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Thread: Mulan

  1. #46
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    Normani and Val’s Paso - Dancing with the Stars

    Gene Ching
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  2. #47
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    This is both our general Mulan thread and our 1998 Disney Mulan thread.

    Bancroft directed the 1998 Disney Mulan. He's not directing the upcoming Live-Action Disney project.


    Shanghai: 'Mulan' Director Tony Bancroft to Make Chinese Animated Musical 'Songhua'
    8:33 PM PDT 6/18/2017 by Patrick Brzeski


    Jamie McDonald/Getty Images for Laureus
    Shanghai

    Written by Joe Bockol, the film will be co-produced by Astro-Nomical Entertainment in association with Pelagius Entertainment.
    Veteran Hollywood animator Tony Bancroft, director of Disney's Mulan and the recently released Animal Crackers, has signed to direct the Chinese animated musical Songhua.

    The announcement was made during a signing ceremony on day two of the Shanghai International Film Festival.

    The film, written by Joe Bockol (Akuma), will be co-produced by Astro-Nomical Entertainment in association with Pelagius Entertainment.

    Inspired by the famed Harbin ice festival in northern China, Songhua is based on themes from Chinese folklore, the producers say. The film is set in ancient China, in a mythical world of ice, and the story follows a quick-witted spirit who helps a young princess and an underdog hero fulfill their destinies and save their homeland.

    The project has been budgeted at $35 million. The producers say they aspire for the film to appeal to families in both China and around the world.

    The film is produced by Jay Ahn, Chris Henderson and Joe Fries, with Pelagius Entertainment’s Natalie Khoury serving as executive producer.
    I skimmed this thread and I didn't see a previous post on our cover story on Master Mimi Chan, the body double for Disney's Mulan. Maybe it's there and I missed it this Monday morning, but I'm going to add it again here anyway as I spent a fair amount of time with her and her father at KFTC25 AF.
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  3. #48
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    funny

    I Tried To Cut My Hair With A Sword Like Mulan And Failed Miserably
    If Mulan can do it, ****it, so can I.
    Posted on January 19, 2018, at 11:01 a.m.
    By Chrissy Mahlmeister (BuzzFeed Staff) Lindsay Webster (BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Staff) Alicia Barrón (BuzzFeed Staff)

    This is Chrissy and Cissy, and they were in their "lab-beaut-ory" thinking of what to work on next, when they remembered an interesting suggestion someone had made.


    BuzzFeed
    Watch as Cissy tries to cut her hair off with a sword like Mulan!


    BuzzFeed Boldly / Via youtube.com

    It was so out there and potentially dangerous that they just knew they had to try it.


    BuzzFeed
    Yep, Cissy volunteered to chop her hair off in one fell swoop with a sword, just like Mulan.

    If you recall in the movie, Mulan runs dramatically into a dark room, takes out the sword, cuts her hair off, ties the rest into a bun, and she's off to fight in the war.


    Disney
    Just like this.

    Before she could pull this off, Cissy went to train with Master Bruce Wen, a Shaolin Temple warrior master at the Shaolin Temple Martial Arts Academy.


    BuzzFeed
    He believed Cissy could totally pull this off, as long as she didn't hold back. He did warn her about possibly cutting her neck or her hand off, though. Yikes!

    After cramming years' worth of training into a couple of hours, Cissy was able to chop a piece of wood in half!


    BuzzFeed
    Master Bruce was impressed.

    And then she practiced holding out her hair and swinging the sword at a 45-degree angle away from her to chop it off.


    BuzzFeed
    Cissy was as ready as she would ever be. They had a paramedic on scene, body armor, and a neck protector.


    BuzzFeed
    DO NOT try this at home, guys. Seriously.

    Okay, so the first attempts weren't totally successful, so lets fast forward to her fifth (and final) attempt.


    BuzzFeed
    Don't worry. A professional hairstylist was on hand to clean up Cissy's barbarian haircut.

    So the Mulan "haircut" may not have worked exactly as they expected, but check out Cissy's fabulous new bob!

