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  • Chinese Film Classics Course
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    • Module 1: Laborer’s Love (1922)
    • Module 2: Sports Queen (1934)
    • Module 3: Goddess (1934)
    • Module 4: The Great Road (1934)
    • Module 5: New Women (1935)
    • Module 6: Song at Midnight (1937)
    • Module 7: Street Angels (1937)
    • Module 8: Long Live the Missus! (1947)
    • Module 9: Spring River Flows East (1947)
    • Module 10: Spring in a Small Town (1948)
    • Module 11: Crows and Sparrows (1949)
    • Module 12: Course Wrap-Up
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Hua Mu Lan 木蘭從軍 (1939)

The film:

Cantonese actress Nancy Chan (Chen Yunshang) stars as Mulan in this live-action film made in Shanghai during the third year of China’s war against Japan. A young woman takes her father’s place in the army and, over several years, rises through the ranks to fight off invaders near the Great Wall and save the Tang dynasty. A box office hit in “orphan island” Shanghai, occupied Nanking, and colonial Singapore, the film was literally burned in the streets of Chungking (Chongqing) by agitators who considered the filmmakers to be traitors–notwithstanding the film’s allegory of resistance against invaders. The commercial success of this film helped to usher in the age of the wartime costume drama. 
Mulan congjun
Original English title: Hua Mu Lan
Alternative English titles: Mulan Joins the Army, Maiden in Armor
Directed by Richard Poh (Bu Wancang)
Screenplay by E.C. Ouyang (Ouyang Yuqian)
Studio: Huacheng
Date of release: February 16, 1939
Cast: Cheng Yun Shang (Chen Yunshang), Mai Hsi (Mei Xi), L.K. Han (Han Langen), C.C. Liu (Liu Jiqun), C.Z. Chong (Zhang Zhizhi), S.C. Ying (Yin Xiucen), Tang Jie, N.S. Wong (Huang Naishuang), Hong Jingling
English subtitles translated by Christopher Rea

Learn more:

Hua Mu Lan (1939) is discussed in chapter 9 of the book Chinese Film Classics, 1922-1949.

For more on Mulan, see this book by two Harvard scholars: Mulan: Five Versions of a Classical Chinese Legend, with Related Texts

Watch Mulan shoot down animated geese in the opening shots of the film:

Watch Mulan foil bullies, including one “rabbit,” in the opening scene:

Listen to the espionage song Mulan sings to seduce enemy soldiers:

Watch Commander Mulan perform a sword dance and sing a love duet with her second-in-command:

Watch Mulan’s magical, cinematic transformation from a man back into a woman:

 

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Fiery Cinema (2015), by Weihong Bao
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Song at Midnight 夜半歌聲 (1937)
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Woman Warrior of the Wild River 6 荒江女俠 第六集 (1930)
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Woman Warrior White Rose 女俠白玫瑰 (1929)
In this partially-extant silent action film, a female athlete becomes a swashbuckling hero and saves the family herding ground from a gang who plans to sell it to foreigners

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Red Heroine 紅俠 (1929)
A poor young woman trains in magic martial arts and revenges her father and her village in this silent wuxia film.

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