READ AMANDA'S SUMMARY (Review) of the Video
1. Lauren P.
2. Alex J.
3. Vassa I.
4. Alyssa A.
5. Laura K.
6. Ashlee P.
7. Samantha H.
A Review of Mulan, the Educational Video of Ancient China, by Lauren P.
A soldier is walking along the Great Wall of China when the Huns attack. He lights the signal fire. The Emperor orders his troops to protect his people.
Mulan is taking notes to help her remember things at the Matchmaker’s. When she hears the rooster crow, she gets up quickly and goes looking for little brother, her dog.
She ties a bag of chicken seed to little brother, and then Mulan gives a cup of tea to her father and heads off for town.
Mulan’s mother and some other woman help her to get ready to see the Matchmaker. Her Grandmother gives her a cricket for luck.
The Matchmaker deems her too skinny. She tells Mulan to pour the tea. Not knowing that the cricket is in the tea, the Matchmaker nearly drinks it, but Mulan stops her. After several more accidents, the Matchmaker has had enough. She calls Mulan a disgrace to her family.
Mulan goes home, heartbroken. Sitting under the cherry blossom tree, her father tells her that she will bring her family honor someday.
The drums pound and the emperor’s adviser calls for one man from each family to serve in the imperial army. Mulan tries to stop her father, but he is the only one who can serve in the army from their family.
At dinner Mulan tells her father that he shouldn’t have to go. Leaving the table, Mulan watches her parents go to bed from outside. Then she knows what she must do. She cuts her hair and takes her father’s armor.
When Mulan’s family realizes that she is gone, Mulan’s Grandmother prays to the ancestors for help.
Musha, a demoted guardian, is called upon by the ancestors to awaken the great stone dragon. But after Mushu accidentally breaks it, he decides to go get Mulan himself.
Practicing being a boy, Mulan discovers Mushu. He tries to teach Mulan how to be a man. Mulan punches a guy which leads to disaster.
Captain Shang’s first instruction to his troops is to pick up every grain of rice. Ping, who is actually Mulan, wakes up to find that the troops have already left.
Yow is chosen to climb a pole with an arrow, but he cannot reach it. As training continues, Mulan can’t do anything right. One night Shang tells Mulan that she’s unsuited for war. But she proves herself by climbing the pole.
As Mulan takes a bath in the pond, Ling, Yow, and Chin Po join her in a swim. Luckily, Mushu comes to the rescue by biting Ling in the butt.
Finally the troops get to leave as they all go to the area of the fight.
As they reach the village Mulan and the others find it in ruins. And worst yet, the entire first army was killed.
The troops move on and as they do, a cannon fires and the Huns attack. All the cannons are shot except one. Seeing an opportunity to kill all the Huns, Mulan shoots the last cannon at the snowy peak of a mountain.
The Huns are dead, but Mulan has started an avalanche. Another near death experience involving falling off a cliff gains Shang’s trust.
But Mulan was wounded and the doctor discovers her secret. Shang spares Mulan’s life because she saved his. The troops leave and Mulan is left alone.
A few Huns survived the avalanche and headed toward the imperial city. When Mulan arrives in the city, a parade is going on. She tells her friends to keep their eyes open.
The “dragon” bursts open and several Huns emerge, taking the emperor. They run into the palace.
The soldiers tried to bust open the door with a statue. Mulan called to Yow, Ling and Chin Po. She dressed them up as women and just as they were getting ready to go in, Shang decided to join them.
Sneaking inside the palace, Mulan, Yow, Ling, and Chin Po took care of the guards while Shang went to save the emperor.
While Chin Po, Yow, and Ling escape with the emperor, Shang and Mulan are left to get rid of Shan Yu. Mulan barely gets away and onto the roof. Mushu steals a giant firework and sends Shan Yu to his exploding death.
The emperor tells Mulan that she has saved all of China. He gives her a pendant and Shan Yu's sword to take to her family.
When Mulan gets home she gives her father the gifts. Shang comes for dinner, and Mushu is re-promoted to guardian again.
This is about Chinese things in the video Mulan. There is a Great Wall to protect. A dragon sign for a flag. Chinese writing to write. To get the gods they have a Chinese gazebo. They use chopsticks.
In wars they have spears, swords, and shields with dragons. They wear armor, also. In training camp they have tents. Other weapons are arrows with fire and bombs.
They use gongs for waking up. All of them make their hair into buns.
For food they use pots and pans. Almost everybody drinks tea.
To write they used a feather. The protector of the families are the stone animals.
They all use horses. They have sticks for fighting. There is gold. A lot of kids have Chinese dolls.
The captain wears a helmet. They use cannons. The horses pull chariots. The dragon is the symbol of China.
In Mulan the Chinese things were: The Great Wall of China, the clothes that they wear, the chariots, the horses; hair styles, the fans, tea sets; the houses, gates, gardens; praying to their ancestors, Chinese writing; the drums, the flags, their religion; the tables with no chairs, the dragon statues; their armor, chop-sticks, the sticks that they use to carry buckets of water; the imperial palace.
Those are the Chinese things I saw. But the movie goes like this:
First of all there is a girl named Mulan; she lives in China. Her father has to go to war, except that Mulan interferes. So then Mulan goes to war disguised as a boy because only boys go to war because that’s the law. Anyway, she goes, but the army doesn’t know that she is a girl until she saves the general. She gets caught by the enemy; she tries to explain, but the General says to go to war without.