    BuzzFeed
    I've actually tried this too - on myself and on a shidi who was dropping his dreadlocks. It's not that easy. Hair is hard to cut.
    Gene Ching
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  4. #49
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    I just realized Sony should be an indie thread

    Sony's Mulan Live Action film is completely different than Disney's Live Action film, so it warrants its own thread. And while I'm at it, I'll copy it to our global Mulan thread.
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  5. #50
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    Mulan & McDonald's Szechuan Sauce

    Chinamite. How awesome is that?

    The Tasteless History of 'Mulan' and McDonald's Szechuan Sauce Tie-In
    Posted June 19th, 2018 by Drew Taylor



    This past weekend, "Incredibles 2" arrived in theaters 14 years after the original film, and with it came a tidal wave of merchandise and licensed tie-ins (do you have your branded paper towels yet?). Maybe the most important of these promotional activations was with McDonald's, the fast food chain that Disney hadn't been aligned with for more than a decade. For the first time since 2006, there would be Disney toys in everyone's Happy Meal boxes.

    But it wasn't always like this.

    Back in 1998, before the shocking rise in childhood obesity rates left Disney wondering if a class action lawsuit was just around the corner, there was a strategic alliance between Disney and McDonald's that was truly staggering. This was the year that McDonald's sponsored an entire land at the newly opened Disney's Animal Kingdom, a union that would ultimately lead to the creation of the McRib (but that is an entirely different story). There was another Disney/McDonald's team-up that would give rise to another coveted item: Szechuan Sauce.

    Let's back up for a moment: "Mulan" was the latest in a series of Disney animated features that pretty much everyone hoped would be a huge blockbuster in the Summer of 1998. This was released toward the end of the Disney Renaissance, a period for the studio that began in the late 1980s with movies like "The Great Mouse Detective" and "The Little Mermaid." It would continue with hit after hit ("Aladdin!" "The Lion King!") until the end of the 1990s ("Tarzan," most would agree, was the conclusion of this period of time).

    Accompanying each release were truly grandiose promotional stunts; "Pocahontas" got a world premiere in Central Park and "Hercules" brought the Main Street Electrical Parade through midtown Manhattan. And then, there were, of course, the tie-ins, and "Mulan" had a particularly aggressive campaign courtesy of McDonald's.

    Again, 1998 was the height of the Disney/McDonald's partnership. Earlier in the year, they had sponsored that land at Disney's Animal Kingdom and, indeed, in addition to the Happy Meal toys, there were McDonald's kiosks in many of the domestic theme parks where you could grab fries or a Big Mac on your walk to Space Mountain. (Seriously, these were glorious times.)

    Looking back on the "Mulan" campaign though, well, things could have certainly played out differently.



    Watching television commercials from the period, all touting the magical szechuan sauce -- seen as a promotional dipping sauce for the fast food chain's chicken McNuggets -- you can feel that something is off. There's the commercial, for instance, where a small Caucasian girl greets her family with a polite bow, before making her family sit on the floor and, finally, using her martial arts skills to chop down the normally-sized table so that her family, now on the floor, can eat properly. (Yes, there is a traditional/stereotypical "oriental" gong.) Another ad had McDonald's spokes-clown Ronald McDonald karate chopping the restaurant chain's logo. And when you got your nuggets, the box said things like "Run, don't wok ..." and "McDonalds is Chinamite!" I was 15 at the time and even I remember thinking they were a little off.

    According to Entertainment Weekly, an "email campaign" (ah, 1998) was started by a Chinese-American student at Cornell University. At the time, Disney claimed that they had screened the campaign for Asian-American employees and didn't find anything offensive. McDonald's said the same. But the damage had been done.

    The campaign had been rolled out on June 17, 1998 (two days before the movie was released) and by July 2, everything -- including the offensive McNuggets and the covered Szechuan sauce -- was gone. In its place was a promotion for "Armageddon," another Disney blockbuster for the summer of 1998. If you ordered a "super-sized" fries, you could win one of a million tickets to the movie.

    End of story, right?

    Wrong.

