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Thread: Mulan

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    Zhao Wei = an excellent Mulan.

    IMO, Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh or Liu Yifei would not fit the role at all, esp. Yeoh, who is waaaay too old for it. I think Yeoh's 46 or 47 now... a year or two older than me, anyway. Unless the movie's about Mulan in middle age.

    In those old KF movies, I always thought it was a joke they couldn't tell a hottie from a man just because she put on men's clothes and tucked her hair in a fedora. Her voice and face would still be the same; she'd even still have makeup on! But then again, if Americans couldn't tell Clark Kent was Superman because of the suit and glasses...
    Jimbo -- you're right in that Michelle Yeoh is a bit old now, although she was great playing a disguised male in Wing Chun back in the 90's.

    I agree that the movie/comic book phenomenon where a simple clothing change or modification can fool the vast majority of the unsuspecting characters is fairly ridiculous, but it's just one of those things you have to accept -- basically you have to suspend your reality when the movie starts rolling or you could question a lot of things. Have you heard Norm MacDonalds's bit "Stan & Lois" on his Ridiculous album? It kind of deals with this a bit ... check it out here (track 6), it's good for a laugh (you can't download it for free here but you can listen to it streaming). http://www.rhapsody.com/norm-macdonald/ridiculous

    Almost forgot to mention -- I'm all for Zhao Wei as Mulan too -- she'd be perfect for that role!
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  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    For what? Were they renting locations? Hotel bills? Restaurant bills?

    Whatever it was, if a production company can't pay some villager a couple of hundred bucks to rent his field for the day then that movie is in some serious trouble.

    Also I don't understand what took two days....I would have settled that in two minutes just by saying "How much do we owe you?"
    actually, they probably just didnt want to pay them. **** happens all the time. production comnpanies are always trying to Gip people, thats the natur of the biz, how hard can i **** someone today!!!!





    Quote Originally Posted by Kansuke View Post
    You speaking from all your movie making experience, *******?

    and while boulder might have not been speaking from experience i am, your a trouble maker dude i cant stand people like you. go back to the main forum where scum like you is tolerated.

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by doug maverick View Post
    while boulder might have not been speaking from experience i am.


    Congratulations, now STFU. I wasn't talking to you.

  4. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by doug maverick View Post
    actually, they probably just didnt want to pay them. **** happens all the time. production comnpanies are always trying to Gip people, thats the natur of the biz, how hard can i **** someone today!!!!
    I actually do have a little experience here. I have several good friends in the business in Hollywood. One friend of mine is in craft service. He has never had any problems as far as getting paid.

    I also have some friends at a small independant production company called "Open Road Films". They go out of their way to make people happy especially on location.

    Maybe it's a China thing. I don't know. In any case if I'm the producer I would want the least amount of drama as possible. I certainly hope that from now on the people there require payment up front before services are rendered.

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    I actually do have a little experience here. I have several good friends in the business in Hollywood. One friend of mine is in craft service. He has never had any problems as far as getting paid.

    I also have some friends at a small independant production company called "Open Road Films". They go out of their way to make people happy especially on location.

    Maybe it's a China thing. I don't know. In any case if I'm the producer I would want the least amount of drama as possible. I certainly hope that from now on the people there require payment up front before services are rendered.
    well most production companies will pay there cast and crew. you want the people you work with to be happy. but sometimes and yes this happens in asia alot, somebody forgets to write a check. its not done on purpose, its just an HR error.

  6. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by doug maverick View Post
    well most production companies will pay there cast and crew. you want the people you work with to be happy. but sometimes and yes this happens in asia alot, somebody forgets to write a check. its not done on purpose, its just an HR error.
    Mistakes happen of course, even in this country. However the one thing for me that stood out was that if took two days to fix it. And, as you said, it sounded as if they were trying to gip them.

    Anyway it is interesting and it's got me to wondering if this is a widespread problem in China.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    Mistakes happen of course, even in this country. However the one thing for me that stood out was that if took two days to fix it. And, as you said, it sounded as if they were trying to gip them.

    Anyway it is interesting and it's got me to wondering if this is a widespread problem in China.
    it is.... production managers are always trying to cut cost, no matter what even if it means gipping people. i heard mainland stunt guys only make about 20 bucks a day, while hk stuntmen make like 200.

  8. #23
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    $20 a day is good money in China.

    Assuming a 5 day work week that's about 3200 yuan a month.

    A factory worker makes about 800 yuan per month for a 6.5 day work week.
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  9. #24
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    Vitas!

