has undergone three file changes, Disney decided to launch the live-action version of " Hua Mulan " on September 4th, which will be launched in advance on the Disney+ streaming media in North America.
According to the usual practice, resources will be flowed out by netizens the day it goes online. What is worrying about
is that "Mulan" still insists on theatrical release in mainland China, and the schedule is September 11. This means that before the film was opened in Mainland China, someone had seen the resource 7 days in advance.
As expected, the resources of "Mulan" have been flying all over the past two days. Unexpectedly, this Disney movie, which was built by Disney, starring Liu Yifei, Gong Li, Donnie Yen, and Jet Li, adapted from Chinese folklore, has a Douban score of only 4.7!
browse the short reviews, all in black.
said that Liu Yifei had a facial paralysis, with only one expression from beginning to end.
said that the setting is too random, and the ancestral hall is covered with red lanterns.
It is said that the supporting role is inexplicable, but there is no eagle witch in ancient China?
occasionally have a few neutral points of view, and they just exaggerate the special effects and actions .
So, is this S-rated blockbuster that Disney spent $200 million to build, really so bad? Its original intention was to pat casually, to make people laugh at it?
Today, let’s talk about this live-action version of "Mulan".
1. The cultural differences between the East and the West are the root cause of the decline in word-of-mouth.
is contrary to Douban's miserable score. After "Mulan" was launched on North American streaming media, the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes on the American website was 77%.
cannot deny that there may be Disney's public relations in this, but it also reflects that many foreigners have bought "Mulan".
may have someone to say, it is because foreigners do not understand the folklore of Mulan.
is not the case. Disney filmed an animated version of "Mulan" as early as 1998, with a Douban score of 7.8. Mulan's heroic spirit of joining the army for her father has long been engraved in the hearts of many movie fans.
12 years later, when Disney announced that it would make a live-action version. It means that it is responsible for the expectations of global movie fans, not just for Eastern audiences.
The author said so, not to make up for "Mulan". On the contrary, first introduce its background in order to find out more objectively why the Chinese audience did not pay the bill this time. In the animated version,
is filled with music passages, comedy elements and animal characters, and many of the causal transitions of the plot can be handled with ease and humor, but this time it won’t work.
The theme of the live-action version of "Mulan" has been refined into 3 words: "loyalty, courage, trueness".
To tell the truth, let the oriental audience fully understand "loyalty, courage, and truthfulness", which is a bit difficult for others. Behind this, separated by a mountain of cultural differences, how can a movie be solved.
Therefore, Disney can only do subtraction to make it simple and easy to understand, at least so that Western audiences can understand the simplest meaning. The difference in perception between the East and the West also appeared.
The live-action version of "Mulan" highlights being yourself and women awakening . This coincides with the current cultural environment of Hollywood. It can also resonate with some female audiences.
However, when the film depicts and emphasizes these two elements, there are no small problems, and it even makes people feel a little bit playful.
First of all, it made Mulan a superhero with "qi". In the
movie, the definition of a warrior depends on whether she has enough "qi". Qi is itself a concept of Eastern metaphysics. You can understand it as courage, qigong, and light work, or it can be understood as "four-two-thousand jin", or as internal force and concentration.
itself does not have a clear definition. The worst thing is that the movie didn't make it clear.
Regarding Qi, the film explains: " Qi, which pervades all living things in the universe. We are born with it, but only the most authentic person can have a deep connection with his Qi and become a great warrior . "
Isn't this a typical case of "words failing to express their meaning"?
The consequence of this is that even Eastern audiences don’t understand, so go to Post Bar and ask: "Is it the Qi of Qigong Master Wang Lin?" How can we expect Western audiences to understand what Qi is? As long as
has a deep connection with "qi", it can become the setting of a great fighter. From the script level, it is to link "loyalty, courage, and truthfulness" together. However, from the perspective of character creation, the character of Mulan has become blurred. In the animated version of
in 1998, Mulan was recognized by others through her own hard work, fighting on the battlefield by strength and winning glory for her father. In the live-action version of
in 2020, Mulan became a warrior who began to hide "qi" and then released "qi" to become a superhero. This adaptation of
smoothed out the hard work of an ordinary woman. The addition of the "qi" element is a major failure of the film, because it is essentially something similar to the "X-Men" superpower.
