Mulan

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Sadly everyone just going have to accept this is embracing the original source material more than the animated film which also adapted from the same source material but "disney" magic sprinkled.
To differentiate this live action from the one that was made by Chinese studio in 2009 I guess they will have to mark it as "Disney's Mulan".
 
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To be honest, I was always going to expect this one to be more or less the way its presented. There's been LOADS of Mulan series and films from China and the Far East already, and nearly all of them are majority serious or at least serious on the Honour to the Family portion, or the filial eldest child sacrificing for the family. Stuff that you can't all of a sudden add a musical number to without giving the audience over there raised eyebrows and bad reviews. And China is no small market. At best, I'd imagine they'd be able to fit only one musical scene in the entire movie if that, and even then it'll be at an "appropriate" moment for it.

:: edit ::

Also, although Liu Yi Fei (the Mulan actress for anyone who doesn't know) is a singer, she's not really got a strong enough English accent from what I can tell. So it might not sound right even if you got the cast to sing. Which is why I said if there was a musical number, it'll be in an appropriate scene located in the movie where it calls for it without issues.
 
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Should just let her sing Reflection in mandarin or cantonese to give more "authentic" feel if that's what Disney wants out of it.
 
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Never really heard LYF speak in Cantonese, so I think she'll be limited in that area (especially to sing, if she was able to speak in the first place). Most likely Mandarin, but likely won't be to any lyrics like the video you linked. As the lyrics in there basically dump all over on Mulans mythical "For her father(s honor), for her family (honor), and for their protection/safety" sense of duty and courage to do such an act for them (which makes her well liked). And some of the lyrics also pushes her female identity forward too much that it conflicts with that sense of duty and of course with the China audience that tends to still favour the classical male first, female second approach, so that'll likely negatively impact on the market this movie was made for (China). And that's just the China audience. You just know the non Chinese audience is just going to complain about the (possibly only) song being in a language they don't understand and why it couldn't have been sung in English or something...

The movie is basically in a weird space where you can't cater to both the main audience (China, with its male first identity) and everyone else at the same time (equality, etc) without easily losing one audience. With a possibility of losing both (what with LYF currently having failed to get any decent box office results over in China lately). Will be interesting to see how it ends up running.
 
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She is from generation that speak mandarin so no doubt if they do include a "song" no doubt she sing it in mandarin over cantonese, i'm just using that video as an example as Jackie Chan did both the cantonese and mandarin singing and voiced Shang.
I agree this film is in a weird space, I don't think you can win in any situation when it comes to representing certain media these days.
Specially with live action films that is based on a source material from a different culture, lot of people complained about Aladdin not being chinese male actor or the fact Jasmine was portrayed by a british person.
If anything if people want true representation then Mulan should be completely done in chinese.
Frozen should be dubbed in Danish
The little mermaid should be portrayed by a danish actress but people are complaining shes now portrayed by someone who is not white or red-head but really they should be complaining the fact it should be portrayed by danish actress.
OR they all the hired actors/actress should be greek as the characters are inspired by greek mythology.

I'm keep an open mind about this film, I don't care it doesn't have mushu or cricket or any other characters if its being true to the source material.
 
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Yep.

It's starting to happen. Seeing silly comments around the net:

Why Mulan knows Kung-Fu when she used intelligence against her enemies, etc. When original was based off a female warrior...
No Mushu (no loss, especially with the various fourth wall breaking jokes and comments. Might as well have Ryan Reynolds instead go all Deadpool now Disney owns him)
Why LYF looks so ungirly in some shots... :rolleyes: This, about a female who enlists into the army where no females are allowed...

Whilst this may or may not be the best adaptation, the audience and viewer reaction before and after the film is where the real fun is at. :p ;)
 
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Most of the Disney remakes have done pretty well so far e.g. Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin. I think only Beauty and the Beast caused a minor stir in Russia and Malaysia because a gay scene upset the conservative Christian demographic. So far though, these Disney originals / remakes have been based on fairy tales IIRC.

Is Mulan different because the source material is based on a true story? If so, then Disney would have to tread carefully with this one like others have said here. My main concern is how can it be made into a humorous film again? Disney films (including the remakes) are known for childish humour and the odd innuendos that adults can pick up. Some remakes though that haven't yet been done like Snow White, Little Mermaid and Pocahontas can go back to the normal Disney format as they're just fictional accounts again.

What would happen to the Disney princesses as a franchise? The fairy tale ones can stay as they are, but would Mulan have to be spun out of the franchise?
 
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Based off a true story? Not entirely, at least, not with any certainty to it. But all of it has historical background, even though most consider personal parts of the story to be just that: a story that has been emebelished. Mulan's actual name and surname for example is unknown, the Fa/Hua one is the one from the first poem and folk stories that mentions her, and even Mulan is not the real name. But was it based on such a person? Like all really old historical stuff that is now lost to time? Hard to truly say, but "likely" is what most conclude.

