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• 1 2021-11-15T16:05:19+00:00 The Lady General Hua Mulan
  花木蘭 (1964) 130 plain 2025-07-21T19:48:55+00:00

  Huangmei Opera Film
  Director: "Griffin" Yueh Feng 岳楓 

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  LINKS TO THE FILM

  • The film with Chinese subtitles (simplified) on YouTube.
  • The film with English and Chinese (traditional) subtitles, part 1 and part 2 on YouTube.

  
  INFORMATION

  • Name: The Lady General Hua Mulan 花木蘭
  • Year: 1964
  • Director: 岳楓 (1910–1999)
  • Producer: Shaw Brothers Studio
  • Actors: Ivy Ling Po 凌波 (as Hua Mulan), Jin Han 金漢 (as General Li)
  • Music: Li Juanqing 李雋青, Zhou Lanping 周藍萍, Wang Juren 王居仁
  • Language: Chinese Mandarin
  • Duration: 106 minutes

  INTRODUCTION

  Produced by the acclaimed Shaw Brothers Studio in 1964, The Lady General Hua Mu-Lan (Hua Mulan 花木蘭) is a Huangmei opera color film, directed by Yueh Feng 岳楓 (1909-1999), who worked at the Shaw Brothers Studio from 1959 onward. In the 1950s and 1960s, four opera films (xiqu pian 戲曲片) adapted the story of Mulan. The characters and plotline of these films are quite similar, but it was this Huangmei opera film that became a blockbuster in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia thanks to the fans of its lead actress, Ivy Ling Po 凌波 (1939-). Ivy Ling Po not only was awarded Best Actress at the 11th Asian Film Festival in 1964, but she and Jin Han 金漢 (1937-), who played General Li in the film, got married in 1966.
  
  Beginning in the year 1962, Ivy Ling Po had begun to specialize in non-gender straight roles that featured women disguised as men. Such gender reversals were a standard practice in traditional Chinese theater, but it was rare in the film industry. Nevertheless, Ling Po developed a cult following of “super fans” among female audiences in Taiwan and South East Asia from the 1960s onward. Her fans have since put together a website with many details about her life and her work. Ling had been sold to adoptive parents who arranged a forced marriage to a wealthy man thirty years her senior when she was fourteen. They also trained her to become the family’s main provider through singing and film performances as a minor first in local dialect films (Fujianese) and then in the Mandarin productions of the new Huangmei Opera films produced in the Shaw Brother studios in Hong Kong. Her breakout role was her impersonation of the male scholar Liang Shanbo 梁山伯, who fell in love with the cross-dressed girl Zhu Yingtai 祝英台, when they both studied at a Confucian academy in Love Eterne 梁山伯与祝英台 (1963, directed by Li Hanxiang 李翰祥, Huangmei Opera film produced by the Shaw Brothers studio) (Harris, "Modern Mulans," 320). When Ivy Ling Po visited Taiwan in 1963, close to 200,000 fans participated in mass gatherings to honor her despite bans on public assemblies in Taiwan at the time. The film Lady General Hua Mulan released the following year sought to capitalize on that success (see HTRCDIC, L05, "Exercises").

  PLOT SUMMARY

  The film generally follows a similar plotline as previous renditions with some minor twists, which often echo plots elements found in Love Eterne, while exploiting the conventions of the operatic form. For one, the parents initially do not give their permission for Mulan to join the army, but once she successfully spars with her father in a male guise, he permits her to join the army in his place, a scene that resonates with a similarly successful performance as a disguised male fortuneteller in Love Eterne. For another, when her fellow soldiers make fun of women, Mulan does not let their remarks go unchallenged. Similarly, in Love Eterne, women had unexpectedly come in for praise in an all-male setting.  In addition, as was standard in operatic plots and in the Love Eterne opera film as well, heroes and heroines have sidekicks, often in the form of feisty servants. In Lady General Hua Mu Lan, that part is occupied by a male cousin named Hua Ming, who accompanies Mulan and at times steps in when Mulan comes close to being exposed. Much like the servant figures in traditional drama, such a seemingly minor figure can serve as the point of access for spectators (Harris, "Modern Mulans," 322). Finally, as in Mulan Joins the Army (1939), Hua Mu Lan contains a romantic subplot. However, in contrast to the relative filmic realism of that version, the Huangmei Opera version offers songs as an established form of interior monologue for Mulan to express her feelings vis-a-vis Li Guang, her fellow soldier, while allowing for some playfully comic elements in the resolution of the film.

  
  THEME: How to Assume a Male Martial Identity

  * These clips have both English and Chinese subtitles, we provide transcription of both subtitles.
  