Mulan goes by herself to the palace because the king is in trouble. She tries to tell the army, but they don’t believe her. So she does it herself and saves the king and her people. In the end they all celebrate.
This is what I saw in the movie Mulan: I saw the Great Wall of China, and the emperor. I saw ehre they pray to the ancestors. Mulan prays to her ancestors. She cuts her hair and she takes her father’s place.
Then the grandma says a prayer and it makes the ancestors come alive, and they talk about Mulan. They send the great stone dragon, but Moshu broke the great stone dragon. So he went and took the place of the great stone dragon.
The other army, the mean one, they found Mulan’s little doll and they are going to give it back. They went to war and then they found the dad’s hideout. It was all burnt out. They found out that the general is dead. He’s dead because he got attacked by the Huns. The Huns attacked them because the captain of the Huns found Mulan’s doll. Now the captain of the good team found the Huns and now the Huns attacked them.
Then Mulan took the last cannon and shot it into the mountain and it made the snow avalance which buried the Huns. Mulan got caught by the Huns.
The doctor came and he told the captain that Mulan is a girl. She got kicked out of the army. They left her there.
Then the army went back to China, but Mulan saw the Huns pop out of the snow. They went to China to kill the other army. Mulan went back and tried to tell the captain that the Huns are alive and they’re coming here to kill the Emperor.
They wouldn’t listen to her; no one else would listen to her or believe her because she’s a girl.
Then the Huns came out of the “dragon” and grabbed the Emperor. (to be continued)
Mulan – Educational Video (Chinese things)
Report by Laura K.
I saw the Great Wall of China. The Chinese are under attack and they light the fires. A person is in a temple and he is praying. They go into town and there are horses pulling carts. They get Mulan dressed up to go find the matchmaker. She has to pass a test.
The test is to recite something and she has to pour tea. The matchmaker says you will never bring your family honor.
There is a garden at her house with statues in it.
Some men come and they choose people to fight and they have to go.
The people there sit at low tables and they drink tea, and they use chopsticks.
Then Mulan goes to the ancestor house and Mulan lights a stick and puts it in a dragon bowl.
They pray to the ancestors. Different things like ancestor things and dragons. There are bigger dragon statues outside.
Where the war is there are fires. The men in the war wear their hair in a bun. The men wear armor. There are tents with flags on the top. Men also have swords. When they are reported, they have to hand in a scroll. They have to train before they go into battle.
They have to get a good report in training before they can go fight. When they go into battle they carry the Chinese flag.
When they fight they use dragon shaped cannons. They use lots of horses, too.
Women are not supposed to go to war, but Mulan did.
They won the war and they celebrate. They have the dragon. (to be continued)
Chinese Things I saw in Mulan
Report by Ashlee P.
I saw the Great Wall of China and that they lit fires to let the villages know that they are under attack.
They have a king (emperor). They always eat rice.
I saw where they pray to their ancestors.
I saw that they wrote using Chinese characters.
They ride horses.
They don’t have running water like we do.
They have people get the girls ready to see the Matchmaker.
They drink tea a lot.
I saw their buildings, fans, clothes, and statues.
I also saw all the ancestor’s graves and the mini-statues they have so the ancestors will come alive.
The King has a messenger. The Huns attack China. They have to be in the army if they call them; they can’t just refuse to fight.
I saw that they sit down when they eat, and they eat in silence. They sit on their knees when they eat.
They light a fire when they pray to their ancestors. They have to make sacrifices. On the ancestor’s grave there is Chinese writing.
The dragons represent the Chinese people. They believe dragons will protect them. Their fire balls have dragons on them.
They ring gongs when they need something important.
They chant.
They used the word Shang from the Shang Dynasty.
They have rice a lot (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
In the beginning, the name MULAN is spelled with a dragon beneath. The movie starts as an invasion. The Huns are invading. They set fires on the great walls. Mulan begins to write on her arm. Writing in Chinese. Her father prays to ancestors. Wants Mulan to impress someone. Lights incense.
Transfer to town. Mulan is there to meet a matchmaker. Sees men play Chinese checkers. Dresses in her best clothes after cold bath. Lots of white powder was put on, followed by make-up. Gets called by match maker. Too skinny! Says poem wrong! Impolite! Lady’s butt is on fire! “You’ll NEVER bring honor to your family!” she yells. They go home.
Mulan is sad. Looks at graves with writing. Her father came. She turns ashamed. Drums beat closer and closer. “The Huns have invaded. One man from each family must go!” Her father has leg pains. Father practices with his sword. He fell during practice.
At dinner Mulan stands up to father. Her dad yells at her. She goest outside in the rain, and cries. Prays to ancestors. Takes father’s sword and clothes. Takes certificate and she left her clip. Her parents pray to ancestors for them to watch and protect Mulan. Mushu, dragon, wakes ancestors. They argue. Mushu wants to go. He has to wake stone dragon. Stoney breaks. Mushu sneaks off into his place.
Transfer to valley. Enemy has 2 warriors captive.
Transfer to forest. Mulan is practicing. Mushu shows up. They go see some men. Get in fight. Mulan wins. They beat each other up.
Troops go outside. See everyone fighting. Think it’s stupid. Leader comes. Asks for Mulan’s name. “Ping!” she says.
Next morning
They go in training. They stink at first. Soon they pass every test.
The enemy are discussing some things.
Mulan began to swim. Soon, three naked men began to swim. Mushu bit their butts. They head for battle.
_______________________________________________ (to be continued)
Links to other sites on the Web