Secondly, a large part of the film's awakening of Mulan to do its own setting is driven by the role of a witch played by Gong Li.
The wizard played by Gong Li is a very sad woman.
is in a special status. It has no relatives and is home from all over the world. People see her like a mouse crossing the street, and everyone shouts and beats.
To some extent, she, like Mulan, desires equality and respect. What I want to convey behind this is the most prevalent feminist spirit at the moment.
On the bright side, the role of a witch enriches the film’s female perspective.
On the bad side, how could any eagle in ancient China become a witch? And her function is too strong, but it makes Mulan's transformation seem thin. In the
film, whenever Hua Mulan suspects herself and is in desperate situation, she always encounters a witch. After the two had a dispute, the witch would always cue her, "Who are you?"
finally, after a fight with the witch.
Mulan woke up from a coma, saw the words "loyal and brave" on the sword, and decided to be herself.
So, she untied her long hair, threw away her armor, and fought on the battlefield as a female "Mulan".
has to say that this "self-awakening" transformation is too reluctant and over-reliant on others . These two points of
make the core of the live-action version of "Mulan" appear rigid and thin. At the beginning of the
film, the director also arranged a section of "male rabbit's feet lingering, female rabbit eyes blurred" to move closer to "Mulan Ci". As a result, after less than 20 minutes of acting, the lips began to be wrong.
2. Disney still has the sincerity, and the cost of 200 million yuan does not want to play.
"Mulan" is the first Asian princess in the Disney movie universe.
She carries too many meanings, including the artistic, cultural, and commercial aspects.
However, as mentioned above, Disney, as an American company oriented to the global market, starts from adapting any IP so that global audiences can quickly understand its cultural connotation. In particular, it must first ensure that Western audiences can get it quickly.
Therefore, the live-action version of "Mulan" has become a movie that not only encompasses Eastern culture, but also conforms to the Western spirit.
The author would like to say that those online comments that completely deny "Mulan" are not objective.
Because Disney has positioned this project as an S-level project in 2020, with a budget of up to 200 million U.S. dollars, and global publicity is also overwhelming.
All this means that the live-action version of "Mulan" is an absolute event for Disney. If it hadn't been for the epidemic, the global local and online promotion of the film would have been more violent.
and built a real palace, controlled thousands of group performances and hundreds of horses, onlyTo make an action scene. How could such a scene be just for fun?
Let's talk about Hua Mulan's casting-Liu Yifei. Many people say that she still plays the whole film with one expression. I think it can be understood from another aspect.
In the film, Mulan has been suppressing the truth from the sadness and decisiveness of joining the army for her father in the early days, to the state of constant fear in the barracks. She hopes to achieve a certain level of calmness through restraint; through exercise, she can approach a man's tolerance. Therefore, she has been closing the show.
Judging from the feedback of many netizens, they do not buy into the performance of Tianxian. This is related to the preference and judging criteria of the performance of the audience in the East and the West. But it cannot be denied that this is also inseparable from the previous screen performance of "Sister God".
But what is certain is that Liu Yifei used all his strength this time.
has interviewed more than 1,000 actresses worldwide. Among them, well-known actresses such as Yang Caiyu and Dou Jingtong. There are two criteria for the casting team: martial arts skills and acting skills.
Finally, Liu Yifei came to the fore. And after 3 months of martial arts training, 90% of the filming was completed. Judging from the performance of the film, she did not shine, but she did not shame the Asian actors.
Read the complete article, you will find that the decline in the reputation of "Mulan" is caused by comprehensive reasons.
It made all the conceptual mistakes of "foreign speaking Chinese", but it fits the current "individual awakening" environment.
Through the film, the spirit that the main creator wants to convey is to be brave to be yourself in order to become a trader of destiny. This concept is indeed universal in the world, and it is worth encouraging. In this regard,
gave "Mulan" a score of 4.7, which is a bit unfair, it is not that bad. The mistakes it made can only show that the mountain of cultural differences is too difficult to overcome on the road of film and television.
