Very few things make a movie more memorable than a memorable villain. And Hollywood has a long history of featuring on-screen Asian baddies—both the memorable and forgettable, the stereotypical and the sublime, the “authentic” and the offensive. Every day this week (Monday-Friday), I’ll count down my choices for the 25 most “infamous” of Hollywood’s Asian villains—the good, the bad and the ugly.
Today #20-16…
20) MULAN (1998)
Miguel Ferrer as Shan Yu
In their continuing efforts to diversify their line-up of animated characters, Disney had originally planned to produce an animated short about a miserable Chinese girl who is saved by a British prince, but fortunately, they wisely shelved that idea and turned instead to the famous Chinese legend of Fa Mulan—a brave girl who disguises herself as a man to take her father’s place in battle. Yes, this version of the story has been “Disney-fied” (I don’t remember a wise-cracking mini-dragon that sounded like Eddie Murphy in the original telling), but it was well received by the Asian American community and became a worldwide hit with its grrrrl power message (this was the first Disney cartoon where the girl didn’t need to be rescued by the guy). Ferrer provided the voice for the vicious Hun leader Shan Yu and he was an appropriately frightening and formidable adversary, especially in the epic battle scenes, which have all the grandeur of a David Lean production.
The other day I was talking to an acquaintance who was very involved in the recent protests against the film 
