Values Resonance: Tanya is a Sympathetic Murderer who gets away with getting rid of her ex-boyfriend, who sold her into Sex Slavery — and only does so because he wouldn't leave her alone. She then gets an impliedRedemption Equals Death when she goes to Black Fever-ridden Mandalay to help treat the plague victims. By today's standards, Tanya needed not any kind of redemption as it's all in self-defense — heck, she's seen as even more heroic for adopting such a noble if doomed endeavor. By the period's standards, however, women who fight to liberate themselves and are willing to commit morally questionable acts to achieve their goals (regardless of how noble or heinous) are given the villain treatment or suffer severe punishment for their actions. And this is all the more enforced once the Hays code is passed. Curiously enough, Tanya is never vilified In-Universe, so while, for the film's original audience, Mandalay is a controversial, morally gray work, for today's audience and within the fourth wall, the villains are heroes are clearer cut. Not to mention all of the feminist takeaways.