    Yea. Who is Vitas again?

    Click link for pix. But unless you're into Russian pop music, it won't help.
    Vitas guest stars in 'Mulan'

    Russian pop singer Vitas lends his voice for a guest role in the upcoming film 'Mulan' starring Zhao Wei and Chen Kun.

    He appeared in the dessert, with long, yellowish hair and a full-length ancient robe, in western China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region where the film is shooting.

    Vitas' agent told the media that the film director had planned voice dubbing for Vitas but the pop singer insisted on using his own.

    What kind of role Vitas plays in the film is still a secret. Unnamed sources revealed he plays a singer who is later captured.

    Singer Vitas has amazed Chinese fans with his signature high-pitched voice in recent years. His addition to the cast may turn out to be one of the film's highlights.

    The heroine, Mulan, is an ancient household name in China. She was a young woman who disguised herself as a man in order to take her ailing father's place in the army and went into battle around 1,500 years ago.

    Mulan came to life in Disney's animated series during the late 90s. This time director Jingle Ma Cho Shing presents a live-action Mulan portrayed by famous Chinese actress Zhao Wei.
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  10. #25
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    Opens this Friday

    ...but not in America. Just China, Singapore and Malaysia.
    Hong Kong director takes on Mulan with real actors
    By MIN LEE (AP) – 12 hours ago

    HONG KONG — More than a decade after Disney made a blockbuster animated film out of a folk tale about a young woman in ancient China who takes her father's place on the battlefield, a Hong Kong director is taking on the story of Hua Mulan with real actors.

    Jingle Ma said his live-action version of "Mulan" avoids glorifying one of China's best-known female folk heroes, instead focusing on her vulnerabilities and relationships. Ma said he delved into Mulan's trepidation when killing for the first time and confronting the death of her comrades.

    "The animated movie tells you she is cheerful. She's a little godlike in that she can solve all her problems. She can use her wits to solve many of her problems. But it doesn't discuss her deepest emotions," he said in a recent interview.

    In Ma's 115-minute movie, which opens in China, Singapore and Malaysia on Friday, gone are the goofy antics of a sidekick dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy and the smooth Broadway-style numbers performed by "Miss Saigon" star Lea Salonga, replaced with the bloody, gritty reality of war. One of the movie's shots shows Mulan, played by Chinese actress Zhao Wei, sprayed with blood on her face after killing a general from a foreign tribe invading mainland China.

    Zhao, whose credits include Stephen Chow's "Shaolin Soccer" and John Woo's historical epics "Red Cliff" and "Red Cliff II," is known for her pretty looks but also boyish demeanor that Ma says made her a good fit for the lead role. The Hong Kong director said he was looking for an actress who was athletic and well-built enough to be a credible male soldier.

    "If you put a woman with a slender face among tens of thousands of soldiers, I don't think she would have an easy time," Ma said.

    It's debated whether Hua Mulan is a historical figure. The basis of the folk story is largely a 300-word poem from the Southern and Northern dynasties (420 to 589) that gives the broad sketches of her life, leaving plenty to the imagination of the storyteller.

    Ma, who is best known for his romantic films, fills the gaps with a sentimental portrayal of Mulan. In between her brutal military campaigns, Mulan falls in love with fellow general Wentai (Chen Kun) and is devastated when she is led to believe that he died in battle. When Wentai volunteers himself as a hostage to the invading tribe so his trapped comrades can be freed, Mulan goes undercover among the enemy to rescue him.

    "Most people think Hua Mulan is a god, but I think Hua Mulan is a woman," Ma said.

    American and European distribution deals for the 80 million Chinese yuan ($12 million) production are still being negotiated.

    While Ma said he wants his movie to go global — the 1998 Disney film made more than $300 million worldwide — he said his first mission is to tell a Chinese story for the Chinese.

    "I don't know if foreign audiences will like this movie, but I want to do a good job in our domestic market first. If foreign audiences like it as well, that's a bonus for me," he said.
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  11. #26
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    I just gotta say it...

    After cross dressing in Red Cliff, Vicky Zhao Wei is the new Brigette Lin.
    This Mulan is far from Disney-esque
    BY TAY YEK KEAK

    THE last time we saw Mulan, she was a Disney cartoon character who sang cutesy love songs and who, at the end of the film, did a very untraditional thing: she hugged the emperor.

    But in her latest big-screen incarnation, Mulan, which opens today, the legendary gal-disguised- as-guy warrior is tougher and grittier than ever.

