this dark. It'd be more of a peach color

the spit curl Mulan insists on doing is her equivalent of the neon streak that Asian female characters have in their hair in non-historical movies made by white people

yes, it's accurate to put a whole comb in your hair as an accessory. hey, combs are a great way to hold a GREAT HAIRDO together

I JUST REALIZED THE APPLE FOR SERENITY IS A PUN LOOOOL

APPLE IN MANDARIN IS "Ping Guo". It's the same sound as "Serene Fruit"

idk why g-ma is putting the pendant IN Mulan's waist sash when usually these pendants are worn proudly outside of it but all is forgiven because

BEAAAAAADS OF JAAAAAAAADE FOR BEEEEAAAAAUUUUTTTTTYYY

https://twitter.com/XiranJayZhao/status/1310388839580532736?s=20

also how did Mulan eat an apple without smudging that lipstick wtf Mulan what brand do you use

this decision will not impact Mulan's future in any foreseeable way whatsoever

Technically Mulan's family tree is already uprooted because she has no male siblings lol. It doesn't matter who she marries, this branch of the Fa family is DONE

This is why they wanted sons so badly in ancient china smh the game was rigged

HIGHLY UNLIKELY THAT GIRLS WOULD LINE UP LIKE THIS TO GO "AUDITION" FOR THE MATCHMAKER

Matchmakers were like real estate agents. They brokered the terms of the marriage, like the bride price. Would you audition for a real estate agent? no.

Also unlikely that Mulan would meet the matchmaker alone. Marriages back then were a family-family business, not individual-individual. The 2020 movie did this more accurately by having her mom there.

omg we are only at like 10 MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE AND I'VE ALREADY RAMBLED THIS MUCH WTF @ ME

What a matchmaker would actually do during a meeting is get Mulan's shengcheng bazi 生辰八字, the year, month, day, and time she was born, and then match it to a list of boys also seeking marriage. If their shengcheng bazi were a good match, she'd try to make it happen

this is grounds for a lawsuit, mulan (which COULD have happened in ancient China! the legal system has been robust for like 2k years now). should've let her butt stay on fire.

when u try to present as a different gender then the one you were assigned at birth for the first time

THIS SONG AWAKENED SOMETHING IN EVERY QUEER KID I KNOW IT

The ancestral tombstones are carved in Seal Script, considered the Super Prestigious Fancy Script after the First Emperor of China made everyone learn it

this scene with her dad was nice because it showed he ultimately didn't care THAT much about her messing up in front of the matchmaker

unlike the 2020 movie where it was just him trying to get her to hide her superpowers lol

drum towers were at the center of every city to announce time, kind of like the big ben

It's unclear what Chi Fu's job actually is that he would simultaneously work so close with the emperor yet come deliver a conscription notice to a random town. but they were probably just keeping the number of characters low

soldiers in ancient China usually did have to bring their own stuff bc most of them were just farmers who'd only fight after getting conscripted. governments were super stingy lol

low table is accurate, but what is with Mulan's family eating LITERALLY NOTHING BUT RICE AND TEA??? They would at least have a plate of veggies to share

also forgot to bring this up earlier but LOOK AT MULAN COMMITTING THE ULTIMATE CHOPSTICK SIN

(Putting your chopsticks straight up like this in a bowl looked like the incense offering to the dead so you were basically cursing the person in front of you to die)

IT'S HAPPENING!!!!!! (if you keep ignoring the baffling incense dish)

#MulanIsGenderqueer2020 #ShangIsBi2020

This haircut scene got left out of the 2020 movie because, again, you weren't actually allowed to cut your hair unless you became a monk or something. It represented the ultimate severance of your ties with your family.

g-ma gets a Raven Symone vison of mulan leaving. everything becomes very sad in a way that is much more effective than the 2020 movie.

GEORGE TAKEI!!!

