Did you see....

If you hadn't noticed yet, I am a bit obsessive...and being obsessive, I've seen this movie many times. And watching it, I've noticed all these little things....some which I have to carry on a while about. However, I still like this movie a lot. I just wished they had managed to get some of these things right, especially the names.

So, did you see....

• Chi Fu's name? Well, actually, I mean, did you hear it. *g* In Mandarin it means 'to bully'.

• the grain of rice Mulan makes stand up with her chopsticks? And how it falls down? It's not supposed to do that. The way Chinese cook rice, a lot of water is used and the rice is all puffed up and sticky. For one, it would end up stuck on the chopsticks and even if she managed to avoid that, the grain of rice would stay standing or fall down very slowly.

• the Chinese chess game during the song 'Honor to Us All'? I used to know how to play it...and not very well, either, but I did know. There are supposed to be different characters written on the pieces indicating what they are. Yeah, I know I'm picky. I do remember that the bombs were the pieces that were the most fun to play. *g*

• Mulan writing with her left hand? That's not possible. If Chinese kids are left handed, they are still taught to write with their right. For instance, both my father and my sister are left-handed. My father writes with his right; my sister writes with her left and is often told that she's the only Chinese person one has seen write with her left. Not that this means she a freak or anything. :)

• the chant Chien Po does with Yao? It's off of a Buddhist chant but what they say is a bit off. Chien Po says, "Ah mo ah mi toh fu..." It's actually, "Ah mi twoh foh." (btw- this is just my phonetic spelling, I'm not using pinyin or anything like that) It means something to the effect of 'God help me."

• Ling doing Tai Chi at the second day of training camp? This is before Mulan comes over and they start picking on her again. For those of you who don't know what Tai Chi is, it's a form of meditative exercise....you know where you do all those gestures very slowly.

• Mulan switching places in the line when Li Shang calls them into order. While he's taking off his shirt (*g*), you see Mulan peeking over Chien Po's stomach and that she's on his right. However, when Ling and Chien Po are laughing at Yao and the weights on his arms, Mulan's on Chien Po's left side. Why? Maybe she moved to get a better view of Shang's back.....I know I would.

• the changing numbers in Li Shang's army? Well, first there seem to be a fair amount of men at the camp....but at the end of the song, 'I'll Make a Man Out of You' there seems to be more. However, there seems to be a lot less at the beginning of 'A Girl Worth Fighting For' but it manages to grow by the end of that song. And then when the army walks into the village it seems extremely small. (again.)

• the white/light colored rectangle with the dark circle in the center that is on the roof of the tent Mulan is in when she's wounded? Either it's a hole, which I doubt, or it's the Japanese flag. Uh-uh. Big no-no. I mean, what is this? Just a really bad joke or are they trying to insult me?

• the prarade/procession thru the city. Does it look familiar to you? As R said to me in the theater, "Like Aladdin? 'Make way for Prince Ali!'" and guess what came next? The man announcing, "Make way for the heroes of China!" *g*

• the stone lion that the soldiers are using trying to ram the palace walls. That's impossible. It is way too heavy and even though both Chien Po and Li Shang were in that group I still have to say that it simply isn't possible. Of course, it could be as R insists, "It's styrofoam!!"

• Cri-Kee laughing after flame-broils the falcon. There's nothing wrong with it. I just thought it was worth mentioning since he ends up rolling on his back cuz he's laughing so hard.
• Also, the featherless hawk becomes a chocobo! (Animal from Final Fantasy..6, I think.)

Finally, there's the thing with the names. In this entire film, Mulan is the only character who has a correct complete Chinese name. Well, there's also Chien Po and Chi Fu but their last names are not mentioned, along with Grandmother Fa and General Li who are only mentioned by their last names. The rest of the characters are not named correctly. This is why. A Chinese name is made up of three characters. Each character is only one syllable. The last name is the first character and the first name consists of the last two syllables. You can see that here - Hua Mu-lan (this is Mandarin, it would be Fa in Cantonese). So the casual name is always two syllables long. i.e. Mulan.(Mu-lan), Ming-Na, also B.D., though those are just Mr. Wong's initials. So all the soldiers have the wrong format for their names (besides Chien Po) - Ling, Yao, and Shang. Also, Mulan's parents are named incorrectly. In the film, they are Fa Li and Fa Zhou. It should be Fa Li-something and Fa Zhou-something. Shan Yu is an exception...it's not the Chinese name for this historical figure....it's actually something else (which regrettably I forgot) and Shan Yu is the Chinese translation for the Hungarian name for him.

Return to the Temple