    Vicki Zhao Wei plays the fearless leader who charges at enemy forces, kills every poor sucker in her way, and heads straight for the enemy commander whom she nails ferociously with her sword. (Think Sarah Palin hunting moose, but without the helicopter.)

    Conquering army after army, Mulan is promoted to general, becoming an unlikely heroine.

    She even gives a rousing "we shall die for our country" pep talk to her troops, like Mel Gibson did in Braveheart.

    Zhao's Mulan goes teary-eyed for only two things: her boyfriend, who's a fellow general, and her dad back home, whom she thinks of wistfully from time to time.

    Jackie Chan's son, Jaycee, plays her best pal-soldier who knows her big secret of how, deep down, underneath her tough armour, she's scared of being found out. But other than that, as Zhao moves from maiden to warrior, there appears to be little that she is afraid of.

    The gender issue in Mulan brings to the forefront Chinese culture's share of iron maidens.

    And there have been more than a few.

    Perhaps that's no surprise, considering how Chinese female athletes have won more Olympic gold medals than the guys, and also Cheng Pei Pei, who made a career out of kicking butt as Golden Swallow all those years ago in old Shaw Brothers wuxia films.

    Now, some, like American magazine Bright Lights Film Journal, may argue that the Mulan legend, a revolutionary role model for Chinese women, "actually regurgitates filial piety and other outmoded Confucianisms".

    The tale, says the magazine, forces Mulan to "alternate between masculine power and female sexuality without being able to truly synthesise the two".

    Personally, I can only gauge the emancipation of Chinese women by how they are portrayed in films. And Chinese cinema has done much for the portrayal of heroines on the silver screen.

    While Audrey Hepburn was learning to speak good English in My Fair Lady (1964), Cheng Pei Pei was already readying herself for the seminal martial-arts action film, Come Drink With Me (1966).

    This was in a time, mind you, when feminism was blossoming in the West. Even then, Hollywood could only offer heroines of the James Bond kind: women who could deliver a sharp kick, but who were sexualised objects nonetheless.

    Arguably, it wasn't until Alien (1979), starring Sigourney Weaver, that the West allowed a woman to really pack a punch.

    In contrast, Chinese heroines have long been empowered with gongfu-style Fists Of Fury and Swords Of Vengeance.

    The tradition continues today.

    I instantly recall Zhang Ziyi clearing out an inn full of bandits in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2003).

    Michelle Yeoh clobbered people in her movies. Shu Qi, Karen Mok and Vicki Zhao (again) did a Charlie's Angels in So Close (2003).

    Gong Li and Zhou Xun shot daggers with their eyes in their films (don't ever mess with them).

    And Maggie Cheung as ballbreaker in a qipao in Wong Kar Wai flicks.

    Okay, so they all play to a certain stereotype, but it's one that is undoubtedly formidable.

    The Chinese Female Warrior is a scary sight to behold, and you don't need Zhao donning a suit of battle armour in Mulan to tell you this.

    But you might want to go watch the movie just to prove to yourself that I'm right.
    Wednesday November 25, 2009
    Legendary heroine
    By SETO KIT YAN

    Relive the adventures of Chinese folk heroine Mulan.

    THE story of Chinese folk heroine Hua Mulan, who enlists in the army to serve her country in place of her ailing father, is an oft-told tale that has been adapted and enjoyed in various genres.

    There are the 1964 Shaw Brothers’ huangmeidiao opera, The Lady General Hua Mulan, starring the famous gender-bending Ivy Ling Po (which earned her best actress honours at the 11th Asian Fim Festival), the Disney adaptation Mulan in 1998 and even a Chinese opera Mulan currently playing in Tokyo.

    Hong Kong director Jingle Ma says Mulan is a tale that women will enjoy.

    “It is something that they can identify with. Nowadays lots of young women go to work in the city to send money home and help to support their families. To me, these women are also like Hua Mulan,” Ma said in an exclusive phone interview from Guangzhou, China.

    Starring China actress Vicki Zhao Wei as the titular character Hua Mulan, Ma’s version of Mulan deals with her love life as much as her relationships with her fellow soldiers.
    Secret identity: Vicki Zhao Wei plays the titular role, opposite Chen Kun, in Jingle Ma-helmed Mulan, a tale that has been adapted and enjoyed in various genres.

    Ma had signed Zhao to play the legendary heroine last September and was aghast when Red Cliff Part 2 opened in December.

    Zhao, who played Princess Sun Shangxiang in John Woo’s Red Cliff (2008), also disguised herself as a male soldier in the sequel but stressed that the two are completely different.

