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manyheadsexplodeinseasontwoofTheBoys,Amazon’s
wry, messy, gruesome,sharpsuperherodrama.Someofthe
headexplosionsarefigurative,aswhena character’ssurprisingbackstory
is revealedora particularlysurprisingtwistarrives.ThisisTheBoys,
though—ashowthatlovesitsgorealmost asmuchasit lovessardonic
musiccuesandskeweringcapitalism—somost ofthemindsthat get
blowninseasontwoaregleefullyliteral.Headspopopenat unexpected
moments,splatteringgraymatterhitherandyon.Mid-conversation,a
headmaysimplyceasetobe,replacedbya brightsprayof redanda sound
likedroppinganopencartonoforangejuiceonthefloor.“Headswill
roll”is suchanold-fashionedwayofthinkingaboutviolence.“Headsthat
burstlike partyballoonsfullofshiny redconfetti”is somuchmorefun!
TheBoysreliesonitsaudience’s ability toexperi-
enceexplodingheadsas“fun”; it is unapologetically
andunrelentinglythekindof showthatasks youtobe
downforwhateverbananas,bloodynonsenseit can
thinkof.If you’reuncomfortablehanging outwith,
say, a superherowhounthinkinglysplattersa guy’s
headintooblivionwhilege ttinga hand job fromhis
PHOTOGRAPH:
JAN
THIJS
witch named Xianniang. Director Niki Caro
doesn’t have an aptitude for fight sequences,
which get cut to bits in a way that dulls all
momentum, but her use of color and wide
vistas does provide a sense of sweeping scale.
Mulan shares some of Hero’s unapologetic
nationalism, too, displaying a painstaking
reverence for the state, which it struggles to
square with a character who chafes against
her lot in life. Mulan isn’t the silent, delicate,
biddable girl her community and, more
pressingly, the local matchmaker (Crouch-
ing Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Cheng Pei-pei)
expect her to be. She overflows with Chi,
“the boundless energy of life itself,” which
the movie treats as akin to the Force.
Her father, Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma), confesses
in voice-over that he has been reluctant to
tell his daughter to dim her light for the
sake of conformity, though eventually he
does just that, chastising her, “Chi is for
warriors, not daughters. Soon you’ll be a
young woman, and it’s time for you to hide
your gift away, to silence its voice.” Instead,
she takes off in the night with his sword
and armor and journeys to join the army
preparing under Commander Tung to fight
the Rouran invaders, nomadic warriors
led by Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee),who
want revenge or maybe gold or whatever.
Mulan has to conceal her gender from her
comrades, among them the fetching Chen
Honghui (Yoson An), who’s so barely a love
interest that their relationship’s romantic
apex is a lingering handshake. More con-
fusingly, given where Mulan is, she feels the
need to downplay her martial-arts talents
as well, until they inevitably come to light
during a training bout she seems to expect
to be scolded for.
Mulan feels terrible about lying, but she
doesn’t seem to feel any anger about the
forces that require her to lie: the ruler who
demands human tributes from every fam-
ily, the army that would refuse to have her
despite her gifts because she’s a woman.
All bitterness is outsourced to Xianniang,
who is positioned as a kind of dark paral-
lel to the movie’s heroine—a woman whose
wielding of Chi made her an outcast and led
her to align herself with Böri Khan, who has
promised her acceptance in exchange for
her servitude. Xianniang can shape-shift,
turn into a hawk, fight with incredible
skill, and stalk around in an enviable scale-
covered outfit, and in any other movie she
and Mulan would end up joining forces to
battle for a changed world. But in this one,
she is turned into a tragic fool, while Mulan
proves that by devoting herself to those in
charge and constantly apologizing for her
own gifts, a woman can indeed be wel-
comed into the ranks of those in power—on
a case-by-case basis, of course.
Mulan is a dour drag as a work of art and
entertainment, an empty if occasionally
impressive spectacle propped upbysome
incredibly clunky writing. The screenplay
is credited to Lauren Hynek, RickJaffa,
Elizabeth Martin, and Amanda Silver,and
if someone were to drink a shot every time
a character mentions “honor,” theywould
surely die of alcohol poisoningbefore
the credits roll under a new recordingof
“Reflection,” by Christina Aguilera.But
the film is a fascinating cultural object:an
at tempt to meld reflexive Americancorpo-
rate girl-power tendencies withperceived
Chinese values. The 1998 Mulan famously
bombed in China, with a Beijing inter-
viewee bemoaning to the Baltimore Sun at
the time, “She’s too individualistic. Ameri-
cans don’t know enough about Chinese
culture.” Maybe this new film, coming out
in reopened Chinese theaters while being
released as a $29.99 premium rental here,
will perform better. Then again, maybe it
won’t, because trying to reverse-engineer
what another country wants from the out-
side is an inexact and entirely depressing
way to make movies. ■
Dominique McElligott and Antony Starr.
TV / KATHRYN VANARENDONK
Splat Go the Heads
The gleeful carnage of The Boys isn’t
without purpose. But who benefits?
THE BOYS
AMAZON PRIME.