    A 2017 episode of "Rick and Morty," the ultra-hip [adult swim] animated series, heavily referenced the delicious sauce, with Rick traveling to a simulated version of 1998 just so he could get his hands on that sauce again. (The episode aired on April Fool's Day.) In response, McDonald's, hoping for some of that sweet, sweet social engagement (perhaps just as delicious as the sauce itself), released a limited batch of the sauce in the fall of 2017. Things ... did not go as planned.

    Overzealous fans of the show, unhappy with just how limited the limited batch really was, caused a scene at several locations and even staged a full-scale riot. Afterwards, they would sell the coveted sauce online for untold sums of money. In response, McDonald's rolled out a more democratic stunt earlier this year. You can get a packet online -- right now! -- for less than $10.

    While it wasn't quite as bad, PR-wise, as those commercials that were -- at the very least offensive and, at the very worst, all-out racist -- the "Rick and Morty"-adjacent rollout last year was just as much a fiasco. While undeniably delectable, the Szechuan sauce is irrevocably linked to bad taste.
    THREADS:
    McDonalds
    Mulan
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  6. #51
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    srsly netflix?

    Jan 1, 2019 Ξ
    Ming Na Wen Calls Out Netflix for Oversight
    posted by Randall



    Apparently Netflix doesn’t think Asian Americans played any significant role in the Disney animated classic, Mulan.

    An official description from the streaming site leaves out any mention of any Asian American involved in the production-including lead voices Ming Na Wen, who played the voice of Mulan, and B.D. Wong, who voiced Li Shang, Mulan’s love interest and son of General Li.

    Mulan fan Dave Sanchez blasted Neflix for the omission and Wen didn’t hesitate to jump on board.

    Yeah, that’s EFF-ed up, @netflix!

    I also believe another AsianAm lead voice should also be on the credit. #bdwong How about all the #Mulan fans out there tweet @netflix about this major oversight? Thanks! 💋👍 https://t.co/xRzcGL9qqq— Ming-Na Wen (@MingNa) January 1, 2019
    According to Comicbook.com, Netflix has not yet responded to her New Year’s Eve tweet, but plenty of fans already have.

    Wtf?????? But but but the main charact…the hero of the stor…the…what??? I don’t. That doesn’t compute in the fabric of the universe.— Daniel Drew (@JediTimeSaiyan) January 1, 2019

    DUDE, Netflix. She IS Mulan. Since when is the lead characters’ voice actor not listed? (I mean i don’t know anything about cast listings and why they are like they are but COME ON).— Sunshine and Lemons 🍋🌞 (@MaybeMander) January 1, 2019

    pic.twitter.com/RsDZzBOTyo— Sam (@WSamNipat) January 1, 2019
    Note that this has been fixed already:

    Ming-Na Wen

    Verified account

    @MingNa
    Follow Follow @MingNa
    More Ming-Na Wen Retweeted Netflix US
    Great of you, @netflix, for the quick response and fix. 👏👍
    Appreciate your attention.
    -😘Mulan

    Thank you to all the fans of #Mulan and my Mingalings for your tweets & RTs. You all rock!
    ❤️💕❤️💕💋💋

    Happy New Year!🎉🎉Ming-Na Wen added,
    Netflix US
    Verified account

    @netflix
    Replying to @MingNa
    Thank you and @kroqkom so much for pointing this out to us!! It’s now been fixed ❤️ you and @BD_WONG are legends!
    THREADS:
    Mulan - Live-Action Disney project
    Mulan
    Gene Ching
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  7. #52
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    So much controversy around a feckin trailer...

    JULY 11, 2019 12:19AM PT
    China Loves New ‘Mulan’ Trailer, Except Its Historical Inaccuracies
    By REBECCA DAVIS


    CREDIT: COURTESY OF YOUTUBE

    The internet in China has exploded with excitement over Disney’s viral new “Mulan” trailer, but some have bemoaned the glaring historical and geographical inaccuracies in the short clip, calling the mashup of unrelated Chinese-looking elements disrespectful.