    “It’s true that I play a female who disguises herself as a male in both films, but the similarity ends there.

    “In Red Cliff, I was essentally still playing a girl. But in Mulan, I’m actually playing the part of a man, in all aspects,” Zhao offered in an exclusive phone interview from Guang*zhou.

    “As Mulan, I had to summon enormous strength as I was required to wear a 14kg armour and wield a 2m-long spear weighing over 9kg while fighting on horseback.

    “I’ve ridden horses before but Mulan’s an accomplished general so she’s got to have suitably impressive horse-riding skills.

    “And fighting on horseback is definitely not easy to do. Also, furious sandstorms meant we’d be covered in mud and soot most of the time.

    “I, too, wish to be a woman as strong and brave as Hua Mulan. But, after playing her in this movie, I feel that all the things that she has accomplished are truly far beyond an ordinary woman’s capabilities.

    “She has to sacrifice so much for her family and never gets to lead the kind of life a normal girl would want. This, I feel, is very difficult for most ordinary women.

    “I feel very honoured to be able to play Hua Mulan, a legendary heroine known to Chinese all over the world,” declared the 33-year-old actress.

    Making Mulan was also tough for the 52-year-old Ma who admitted he was more at home filming romantic comedies and fun flicks like Summer Holiday (2000), Fly Me To Polaris (1999) and Tokyo Raiders (2000).

    Filming began in February when the weather was chilly and sandstorms were aplenty.
    Jaycee Chan and Zhao are fellow soldiers in the movie.

    “Daytime temperatures were initially -16°C to -18°C. Because it was so very cold, we initially wanted to film in Yunnan. But the scenery there was too beautiful, and hence not true to history, as the northwestern hills were supposed to be devoid of greenery.

    “So, for the sake of realism, we shifted our filming to cold locations like Hebei, Nanzhou, Yinzhou and the Mongolian border.”

    Ma cast a very interesting line-up of Chinese stars in his latest action flick. The young Mulan is played by Xu Jiao, the talented young girl who played the precocious little boy in Stephen Chow’s CJ7, for which she won best new performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards last year.

    The heroine’s dashing lover Wentai is played by Chen Kun, while her buddy Fei Xiaohu is played by Jaycee Chan. Yu Rongguang plays her father Hua Hu, while Hu Jun plays the villain Mudun. The movie also stars dreamy Russian singer Vitas and Taiwan-based South Korean R&B crooner Nicky Lee.

    “After watching Vicki in the movie, lots of my friends have commended her for her convincing portrayal. Watch it and you will say she is Hua Mulan,” Ma quipped happily.

    “I needed a Chinese woman with excellent acting skills who could internalise well. But I didn’t want one with a sharp, angular face as that would appear incongruous in a military environment.”

    What of her large doe eyes? Won’t her pretty peepers give her away, then? “That’s why I told her not to open her eyes so wide in the movie,” jested the personable cinematographer-turned-helmer.

    Born in Wuhu, Anhui, China, the actress has chalked up nine wins and six nominations at various film festivals and awards for her superb acting skills.

    Zhao, who has starred in 22 films and 13 TV series, will next be paired with Donnie Yen in Daniel Lee’s 14 Blades, which is slated for release early next year.

    Ma, who has 14 films under his belt, also disclosed he would be working on a Chinese fantasy flick ala Harry Potter titled Sun Buck Ma Leung as well as a sequel to Summer Holiday (2000), which starred Sammi Cheng and Richie Ren.

    Since the original was filmed in Pulau Redang off the coast of Terengganu, Ma says there will be a 90% chance that he will also be filming the sequel somewhere in Malaysia.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  12. #27
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    So anyone seen this yet?

    At least I know who Vitas is now.

    Trailer

    China vs. Disney: The Battle for Mulan
    By Ling Woo Liu / Hong Kong Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009

    China is moving to take back one of its own — even if it is legend. Mulan is the Middle Kingdom's gender-bending heroine, its Joan of Arc. The character from folktale is a daughter who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father's place in the conscription army. The problem for the Chinese is that, since 1998, the definitive version of the story has been Disney's.

    Indeed, because of the animated Disney film, the character Mulan has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Chinese culture worldwide. Baby girls adopted from China have been named Mulan by their American parents. Disney has staged musical versions of the movie Mulan from Mexico to the Philippines. And posing for a photo with Mulan is a must for hordes of tourists at Hong Kong Disneyland.