Note: George Takei is dressed like a Daoist Immortal, so he has reason to let his hair down i guess. there were religious exemptions for the topknot rule lol

MUSHU IS HERE

the 2020 movie claims it took Mushu out bc the Mainland Chinese audience didn't like how he was "disrespectful" as a dragon. I don't think Chinese people care that much about dragons lol. I think they just didn't get Eddie Murphy's humor

as far as I know, animal guardians for specific families weren't a thing. even if they were, Mulan's family wouldn't have a dragon because again, they aren't royalty. It would be blasphemous

this dude is holding an abacus, used for math in ancient China, so he was probably an accountant or merchant

this is the equivalent of MY CHILDREN ARE ALL DOCTORS in ancient china lol

except doctors back then weren't paid that well unless you got to the royal physician level

(Also idk what the hell Mushu is reading. It says...Beijing Military Code Tiger??)

IT TOOK ME UNTIL THIS MOMENT TO REMEMBER THIS STATUE IS A DRAGON INSTEAD OF A LION?? It's way too compressed to be a realistic dragon statue. At least 3 sine wave curves in its body or go home.

THE HUNS ARE SO EVIL EVEN THEIR HORSE HAS AN EVIL LOOK

they did central asians so dirty in this movie lol

SO IT WAS THIS LITERAL EMPEROR THAT BUILT THE GREAT WALL?!

Right: The First Emperor of China in his massive mausoleum full of mercury, upon hearing this line

I appreciate them acknowledging that Chinese dragons are based on snakes, not lizards

but then they've also considered that Chinese dragons are creatures of water, not fire

in this scene Chien-Po and Yao weren't "muttering gibberish," but an actual Buddhist mantra, Nanwu emi tuofo 南无阿弥陀佛

if you've seen Journey to the West then you would've heard it coming outta Tang Seng's mouth

the three-legged porridge pot here is based off of ancient bronze food vessels called Ding 鼎. Though it must not be made of bronze in the movie, because it'd be shiny yellow then. Bronzeware artifacts only look dull because they've been oxidized for thousands of years.

the monopoly pieces on maps here come up a lot in historical c-dramas

BISEXUAL LEGEND LI SHANG IS HERE AND HE IS SUCH A NERD AL;SFDKJAS LOOK HOW PLEASED HE IS WITH HIMSELF ABOUT GETTING A PROMOTION

mulan tries to pass by invoking toxic masculinity

(GOD WHY COULDN'T THEY HAVE AT LEAST MADE MULAN FUNNY IN THE 2020 MOVIE)

there's also a legendary tumblr post about how this would've made her name Hua Ping, meaning "vase," slang for "gay"

this is true. other slang include Cut Sleeve, Shared Peach, Comrade

anyone else get a flashback to that 锄禾日当午 poem your Chinese teachers or parents drilled into your head to make you stop wasting the rice in your bowl

the shoes and socks in this movie are randomly spot on too. these shoes were made of black canvas and you always see them in historical c-dramas

MUSHU!!! NOT THE STRAIGHT UP CHOPSTICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(also there probably wasn't bacon that looked like this)

all villain stans be like

there is only male fanservice in this movie...amazing....thank you bisexual legend Li Shang

if Shang had just inclined his head about 15 degrees down this movie would've been 50 minutes shorter

Fireworks were indeed invented in China!! ...But only in the Song dynasty, at least a hundred years after this

Before that, Chinese people threw bamboo into fire to make loud cracks to scare off evil spirits

IT IS DEAD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND HE IS FIRING MULAN AND HE STILL DOESN'T HAVE A SHIRT ON

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH THIS MOMENT!!!!!

Note: the weights look like ancient Banliang coins, AKA Earth Kingdom coins. The round exterior represents the sky and the square hole represents the earth. And made it easy to string these coins together, of course.

AFTER MULAN KICKS HIS ASS HE GIVES HER THE SAME LOOK NALA GIVES TO SIMBA

SHANG IS BISEXUAL CONFIRMED

#ShangIsBisexual2020

Shan Yu is so evil he randomly commits environmental damage before sniffing a little girl's doll

THE HUNS DEDUCE THE LOCATION OF THE IMPERIAL ARMY BY THE SHEER FORCE OF SNIFFING