A Girl Worth Fighting For

Not to introduce you all to the dark parts of my mind (the parts that I think that nobody wants to see or explore), but everything does have a deeper meaning, even if it initially was used to entertain children (not initially initially...not to get too ahead of myself) (I study too much if that is even possible). What I am talking about here is wherein the recently seen, or rewatched movie Mulan (the original animated Disney one, that was better in my opinion), the members of the troop each sang about their dreams of finding "A girl worth fighting for" and their own fantasy being a girl of romance. Still, the song abruptly comes to a freeze (or rather a gasp of dismay) once they genuinely find that a girl really worth fighting for happens to be vastly different. 

This small, yet pivotal character happens to be a tiny girl who has been killed due to the hands of the Huns. I cannot even say how much this cruel act startles me, or how much it breaks my heart that there are actions much like it still occurring today. The child was too weak, too small to stand a chance of withstanding or rising again once the murderous invasion took place in her own village. Though this movie may have only been seen as simple entertainment when I had first seen it as a child, I have rewatched it many times (the original was better, not the modern remake that I believe left out too many vital details to the story, focusing on the wrong parts). I can confidently say that the poor, innocent child that was taken too soon and was all alone at the wrong time, that was their girl worth fighting for in reality. 

That occasion is truly horrific, more than I can say. 

Also, it is worth noting that "A Girl Worth Fighting For" happens to be the very last song in the movie, and I know that didn't happen just by happenstance. Up until these moments that remind us all that we live in a cruel world, it is a fun movie (its safe to say), and the Huns plus the invasion feel like they are placed there only to keep the plot going, and to add a tad bit of spice to the sugar of the story. Now, none of the soldiers' men (and one woman) are taking things quite so seriously yet; sure, the main character of Mulan did desire to save her father from the draft, and on some ignorant level, she knew that he would die if he went to war, but beyond that, she is solely interested in not being caught (self-centered), and not shaming her family (humble). There is always more to everyone's story. Every mate of hers in the army happens to be more or less in the same boat--they yearn to become tougher than they were before, they want to impress girls, and they want to be (more or less) seen as "cool". The character of Shang is easily seen as the most serious of the group...at first, and even then similarities are seen between him and the army, as it is just because training bad soldiers will reflect poorly on him, and he knows that important people are paying attention to him in China's capital. 

The sudden ending of the aforementioned song, "A Girl Worth Fighting For" is the perfect place to insert a needed, cautionary wake-up call. It is great how this movie differs from the other Disney classics in this way, I think. The characters in the movie, along with the audience get truly slapped in the face with what is really is at stake here. It is not one girl's single life or love, but the fate of an entire nation. That thought still gives me the chills, even today. The nation of China is being invaded, from their perspective, at the very least. The small villages, with poor, innocent, young souls were burning. Civilians were dying sad deaths. The characters (along with us-how much are you able to connect with a story as it is being told to you?) knew that this is not going to stop until the country is completely conquered or the invaders are completely defeated. This story cannot be seen as a fun musical anymore in realism sadly, this is truly a major crisis. 

This reason doesn't stand alone either; Mulan is a good, even a great movie for so many reasons, but this abrupt tone shift happens to be a major reason why. It really gets you to think. There is an excellent commentary on the painful reality of war, and it truly is placed in a movie originally meant for children just so that none of the scenes could present any actual gore, and I think it is fair to say that therein lies the fact of the point being even more poignant. (It is a sad fact of today, but a lot of the violence we are shown in today's film industry is purely by the means of entertainment or making the story more interesting for a viewer's eyes.)

That moment that would have taken a breath in reality, when the soldiers come over the rise and see the tatters of what used to be a humble, peaceful village is purely one of the best scenes of the film. You can't convince me otherwise. Somehow, it made the message of the entire film resonate within my soul more, it truly took my breath away (with the characters, like I was actually there, standing and beholding with them, and connections like that are only able to come alongside great storytelling). That is why some things, at least as I see them, never can or should be remade, like this soul-shattering scene.