  Hua Ming introduces a young man (Mulan in disguise) to Mulan's father

  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

   

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  花明：叔叔。	Hua Ming: Uncle.
  花弧：明兒，什麼事呀？	Hua Hu: Ming, what is it?
  花明：叔叔，侄兒奉了家母之命，特來向您老人家辭行。	Hua Ming: Dear uncle, my mother has asked me to bid you goodbye.
  花弧：上哪兒去？預備出遠門？	Hua Hu: Where are you heading to? Far away from home?
  花明：到邊關去。	Hua Ming: To the border.
  花弧：去幹什麼？	Hua Hu: What for?
  花明：去從軍。	Hua Ming: To join the army.
  花弧：這才是花家的後代！來，到裡邊談。	Hua Hu: That’s like a real guy of Hua family! Come here.
  花明：叔叔，我有個朋友要拜訪你。	Hua Ming: Uncle, I have a friend who wishes to meet you.
  花弧：拜訪我？是誰？	Hua Hu: Meet me? Who is it?
  花明：是跟我一起從軍的朋友。聽說叔叔的武藝高強，特地來拜訪你的。想試試自己的能力,也想跟叔叔學幾招，好到邊關去殺敵。	Hua Ming: We’ll join the army together. He heard that you are a skilled soldier. He’d like to pay you his respects. He desires to test his abilities and also learn from you, in order to be prepared for the enemies.
  花弧：好，你這個朋友好。有這樣的大志。來，我見見他，我都他幾招。	Hua Hu: Good. I’m glad to hear that. You friend is very determined. Come on then. Where is he? I’ll teach him something.
  木蘭母：老頭兒，你就歇著吧。你的喘病還沒好呢。明兒，去對你那位朋友說請他改天再來吧。	Mulan’s mother: Dear, you should get some rest. You’re still short of breath. (To Ming) Ming, tell your friend to come another time.
  花弧：人家誠心誠意地來請教我，我怎麼可以不教人家呢？他這個朋友有志氣。明兒，走！	Hua Hu: His friend is very sincere. How can I refuse? His friend is determined. Ming, let’s go!

  Mulan asks her father whether it's right for men and women to come forwards and defend our country

  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

   

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  花明：花老英雄到。	Hua Ming: Veteran Hero Hua is here.
  木蘭：拜見花老英雄。	Hua Mulan: (kneels) My respect to Hero Hua.
  花弧：起來，起來，不要客套。小哥有何指教？	Hua Hu: Get up please. There is no need to be formal. How can I be of service, young man?
  木蘭：不敢。小輩素仰花老英雄武藝超群，特地前來拜訪。想請老英雄多多指教。想試試自己的能力，能不能到邊關去衝鋒殺敵。	Mulan: I wouldn’t dare! I’ve heard about your excellent skills, and I’m here to pay you a visit. I hope that you could teach me to see whether I’m good enough for the army.
  花明：話太多。	Hua Ming: Enough talk.
  花弧：好，讓他說。他懂得比你多。	Hua Hu: Good…Let him speak. He knows more than you do.
  花明：是。	Hua Ming: Yes, uncle.
  花弧：小哥對武功方面，學了有多少年了？	Hua Hu: Young man, how long have you practiced martial art? (Hua Ming behinds Mulan’s father uses his body language to suggest Mulan stop talking and is worried that her voice might reveal her identity)
  木蘭：老英雄，請。	Mulan: Please, Hero Hua.
  花弧：請……慢慢，我先叫小女木蘭來陪你練幾招。	Hua Hu: Please…Wait, let me call my daughter Mulan to practice with you.
  木蘭：不……我先要請教花老英雄。請。	Mulan: No… I’d like to learn from you first. Please.
  花弧：好。（對木蕙）你叫木蘭把我的花槍拿出來。	Hua Hu: Alright (turns to his elder daughter) Muhui, ask Mulan to bring out my spear.
  木蕙：爹，你的花槍已經放在院子裡了。	Muhui: Father. It’s already put in the courtyard.
  花弧：啊！已經放在院子裡了。	Hua Hu: Oh! It’s already there!
  花明：叔叔，人家在等著你呢！	Hua Ming: Uncle, he’s waiting.
  花弧：好。	Hua Hu: Fine…
  Mulan’s younger brother Mudi would like to see the competition, but he is stopped by his eldest sister.
  木蕙：木棣。	Muhui: Mu Di.
  木棣：大姐，這個人好像是二姐。	Mudi: He looks very much like our sister Mulan.
  木蕙：不要瞎說，快進去。	Muhui: Don’t be silly. Go inside.
  木棣：我去叫阿娘来看。	Mudi: I’ll fetch mother to come watch.
  木蕙：木棣，木棣！	Muhui: (tries to stop) Mudi, Mudi!
  The scene is cut to the courtyard.
  花弧：請。	Hua Hu: Please.
  木蘭：小輩有個問題，想先請教老英雄。	Mulan: I’d like to ask you a question first.
  花弧：好，有什麼問題你先說說。	Hua Hu: Okay, go ahead. Voice your doubts.
  木蘭：請問老英雄，國家受到侵略，是不是老百姓不分男女群起干戈保家衛國？	Mulan: Hero Hua, at this time when our nation is at war, don’t you think it’s right for men and women to come forward and defend our country?
  花弧：好，真是高見。	Hua Hu: Absolutely!
  木蘭：保家衛國是不是不分男女？	Mulan: So be it man or a woman it doesn’t matter, right?
  花弧：不分男女。	Hua Hu: Not at all.
  木蘭：請。	Mulan: Let’s begin.