    Most on social media were thrilled to catch their first glimpse of mainland-born Crystal Liu Yifei in the titular role. “This is the Hua Mulan of my dreams!” read one of the top comments on Disney’s official page on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, where the hashtag “Hua Mulan” has already been viewed 1.5 billion times and the hashtag “Mulan Trailer” 1.2 billion times just two days after its release. “I watched this repeatedly for an hour,” one user wrote. “When the film comes out, I’m going to make the box office explode!”

    The trailer even spawned a new meme of Mulan’s exaggerated betrothal makeup, with people posting photos of themselves done up in her fever-red cheeks and yellow forehead paint.

    But the general excitement has been tempered by some serious criticism. The original Mulan tale comes from a ballad about a girl born in northern China during the Northern and Southern dynasties period, around the 5th century A.D. The time period and location are key to the story, as her journey kicks off because of the forced conscription to fight invaders threatening the northern border.

    Yet the Disney trailer shows Mulan living in a round “tulou” house, a traditional communal living structure of the Hakka people unique to coastal, southern Fujian province that became widespread in the much later Ming dynasty — more than a thousand years later.

    “Disney shouldn’t be so careless and just think that because tulou are beautiful, they can make Mulan live in one. She’s not Fujianese!” wrote one detractor who wondered how Mulan would manage to make it north to fight the Huns, adding: “I guess this Mulan has to take the subway out to join the army?”

    Another PhD student expressed a similar sentiment in a video that has itself gone viral, racking up some 8 million views in two days. “This film is just trying to ingratiate itself to Western audiences. It’s like they thought, oh, this element is really Chinese, it’s very Oriental, so I’m going to shove it into the film to make everyone feel this is a very ‘Chinese’ film,” he said.

    “This mess of mixing unrelated Oriental elements is really disrespectful of non-Western cultures and audiences,” he added. “This is not about [the producers] truly appreciating elements of a culture that is different from Hollywood’s, but using them to create something that [Americans] find comfortable and appealing.”

    Such comments don’t appear to have dampened China’s overall anticipation of what many online are calling “China’s Disney princess.” The new poster, shot by the very popular Chinese fashion photographer and visual artist Chen Man, was also embraced with enormous enthusiasm, with numerous commenters saying that seeing it actually made them cry. “I don’t know why I cried, but seeing it makes me so emotionally touched and inspired!” one wrote in a common refrain.

    There was quite a bit of bafflement and head-smacking in China when Liu was first cast as the title character, with many taking to social media to lambaste her acting chops — even going so far as to call her “box office poison.” But most agree that, talent or English-speaking abilities aside, her look “is definitely the one most suitable to the Chinese conception of classical Chinese beauty,” as one user put it.

    Disappointment that there appears to be no sign of the beloved Mushu character also abounded. “He would have been very cute in live-action, and it’s not like Disney doesn’t have the ability to create him — why didn’t they do it?” one user wrote in a common complaint. The hashtag “There’s no Mushu dragon in Mulan” has been viewed more than 310 million times.

    The reactions to “Mulan” have been much more positive than those to Disney’s decision to cast black actress Halle Bailey as Ariel in its upcoming live-action “The Little Mermaid.” Major Chinese newspaper The Global Times referred to her as “colored,” while others on social media expressed outrage and other racist sentiments — which bodes poorly for the movie’s prospects in the world’s second-largest film market.

    Disney’s “The Lion King” premieres in China on Friday. The studio’s live-action versions of classic films have seen middling box office results in China so far this year, with “Aladdin” earning $53.5 million in May and “Dumbo” a mere $21.9 million in March.
    I'm copying this from the Mulan - Live-Action Disney project thread to our general Mulan thread because I'm adding this list of past Mulan films in response to the lack of Mushu issue.

    Hua Mulan Joins the Army (1927)
    Mulan Joins the Army (1928)
    Mulan Joins the Army (1939)
    Lady General Hua Mu-lan (1964)
    Saga of Mulan (1994)
    Mulan (2009)
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  8. #53
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    Chinese ballet companies

    What’s Chinese About Chinese Ballet?
    Two companies making their debuts at Lincoln Center showed promise, but also a dispiriting sense of the familiar.