    Although it was too American for audiences in China (where it performed abysmally), Disney's Mulan was a smash hit in the rest of the world, where it reeled in $300 million. That didn't sit well with some Chinese, including Guo Shu, executive president of Starlight International Media Group, an entertainment company based in Beijing. "We commit ourselves to be a media with a sense of national responsibility," she told the state-run People's Daily. "Now that foreigners can produce a popular movie out of the story Hua Mulan, why can't we Chinese present its own to the world?"

    In 2006, she announced the production of a Chinese Mulan, and now that version has opened to reclaim the global Mulan-mania. On Nov. 27, the $12 million, mainland-funded live-action war epic premiered in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. It will hit screens in Hong Kong this week, and negotiations are on the table for release dates in the U.S. and Europe.

    The film's Hong Kong director, Jingle Ma, says the new 115-minute Mulan is a sweeping melodrama that depicts the central character as an action hero, dutiful daughter and wistful romantic. The film stars Vicki Zhao Wei, who shot to fame in the late 1990s playing the wide-eyed lead role in the television series Princess Pearl. Zhao may have gotten the role because of her tomboy image in action films such as Red Cliff and So Close, but in Mulan, she appears with full makeup and long, glossy fingernails — even as a soldier.

    While the Disney film wove comedy into a Disney-esque plot about a young girl breaking out of the confines of tradition to pursue her own destiny, the new Mulan focuses on patriotism, filial piety, romance and the difficulties of war. The formula is part of an evolving mainland genre that has seen filmmakers incorporating more nuanced, entertaining storytelling into patriotic plots. "China is anxious to be part of the global community. There's a lot of concern over soft power right now," says Poshek Fu, professor of cinema studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Movies are a strong projection of that desire."

    The new Mulan is at least the 10th film version of the Hua Mulan tale ("Hua" is the heroine's surname). Many of the previous films — like Mulan Joins the Army, released in 1939 in Japanese-occupied Shanghai — carried political messages during turbulent periods in the country's history. In 1956, after the Communist Party had banned American films and nationalized the country's film studios, a state-sponsored Hua Mulan was released, touting the party's egalitarian gender policy. After many Chinese filmmakers fled communist-controlled China, the Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong gave overseas Chinese audiences a vision of a unified China in its 1963 film The Lady General Hua Mulan.

    The latest Mulan is not the only post-Disney attempt to remake the folktale. In 2003, there was talk of a version starring Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat. In 2006, the Weinstein Co. announced a big-budget Mulan film that would star Zhang Ziyi. Director Ma says his version comes at just the right time. "Eleven years ago, just because someone else made this film didn't mean that we had to come back and make our version right away," he says. "It was better to wait for things to cool down before we made our own Mulan. Back then, the Chinese market wasn't mature yet, but now it's ready."

    But there's a foreign presence even in this Chinese attempt to take back its own. The Russian entertainer Vitas plays the role of a singer from a distant land held hostage by the nomadic and militant Rouran tribe, which is set on invading Chinese territory. The casting choice, Ma explained, was a simple marketing decision. Starlight International represents Vitas in China. And, who knows, the Russian actor could be key to the new Mulan's conquest of foreign audiences. Take that, Disney.
    Vicki Zhao sparks pregnancy rumours
    Posted: 03 December 2009 1326 hrs

    HONG KONG : First the marriage rumours, now comes pregnancy rumours.

    Chinese actress Vicki Zhao is five months' pregnant and in Singapore preparing for her delivery, reported Hong Kong entertainment rag Next Magazine.

    Zhao turned up for the Guangzhou premiere of her new film "Mulan" last month in a loose-fitting black dress, sparking rumours that she was pregnant.

    According to Hong Kong media reports, the actress was already pregnant then had put on 10 kilogrammes, and was using her hands to conceal her tummy the entire night.

    Her manager has refused to confirm or deny these reports, and sent an SMS to Hong Kong reporters stating that "Vicki will not talk about anything other than her work" and that she will "ignore media reports that seek to twist the truth".

    Zhao was reportedly engaged to Chinese real estate magnate Huang You Long, 30, in August this year after Huang dumped his fiancee, Miss Hong Kong 2005 winner Tracy Ip, 28, to be with her.

    A close friend of Zhao's has confirmed that the "Mulan" actress is indeed seeing Huang, but is unsure if they are married. When asked if Zhao is pregnant, said friend replied, "Impossible!"

    "Long told Vicki that he wanted her to have his child shortly after they started dating. He said they would get married once they have a kid so Vicki gave up smoking and drinking after they got together... Even then, it's a surprise that she got pregnant so soon."

