The movie Disney and China do not want you to see.

**  POST # 3000  **

Kundun (1997)
Director: Martin Scorsese

Even though this movie is honoured with a string of accolades, it does not ring a bell. There is a legitimate reason for this. Disney regrets financing this movie and considers it their greatest faux pas. They kept the film in cold storage and only had limited screenings in the US. Disney did not promote this movie commercially. It was at the time when Disney was trying to venture into mainland China with the plan to build a Disney theme park there.

After making a string of Mafia movies, Scorsese wanted to make one about something close to his heart - tackling the true story of the 14th Dalai Lama. After making the movie, Disney discussed their plans with CCP regarding Disney Park, and they were informed that China was infuriated about the film. In the Chinese eyes, Disney was interfering with China's internal affairs. Tibet was Chinese territory, and the Dalai Lama was a dissident who wanted the region to break away. Making a film sympathetic to his course, the Chinese thought was in bad taste.

Disney attempted damage control for fear of hurting the CCP and destroying the prospect of expanding into the Chinese market share. They produced and promoted the 1998 Mulan to showcase their genuine intention of valuing Chinese culture.

26 years after being stuck in the vaults, Kundun recently emerged on YouTube for all to view to their heart's content. Kundun is the affectionate name of the first Lama was referred to.

The film is a cinematographic galore of the supposed landscape termed Shangrila, the paradise on Earth. Surprise, surprise. The filming was done entirely in Morocco and a Buddhist monastery in New York. 

The film starts in 1937 with the lamas going in search of the special child destined to be the next Dalai Lama. After elaborate tests, they determine their child. The child grows up in the monastery, learning text, chanting, and praying. He has no special powers; he is just a normal person put in an important position to make essential decisions. 

As the boy matures into teenagehood and adulthood, he realises that significant responsibilities are placed on his shoulders. No divine revelations fall from the sky for him to decide. All he can do is think, discuss with others, get their opinions, pray, and make up his mind, hoping for the best outcome. 

He realises that he is not infallible and has made some wrong calls. 

It is the worst of times. It is 1949, and Mao Tse Dong and the Communist Party of China are walking into Tibet. The Dalai Lama is seen as a divine leader of the Tibetian people, but his brand of consultative diplomacy is not working to protect his people. Things become too heated up. The Dalai Lama's shoestring army advised him to abdicate to India and continue his work in Tibet another day. This film is more of a historical account of how the 14th Dalai Lama ended up in his current sojourn, Dharamsala, in Himachal Pradesh.

As the Dalai Lama reaches the Indian border after a treacherous journey, he is greeted by an Indian soldier, which essentially summarises who the Dalai Lama is all about. 

"I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

5000 years of civilisation given due recognition?

Shang-Chi and The Legend of Ten Rings (2021)

Gone are the times when Hollywood made movies that overtly mocked cultures other than Western ones. Typically Indians and Chinese were portrayed as bumbling fools. Their cultures were made to look ridiculous, and their followers were mere bufoons. Perhaps they still do that but, alas, in a more subtle way. Just try to remember Amrish Puri as a Kaali worshipper enjoying human eyeballs as a delicacy and the faithful and spineless follower of Fu-Manchu plunging to their deaths in Hollywood's Fu-Manchu series.

For that matter, even the Russians and German were made to look like headless chickens running aimlessly in espionage sagas and combat movies.

Shang-Chi was a character introduced by Marvel in 1973 to spice up the series and satiate the appetite of comic fans the world over. Shang-Chi was presented as a long lost son of Fu-Manchu, who had been training in Tibet. In the earlier films, his daughter Lin Tang was characterised as his evil sidekick, doing the groundwork for Fu-Manchu's megalomaniac ambitions.

In concordance to Marvel and Hollywood's agenda to pander to screams of the woke generation and offer so-called 'olive branch' to the minority and marginalised groups, the filmmakers have decided to make a Chinese superhero. However, the legend of Fu-Manchu reminds the world of the bygone idea of Sax Rohmer and writers of his era with the awful idea of 'Yellow Peril'. East Asia was portrayed as a threat to the western world, and Fu-Manchu was singled out as a caricature of a one-man mission to kill all white men and women to bring China back to its ancient glory. In 1932, the Chinese Embassy had expressed its objection to MGM's 'The Mask of Fu Manchu'.

China is such a big market for movies that Hollywood can ill afford to offend. The reminder of an offensive villain would not augur well with the Chinese market and for Chinese diplomacy.

In different versions of the comic series, Shang-Chi's father had been others - Zheng Zu and Mandarin. In this 2021 film version, the screenwriters have cleverly downtoned the evil quotient of these villains to create a composite character called Wen Wu. This works just well for Marvel had not obtained rights over the characters of Fu-Manchu and his nemeses. Incidentally, Mandarin was seen as Iron Man's arch-enemy. His 'Ten Ring' was an alien finding. 

The earlier ten rings were finger worn.
Tony Leung as WenWu

Shaun, a parking valet, leads a quiet life with his colleague Katy in San Francisco. All that comes to a halt when some bad dudes turn up on a bus he was travelling and create a hell ride on the undulating streets of San Francisco, reminiscent of the movie 'Speed'. The baddies are out for his pendant. Fearing that they would go for his sister, Xialing, Shaun (@Shang-Chi) speeds to Macau to meet her.

Malaysian input

That starts the dark family secret, the truth about his missing father, the story behind his mother's death and the legendary fight to stop the forces of evil from reigning Earth. In their own way, the film tries to apologise to the Chinese diaspora about Mandarin's past in Iron Man 3. An impersonator, Trevor Slattery, admits to having portrayed Mandarin and bad stereotyping behind him.

The final outcome is a story rich with ancient Chinese wisdom pregnant with much oriental mysticism. With the advancement of computer graphics and digital enhancement, what churns out is a tale that puts China and Chinese culture back on the map of its ancient glory. It is much like what Admiral Zheng Ho did to the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century when he sailed the high seas to explore till the New World, maybe.

(P.S. Malaysia has two representatives in the movie, Ronny Chieng and Michelle Yeoh)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.