    Guangzhou Ballet in Jiang Qi’s “Carmina Burana,” set to Carl Orff. Credit Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times

    Brian Seibert
    By Brian Seibert
    Aug. 27, 2019

    The middle of August in New York usually means slim pickings for dance. So the debuts of two ballet companies at Lincoln Center on two consecutive August weekends would have stood out, even if the companies had not both been Chinese.

    But they were: Guangzhou Ballet and Liaoning Ballet. This intrigued me and also made me wary. The Chinese ballet productions that have appeared at David H. Koch Theater in recent years have struck me as awfully high in melodrama and kitsch, conflating ballet with acrobatics, the choreography and music mired in formulas and clichés both Western and Chinese.

    But then, in early August, the Chinese dance-theater production “Under Siege” came to the Koch, as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival. This wasn’t ballet, and it certainly had elements of kitsch and cliché, but its use of several Chinese traditions — high-level martial arts, borrowings from Beijing Opera, virtuosic pipa players — was freshly entertaining. Its modern, semi-Westernized adaptation of an ancient Chinese story basically worked.

    Buoyed by this example, I gave the Guangzhou and Liaoning companies a try, only to get another surprise: the high level of competence of both companies. And yet there was also a dispiriting sense of the familiar.

    Anyone expecting ballet-as-usual might have been happy with the performances. Anyone hoping for something fresh and different in a visiting troupe — something revelatory or challenging, even a cultural clash — was bound to be disappointed.

    With “Mulan,” the Liaoning company, founded in 1980, came closest to earlier Chinese ballet productions seen here. Even if you didn’t know the story of the young woman who pretends to be a man so that she can take her aging father’s place in the army — a legend familiar to global audiences through the 1998 Disney animated film — you could easily follow it in this clear, smooth telling. (The ballet travels to Washington in September.)

    Clear, smooth and dull. The choreographers, Chen Huifen and Wang Yong, adapt ballet conventions in a nearly rote fashion. When Mulan is homesick, she watches a flock of wild geese — a female corps de ballet doing stock ballet-bird moves. In the midst of battle, she tosses off a string of whip-around fouetté turns as if she were the Black Swan in “Swan Lake.” Not every Chinese company needs the martial-arts flair of “Under Siege,” but this medium-paced melee was a letdown, hampered by the wrong conventions.


    Guangzhou Ballet performing “Goddess of the Luo River,” based on a Chinese legend about nature and transformation.Credit Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times

    Adhering to ballet convention almost seemed to be the goal. It was the overt intention of Liaoning’s other program. The first half was standard gala fare — duets from “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker,” the “Le Corsaire” pas de trois — and the performances were committed, careful, entirely respectable.

    The second half was a different set of conventions, all up-to-date. Some pieces were by European choreographers: Marc Ribaud (French); Rui Lopes Graca (Portuguese). Some were by Chinese dance-makers: Fei Bo, the resident choreographer of the National Ballet of China; Wang Yuanyuan, the founding director of Beijing Dance Theater. Except for some terrible music, nothing was especially good or bad or particularly Chinese, though it all gave the dancers a chance to display their proficiency in the undulant noodling, hyperextension and cool attitudes of worldwide contemporary International style.

    The situation was similar with the Guangzhou troupe, founded in 1993. In “Goddess of the Luo River,” the Canadian choreographer Peter Quanz referred to another Chinese legend, a story of nature and transformation. But what it looked like was a decent pastiche of a George Balanchine mode: daisy chains and pretty formations suggesting water and the separation of two lovers, all carefully matched to the music (a saccharine violin concerto by Du Mingxin).

    In “Carmina Burana,” by Jiang Qi, who was born and trained in China but has spent much of his career in Utah and Cincinnati, the music was Carl Orff’s medieval-inspired cantata, interpreted as an odd sort of Rite of Spring, the sacrifice to placate Nature somehow mixed up with drunk soldiers and temptresses, teenage romance and boyfriend-stealing. There were lots of steps and little sense.