    Zhao who is best known for her role in the Chinese drama serial "Princess Pearl" and the two "Red Cliff" films, was previously been linked to Chinese actor Chen Kun, Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow and Chinese table tennis player Wang Liqin.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    At least I know who Vitas is now.

    Trailer
    Sweet, thanks for the news and link Gene, looks like it could be epic.
    For whoso comes amongst many shall one day find that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all.

  14. #29
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    Meanwhile, back in the Magic Kingdom...

    Man, that's a horrid pun for an opening line, but I can see why Wren stuck with it. Once it's in your mind, you can't get it out.

    'Mulan': This girl warrior is no China doll
    By Celia Wren
    Special to The Washington Post
    Saturday, December 5, 2009

    Sometimes (apologies to Cyndi Lauper) girls just want to hack Huns. Such is the ambition of the heroine in Imagination Stage's latest children's production: "Disney's Mulan," recommended for ages 5 and up. A pleasant, colorful stage version of the popular 1998 animated flick, the musical tells how Mulan, a girl in ancient China, disguises herself as a male youth to join the Imperial Army in its war against the invading Huns.

    Okay, Mulan (the appealing and dulcet-voiced Manna Nichols) doesn't yearn to fight, per se: She aims to protect her wounded father (Keith E. Irby) -- who'd have to enlist if she didn't -- and to become the person she's meant to be, despite hidebound social traditions. With the aid of some ancestor spirits (Florrie Bagel, Mikey Cafarelli and Matt Dewberry) and an amiable if inept dragon (Toni Rae Brotons, carrying a snazzy gold mask), Mulan accomplishes both of these goals, saves China and impresses the heck out of a handsome army captain (a poised Nathaniel P. Claridad).

    Perhaps it's the long shadow cast by the eponymous media conglomerate, but "Disney's Mulan," directed by Janet Stanford, doesn't quite have the confidence and effortless wit of some past Imagination Stage shows ("Lyle the Crocodile" and many others come to mind). At the reviewed matinee performance, the swelling recorded musical accompaniment -- with its mix of quasi-Asian sounds and pop-Broadway brio -- occasionally made the lyrics hard to understand, and a bit of slapstick involving a betrothal ceremony looked labored. Still, the audience of schoolchildren was wildly enthusiastic, periodically erupting in guffaws and cheers.
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    And even a jaded critic can admire the show's charms, starting with Ethan Sinnott's evocative set, whose looming mountains recall Yangtze River gorges. Costumier Emily Vandervort supplies carnival-bright robes and kung fu suits, as well as military helmets that look particularly menacing on Hun leader Shan Yu (an enjoyably growly Ricardo Frederick Evans) and his troops.

    Complementing fight director Linden Tailor's creditable clashing-weapon battle scenes, choreographer Scott Rink supplies dance sequences that quote tai chi and stick fighting techniques. Ultimately, of course, the martial atmospherics only underscore the show's message: that brute force can't hold a candle to courage, ingenuity, integrity and love.

    Wren is a freelance writer.

    Disney's Mulan

    Music and lyrics by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, Stephen Schwartz, Jeanine Tesori and Alexa Junge; music adapted and arranged (also additional music and lyrics) by Bryan Louiselle; book adaptation and additional lyrics by Patricia Cotter, based on the 1998 Disney film "Mulan" and the story "Fa Mulan" by Robert D. San Souci. Directed by Janet Stanford; musical direction, Keith Tittermary; sound design, Chris Baine; lighting, Cory Ryan Frank. With Ayanna Hardy, Vaughn Irving and Christopher Mueller. About 95 minutes. Recommended for age 5 and up. Through Jan. 10 at Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. Call 301-280-1660 or visit http://www.imaginationstage.org.
    Gene Ching
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  15. #30
    I bought the DVD

    Love it. there are more war scenes and tactics and strategy.

    Her boyfriend the prince faked death so that she has no emotional strings.

    Depsite of being a girl, Mulan as depicted in the movie has the potential to lead

    many good teachers since youth in the village.

    she was so dehydrated with arrow wounds and she drank blood from the prince

    --

    sadness in washing the blood stained tablets

    war was not fun but great loss and a big void that would suck all of your souls and emotions

    --

    the other prince killed father to become chan yu (king of the migrant tribes)

    political marriage to have peace

    sacrifice of personal love and life to save more civilian lives

    etc etc

    A+ for the plot and messages implied and sent to the audience

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