But the thing that marks her story out is: China, male first and only importance remember? So now we have a female lead. How'd that happen? Not entirely sure, but China is also heavy on a few concepts, including virtue, honor, duty, sacrifice, etc, especially whilst remaining humble about it all. Which her story embodies through her sacrifice to go in her father and younger siblings stead (in some variations) on penalty of death if discovered whilst serving her country and returning after it was done like nothing ever happened. It's fairly ingrained into the culture of China and its people, both in literature and what Mulans story embodied. There's other stories of females joining war, and they too had similar concepts embodied in the story: virtue, honor, duty, sacrifice, etc. And they too were based on real participants (not in entirety, but some at least). So it's part historical in a sense (and pride, in that a person can sacrifice what they could have, for something else for the family, country, etc) to China and Chinese people.

So you can't have all the typical humor in such a setting (war) and story (serious subject). Certainly not in the amounts a typical Disney movie may have.
 
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Most of the Disney remakes have done pretty well so far e.g. Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin. I think only Beauty and the Beast caused a minor stir in Russia and Malaysia because a gay scene upset the conservative Christian demographic. So far though, these Disney originals / remakes have been based on fairy tales IIRC.

Is Mulan different because the source material is based on a true story? If so, then Disney would have to tread carefully with this one like others have said here. My main concern is how can it be made into a humorous film again? Disney films (including the remakes) are known for childish humour and the odd innuendos that adults can pick up. Some remakes though that haven't yet been done like Snow White, Little Mermaid and Pocahontas can go back to the normal Disney format as they're just fictional accounts again.

What would happen to the Disney princesses as a franchise? The fairy tale ones can stay as they are, but would Mulan have to be spun out of the franchise?
And many Americans on Twitter and elsewhere are completely floored that this is based on an ancient Chinese story. And that The Little Mermaid was originally written by a Danish Author and wasn’t an original Disney product. They’re going to be so disappointed!
 
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Mulan is an old folklore story similar to the "Journey to the west" story which many adaptations has been made based on that story such as Dragonball, Monkey(Saiyuki),The Monkey King and so on.
On top of what's been mentioned here the war has actually been in the war for 12 years which I don't think Disney will show that.

Once people can start opening their eyes that a lot of Disney classics are not their own source material the better we should all be or start complaining about actually wanting a true authentic representation based on the source material.
If you search any of them you can see they all say "based off" but hardcore Disney fans are like many fans and are in-denial.
 
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That is going to make a billion in China alone.

Well, I would say that's a good estimate on most Westerners front, but not a sure thing for a few reasons:

Crystal Yi Fei Liu has not had a box office hit in her career in China for a while now (most consider to be box office poison in China). TV Shows yes, but not really movies (they like her, but people don't turn up to the cinema for her and this has gone on for a while now, which caused her box office poison status).
It will be the 9001th remake of a story that's probably broadcast freely in China every year with 2 remakes a year along with 2 old versions (exagerated but it gives you an idea of how the West sees this "material" vs the East).
Unless dubbed (which it could be done), it's going to be in English, as that's going to not bring every moviegoer in; most of the other high box office number movies in China that were done were done in Mandarin (if I'm not mistaken, as I haven't watched all of them yet).

Now what may tip it in the movies favour is that as it's seen as having so close ties to China and the Chinese people, they may feel enough of a connection to push it to the billion themselves just to stand out in the world.

Again, this movie sits in a weird spot where because it's trying to cater to China, and the rest of the world, it loses out in areas that might have given it a surge of moviegoer support, and it might end up losing both instead as a result. Hard to say how it'll really pan out because of that.
 
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Who knows they may release a official mandarin dub over in China and then someone over there will dub over it for the Cantonese audience, having Donnie Yen, Jet li and few other big chinese actors may boost the seat numbers.
 
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Minor niggle, but I think it'll be weird watching the atypical foreign film "lip flap/voice sync" in reverse for the China audience. It's different for something like say Endgame as it's "Westerners" being seen, so expected (also China had specific actors for each actor) so it's "normal" there; You don't really expect the language you hear to not match the "lip flaps" and its the language you would have expected for the actor to have voiced, it might inadvertently cause comedic moments out of non comedic ones. Don't know if they might have already recorded a version when they were filming in Mandarin already. But, totally agree that dubbing is likely what they'll do, but it'll be a bit jarring to view and not have the lip flaps match what is being said. :p
 
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Minor niggle, but I think it'll be weird watching the atypical foreign film "lip flap/voice sync" in reverse for the China audience. It's different for something like say Endgame as it's "Westerners" being seen, so expected (also China had specific actors for each actor) so it's "normal" there; You don't really expect the language you hear to not match the "lip flaps" and its the language you would have expected for the actor to have voiced, it might inadvertently cause comedic moments out of non comedic ones. Don't know if they might have already recorded a version when they were filming in Mandarin already. But, totally agree that dubbing is likely what they'll do, but it'll be a bit jarring to view and not have the lip flaps match what is being said. :p
Ha i've seen it with Ip Man 1 tbh..originally watched it in Mandarin and then watched it in Cantonese, they did at least get the original actors to dub over in cantonese and not randomers like i've seen in all these chinese dramas getting dubbed over in cantonese now that looks hilarious.
 
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