  Mulan fights with her father

  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

   

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  Mulan, using a spear, engages in an extended fight with her father, who does not recognize that he is fighting his own daughter.
  木蘭母：好了，好了，別比了。啊，是木蘭嘛。	Mulan’s mother: (on her way) Fine now…stop it. (gets to the courtyard and finds out the secret of the young man) Ah, he is Mulan.
  木棣：是二姐。	Mudi: That’s Mulan.
  木蘭母：唉，木蘭，別打了，別打了。	Mulan’s mother: Stop it, Mulan.
  Mulan falls on the ground and drops her hat. Mulan’s father starts coughing and everybody goes to check on him.

  Mulan's father recognizes her

  Click to expand/collapse Translation Notes

   

  Chinese Subtitles	CTC Translation
  木蘭母：怎麼啦你……	Mulan’s mother: What? How? You…
  木蘭：爹。	Mulan: (feels guilty) Father.
  木蘭母：木蘭，你太放肆了。	Mulan’s mother: Mulan, this is too much.
  木蘭：阿娘。	Mulan: mother.
  Non-diegetic chorus singing in the background “Hua Hu has found out who she really is. He couldn’t stop his tears from flowing.” 老花弧，識破了是姑娘。不由他，又驚又喜淚盈眶啊。
  花弧：（唱）果然槍法比爹好啊。你不愧是花家的好兒郎。現在我放心讓你去，替我殺敵到邊疆。好在有明兒在一起，兄妹遇事好商量。心要細，膽要壯。不怕他胡兒怎麼強。	Hua Hu: (sings) You have better skills than me. You are my good child. Now I will let you join the army. Fend off the enemies at the border. It’s indeed good of your cousin to accompany you. Seek your cousin’s advice. Be daring and careful. Don’t be afraid of the barbarians.
  木蘭母：(唱)喬裝只怕路程遠，改扮須防歲月長。雖然明兒能照顧，姑娘到底是姑娘。萬一被人來識破，欺君大罪要提防。	Mulan’s mother: (sings) It’s such a long distance to travel. You don’t know how long you will be away. Although your cousin Ming can take care of you, but you are a girl after all. If someone finds out, you’ll be sentenced for lying to the emperor.
  花弧：（唱）只要能殺敵，管他是男是姑娘。只要能報國，管他喬裝不喬裝。萬一被人來識破，欺君大罪我承當。花家有了好後代，為家為國兩爭光。我花弧一死又何妨。我一死又何妨！	Hua Hu: (sings) If one’s a good soldier, the gender doesn’t matter. If one could help the country, who cares if or not there’s a disguise. God forbid if someone finds out, I’ll take all the blame. We have a good child. Both our family and country ought to be proud. It’s okay even if I, Hua Hu, may die. So what if I eventually die!

  
  Mulan leaves for the border

  
  

  WORKS CONSULTED CLICK TO EXPAND

  Harris, Kristine. “Modern Mulan: Re-imagining the Mulan Legend in Chinese Film, 1920s-60s.” In The New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film from the 1870s through the 1960s, edited by Elizabeth Otto and Vanessa Rocco, 309-330. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2011.
   

  AUTHOR

  Gillian Yanzhuang Zhang
• 1 2022-02-13T06:04:34+00:00 Video Clip: Mulan Leaves for the Boarder 4 Lady General Hua Mulan 1964 plain 2025-07-21T19:48:34+00:00
  Before Mulan leaves for the boarder, Mulan’s father passes their family’s illustrious spear onto Mulan in front of the altar. Aside from this spear, Mulan also has a sword hung on her waist.