    Zhang Haidong, left, and Yu Chuanya in the Liaoning company’s “Mulan.”Credit Li Mingming

    Was this a “bridge between Western and Eastern cultures,” as the program claimed? Was any of this what the Liaoning program called “ballet art pieces of Chinese characteristics?” Was there much Chinese about these ballets besides the dancers performing them?

    Only on the surface. There need not be, of course. Ballet is an international language. Danes have made great ballets out of Hans Christian Andersen stories, just as Americans have made ballets about cowboys or sailors on shore leave in New York, but choreographers all over the world have furthered classicism and modernism in directions not so obviously connected to national style. A Chinese troupe might make a great work about, say, 17th-century France or transform the classical language in some pathbreaking way.

    Mainly, the performances by the Guangzhou and Liaoning troupes were mediocre, at the level of good regional groups from countries with much longer histories of ballet. That is its own accomplishment. If you lived in the city of Guangzhou or the province of Liaoning, and these were your local ballet companies, you could be proud. And if you live in the United States, and it means something to you to see Chinese dancers doing ballet well, these companies can serve that purpose just fine.
    THREADS
    Ballet fu
    Mulan
    Gene Ching
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  9. #54
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    First forum review for Matchless Mulan

    It’s okay. Lots of sanguineous battles. Flying blood spraying bodies. I’ve done some weighted spear training where lifting 30 pounds by the tip is tough - no way you could flip a full grown man in full armor like they do in this...a lot. Movie fu physics. There’s an early long take village scene that snuck up on me. The lead is good - better than Crystal was but not as good as Vicky. Mulan’s comrades are amusing. Tuvan throat singing worked. Ended with an Alamo siege. Might’ve tripped some horses to get those calls.
    Lots of sword fights, spear fights, long axe fights and archery.

    I forgot to add Matchless Mulan to our general Mulan thread. Copying now.
    Gene Ching
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  10. #55
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    Kung Fu Mulan

    #Showbiz: China to release its own animated 'Kung Fu Mulan'
    Dennis Chua 10 hrs ago

    Provided by New Straits Times Kung Fu Mulan poster
    KUALA LUMPUR: Recently, Disney's live-action remake of Mulan came under fire for working with the authorities in the Xinjiang province, where ethnic Uighurs have faced human rights abuses from the Chinese government.

    Soon after, China banned its media outlets from reporting on the new movie, which has been a box office flop in the country.

    Entertainment portal JayneStars reported on Monday that China had come up with its own "answer" to the Disney movie, Kung Fu Mulan which will premiere on Oct 3 to mark the People's Republic's National Day.

    Kung Fu Mulan, an animated film, has been touted as "the most realistic portrayal of China and Mulan" and this powerful statement has been printed on its promotional poster which shows a back view of the legendary woman warrior Fa Mulan as she faces off an army of Mongolian invaders.

    The poster, which also carries the slogan "Real China, Real Mulan" displays the Chinese production team's confidence in conveying the true spirit of Mulan and alluded to Disney's poor job on the Mulan remake.

    The animated film which has been in the works for the past five years is specially catered to Chinese audiences.

    It seeks to deliver a profound message on the importance of three Confucian virtues, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness.

    Knowing that viewers want more than just a tale of a woman who disguises as a man, Kung Fu Mulan's sentimental storytelling of love and sacrifice evokes patriotism during China's main national holiday.

    Mulan's personality is different from the Disney adaptations. She is a more multi-dimensional character, but no less brave, smart and heroic than her Disney versions.

    Disney's first Mulan, an animated film was screened in 1998, and the heroine was voiced by Ming-Na Wen of Agents of SHIELD fame. It earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.

    Disney's second Mulan, a live action film loosely based on the 1998 film, premiered on Sept 4.

    Directed by Niki Caro, it stars Crystal Liu Yifei as Mulan, with Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Gong Li and Jet Li as major characters.

    Mulan is based on the legend of a female warrior who lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasties era from the 4th to 6th centuries AD.

