Princess Sickness and Oriental Sickness in "Amazing Girl"

It's no surprise that the theme song "Reflection" of the cartoon "Mulan" appeared in the latest Marvel streaming series "Ms. Marvel" (Ms. Marvel). In other words, this is Hollywood, especially Disney, a routine expression of female themes.

"Amazing Girl" poster

Throughout the development of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) in the past 15 years, whether it is the movie "Captain Marvel", "Black Widow" or the current drama "Amazing Girl", once it touches the female theme, it always predicts. Let’s set up such a framework—society despise women’s abilities, men’s sense of superiority over women, and traditional concepts restrict women. Later, the ability of female superheroes was amplified in Marvel movies and TV series to demonstrate female power.
This Disneyland-esque feminist expression would eventually evolve into a sister-and-sister-forward-style soap opera. The original serious gender equality issues have all turned into slogans on the lips of super heroines.

"Wonder Woman" stills

Marvel seems to understand women better. Relatively speaking, Warner and DC's "Wonder Woman" has been criticized by European and American feminists because of the heroine's bumpy figure and cool half-naked dress. This pleases the male audience. As a male audience, the author is really not able to express too many opinions, just my humble opinion. Compared with Marvel's slogans, Wonder Woman's clean fists seem to be more able to reflect the domineering of "Sister is strong". . It's just that the character of Wonder Woman has its own "divine nature", which is inherently superior to Marvel in terms of narrative structure. In the future, the goddess of Thor launched by Marvel may be able to compete with it.
If you look back at "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" produced by Disney in 1937, you can find that in recent years, Disney has actually been trying to cure its "princess disease", that is, over the years, many Disney "princesses" have been in Waiting for the prince's rescue. Among them, "Mulan" is particularly prominent in Disney's transformation process, because she is neither a princess nor does she want to wait for a prince to save her.

"Avengers 4" stills

For a hundred years, American popular culture's positioning of women has gradually shifted from being a good wife and mother to advocating independent women. Because of this, some viewers laughed and said that Marvel is turning "Reunion" into "Women's Federation", and the super heroine of "Avengers 4". The gathering picture can be described as a close-up of the awakening of Disney-style female power.
However, in the author's opinion, this is still another "princess disease". In essence, superhuman heroines have been separated from the gender category, and they are no longer human, but superhuman.

"Mulan" "Reflection" concept poster

Speaking of "Amazing Girl" and "Mulan" at the beginning of this article, in addition to Disney's latest "princess disease" (superhuman heroine), these two works also "infected" with the "Oriental disease" common in Hollywood , here you can add two more works, "The Metamorphosis of Youth" and "The All Cosmos in a Moment", they all have an inner connection - when traditional eastern culture collides with modern western culture. It's true that "Mulan" tells an ancient Chinese story from beginning to end, but recall the lyrics of "Reflection":
Look at me, maybe you think, this is me. But you don't know me. Every day is like acting. Now I am awake. If I cover myself forever, I can only deceive the world, but not my own heart. Who is the girl I saw? The girl staring straight at me. When my reflection reveals who I really am, I am in a world where I can only hide my heart and my beliefs. But maybe I can tell it, the real me. It will also love me for it. Who is the girl I saw? The girl staring straight at me. Why is my reflection, just a stranger? Do I have to hide and pretend to be someone else? When my reflection shows my true self, there must be a soul that can fly freely. It burned. We must hide our reasons. What will we think? How do you feel? Should I just be a secret? Only to avoid? I won't run away again, I won't cover myself. When my reflection is my true self, the reflection of myself.
No matter how we interpret "Mulan Ci", the logical focus of this Yuefu folk song is still on the words "join the army for the father", and finally Mulan ends up returning to the family.
However, the cartoon "Mulan" emphasizes the struggle of individual women - the struggle against family, society, ideas, ethics and other aspects.

In both the comics and the TV series, although Kamala is set as a potential inhuman, there are differences in the ability awakening between the two versions: in the comics, she was accidentally obtained through Terrigen after a class reunion. super power. In the show, the potential superpower is inspired by the bracelet passed down by the great-grandmother

This expression still exists in "Amazing Girls". Kamala Khan, a second-generation immigrant (of course, if you look at the narrative of the second episode, it can also be considered a third-generation immigrant), has been very Americanized. However, the life she lived in The Pakistani-American community in New Jersey still retains strong South Asian Muslim traditions. Kamala’s mother, like Hua’s mother, is an obvious tool person: in the name of love, they are overly protective of their daughters in the name of love and excuses for you. My daughter will learn badly when she goes out (this kind of love that suffocates her daughter can be found in "All Cosmos in a Moment").

Although warm, the "original" family that makes the heroine feel depressed

On the other hand, although Kamala Khan lives in the United States, she lives in a small world - Pakistani immigrant community is still very unfriendly to women, which is from a few gossip aunts in the laundry room talking about a certain scandal" "Girls run away from marriage" can be observed, and in the second episode, Kamala's friend Nadia wanted to run for the community council because they found their shoes were stolen after worship. Nadia thinks it's all because of the community The management is all male because they don't care what the women think, otherwise they wouldn't be slow to respond after complaining about theft many times.
As a result, the growth path of this so-called first female Muslim superhero in Marvel history has once again become a repetition of the lyrics of "Reflection".
I can be blunt. In the final sixth episode of this season, Kamala Khan is destined to no longer have to cover herself. In her reflection, she is her true self.

In the comics setting, Kamala Khan has super powers, she can also deform or change the size of body parts, and has healing powers. But in the series, her ability is more like possessing the djinn in Arabian legend, some kind of invisible supernatural creature.

Although from the author's point of view, "Amazing Girl" is too "chicken thief" and focuses all on "political correctness", so that its story itself is quite satisfactory, even bland. However, judging from the reactions of the European and American markets, Disney and Marvel are clearly on the right track. On Rotten Tomatoes, it got a high score of 97%, exceeding the 96% of "Black Panther", which means "Amazing Girl" " received the highest score on Rotten Tomatoes for the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" series.

Easter eggs abound in fans in "Amazing Girl"

If you look at the comments on European and American social networking sites, you can see that there are many related Easter eggs that fans of "Amazing Girl" have contributed to, such as the US team's buttocks in the first episode, and commemorating the dead Black Widow and Iron Man.
Is it just that such a story can really encourage people all over the world to want to be their own girls?