    She took her father's place in the army by disguising herself as a man and proved to be a brave and brilliant military strategist.
    Threads
    Mulan
    Kung Fu Mulan
    Mulan-(2020)
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  11. #56
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    Mulan

    China Announces It’s Making New ‘Fight Mulan’ Film After Disney’s Flop

    BY RYAN GENERAL
    DECEMBER 17, 2020
    1 MINUTE READ

    A new Mulan film is currently in the works in China and it’s already getting fans excited online.


    Battle ready: The movie, titled “Fight Mulan” (战斗吧木兰), features Chinese actress Yang Ning playing the iconic female warrior, reports Mothership.



    “Fight Mulan” started filming on Aug. 31 and is scheduled for release on Oct. 5, 2021.
    Not much else is known about the movie but it already has fans talking after a poster and stills from the film emerged on social media.



    Many users expressed hope that the upcoming film would do the character and her story better justice than the most recent release from Disney.
    Others pointed to another Chinese-made Mulan film released in 2009, which starred popular actress Zhao Wei.
    Disney’s flop: Made with a $200 million budget, the live-action version Disney released in September failed to connect with the global audience, barely making $67 million worldwide.

    In China, where the film made over $40 million, it was heavily criticized for its acting, plot and inaccuracies.
    The film was at least a success for Disney+, which attracted new subscribers, with some 100,000 people paying an additional $30 to access the film.
    A Chinese-made animated film about Mulan titled “Kung Fu Mulan” also failed to impress viewers in China and was pulled from theaters just three days after release, as NextShark previously reported.
    Feature Image via Channel Fight and Lady Metro
    Threads
    Fight Mulan
    Mulan (2020)
    Mulan
    Kung Fu Mulan
    Gene Ching
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  12. #57
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    Fu Jiayuan

    China: Teenager apologises for impersonating boy to join band
    Published16 minutes ago


    IMAGE SOURCE,WEIBO
    Fu Jiayuan said she would quit the entertainment industry

    A young girl in China has apologised for "deceiving fans" for trying to join a boy band.

    Fu Jiayuan, 13, said she lied about her gender to a popular management company because she was "young and ignorant".

    Even though she was only part of YGN Youth Club's boot camp, and not an official band member, fans could watch her training videos on social media.

    Ms Fu was forced to speak up after a netizen pointed out that she was in fact a girl.

    YGN Youth Club only recruit young boys, most of whom are aged between 11 and 13. A challenging training programme trains them in song and dance and moulds them into future idols.

    The company said the mistake had been made because auditions for recruitment had been made online due to the pandemic.

    "Our staff were negligent in the work process... In the future, we will adhere strictly to the company's rules and regulations," it said in a statement.

    However, many on social media were amused by the revelation, and jokingly compared Ms Fu to the Chinese folk heroine Mulan.

    According to legend, Mulan was a young woman who disguised herself as a man so she could fight to save her family and country. The story is known globally after it was turned into a Disney film.

    Some social media users said that the incident was "not a big deal".


    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
    Boy bands are a massive industry in China

    "The look of idol groups is so androgynous these days, so it's hard to tell. Just let her join," a comment with one of the most likes said on microblogging platform Weibo.

    But in her apology note on Weibo, which was posted earlier this week, Ms Fu vowed to quit entertainment forever.

    "I'm sorry to everyone who put their trust in me. I promise I will not show up in the entertainment industry or on any video platforms in the future," she said.

    Companies like YGN Youth Club are widely sought after because families view it as a chance to see their children become rich and famous.

    A study titled the "White paper on idol industry and fan economy in 2019" estimated that China's idol market would reach 100 billion Yuan ($15b; £11b) by 2020.

    TFBoys, for example, which made their showbiz debut in 2013 when its members were 12 and 13, have since become big household names.

    But these management companies have been met with controversy, and criticised for taking advantage of young children for commercial use.

    This comes as China has ramped up its crackdown on the entertainment industry in recent months, including on "effeminate" styles and "vulgar influencers".
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    Mulan
    Sissy-Men
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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