made Chinese audiences wait for the live-action version of " Hua Mulan " for more than half a year, and
is finally coming.
A week ago, "Mulan" was launched on overseas streaming media,
scored acceptable online,
rotten tomato freshness 81%, with an average score of 7.05,
ranked among the top three in the history of Disney's live-action film adaptation.
Freshness of rotten tomatoes: 81%
Douban score: 4.7
However, the score of "Mulan" on Douban continues to decline, and various complaints on
social media are endless. The most commented Chinese netizens after watching the movie is:
expects more The greater the disappointment. What happened to "Mulan"
?
Has the foreigner filmed "Chinese style" and overturned again?
At the end of August, an exclusive video interviewed the "first Chinese princess" Liu Yifei,
learned many behind-the-scenes stories of "Mulan".
Written by Lu Yuhan
The fate of "Mulan" in the domestic word-of-mouth hit the street, the first signs of the trailer first came out. In the
trailer, Liu Yifei is wearing brightly colored clothes, with thick and white makeup, thick and thick eyebrows, and red lips. There are large patches of yellow paint on the forehead with red flowers, and the cheeks are also Wearing a blockbuster blush-such a symbolic makeup and appearance, really annoyed the Chinese audience.
On September 7, the topic of "Mulan makeup" appeared on Weibo's hot search. Not only Liu Yifei's makeup was complained, but also the look of the villain Fairy played by Gong Li also caused dissatisfaction. A history blogger described the makeup of the maidservant in the film as a "monster and ghost" and received more than 200,000 likes.
Liu Yifei and Gong Li's modeling in "Mulan"
was released on Disney+, netizens pointed out more details that were not in line with historical facts. "Mulan Poem" was created in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Hua Mulan should have come from the Central Plains, but the movie arranged for her to live in a Tulou in Fujian.
When Mulan paid her ancestors farewell in the ancestral hall, the ancestral hall was full of red lanterns. After joining the army, two door gods stood at the entrance of the barracks. At the entrance of the emperor’s palace, there is a row of stone lions...
Everything makes people wonder, did the crew mix all the elements they thought had Chinese characteristics?
Fujian Tulou
"Hanging the Red Lantern" ancestral hall
Previously, Asian elements in Hollywood movies were often criticized as Westerners’ stereotypes of Asians, not to mention that a movie like "Mulan" was completely based on ancient China. As background movie. The couplets that appeared in the
movie were discovered by netizens as "May all lovers in the world become family members" and "May all family members in the world be lovers". Of the finalized posters of various countries, only the mainland China version is the ugliest, and it is like the earthy aesthetic of 20 years ago by netizens. A Douban netizen even commented: "It is really the most stupid decision in Chinese film history to let foreigners film the history of our country." The couplet behind
Shanglian: May all lovers in the world finally get married. My lover
is a bit sour. "Mulan" is by far the most expensive female director film to produce. The estimated cost is as high as 200 million US dollars, which is almost as expensive as the blockbuster film "Creed" currently being released. Among the films of this theme and production scale, this is also the only film that is completely dominated by women. It is said that it fits well with a female theme like Hua Mulan.
However, it has not yet been officially released, and has already been criticized. Is "Mulan" wronged?
Casting is actually not a problem.
When interviewed by an article, Liu Yifei wore a half-ball head and a denim jacket, looking youthful and energetic. In the "Mulan" movie, she wears long hair, wears armor and holds a spear most of the time.
and the current oneThe sound of the film is different. When Disney just announced that Liu Yifei will play Mulan, it almost won the recognition of the Chinese audience. Some people even replied under the official announcement on Weibo: “It can almost be said that this is the only comment that is very good, and I believe it is not the news of the accusation.” In the past, Chinese faces recognized by the West were often not seen by the Chinese. But this time, China and the West reached a consensus. With a face of oriental beauty, a cool and unrestrained temperament, coupled with rich experience in costume martial arts, Liu Yifei has become the best candidate for Hua Mulan.
Actually, Hua Mulan’s casting has been selected all over the world for a year, but the director still has not found a suitable actor. As a result, they recovered the actors who missed the first round of casting for various reasons, and Liu Yifei was one of them.
director Nikki Caro used the word "cruel" to describe the audition process.
Liu Yifei took a flight from Beijing to Los Angeles the previous night. She did not sleep all night during the 14-hour journey. Almost after getting off the plane, Liu Yifei went straight to the audition site and started two hours of intense interview and audition. After the basic line audition, the director hired a fitness coach and asked Liu Yifei to take a 90-minute fitness test.
Liu Yifei had three months of physical training before the shooting started.
Nikki said with a little guilt that she could see that Liu Yifei was already tired, but during the whole process, she never complained or shouted once. Tired, this made Nikki firmly believe that this is the "Mulan" she was looking for-not only an excellent actor, but also a fighter who can fight alongside her.
However, after casting the cast, the bigger problem is how to use Western narrative methods to tell a traditional Chinese story.
Liu Yifei and director Nikki Carlo
are Disney princesses or Chinese princesses?
In 1998, Disney put the story of Mulan on the big screen in the form of animation. This may be the earliest cultural output of Chinese classical culture on the Western big screen. Since then, there has been a princess belonging to China in the Disney Princess Pedigree.
However, it now appears that this Chinese princess is not "China".
is like Disney self-deprecating, all Disney princesses have something in common, and Mulan is no exception. She has a lucky cricket, a magic dragon who can breathe fire, and finally fell in love with her general.
The animated version of "Mulan" 1998
In addition to the character settings, the animated version of "Mulan" has many plots that are not in line with Chinese traditions: a woman has to pass a lady exam before a matchmaker is willing to be a matchmaker, and a man speaks without a woman to intervene. , The lyrics sang "Marrying a good person will make my family glorious", Mulan finally invited General Li "Would you like to stay for dinner?"...It is completely the expression of Western dating culture.
However, the cartoon images in the animation conceal these discordant elements: we see this movie as a cartoon, rather than a historical blockbuster with ancient Chinese legends. Therefore, we successfully accepted that the Chinese character speaks English, and Hua Mulan received magical help at the critical moment.
adapts from the animated version to the live-action version. Disney’s masterpiece is to "try to be as faithful as possible to the original version", as is true for "Cinderella" and "The Lion King." "Mulan" is of course no exception.
turned out to be a big problem.
Watching cartoons, we allow moderate exaggeration and abstract refinement, but watching real people, especially historical legends like Hua Mulan, Chinese audiences will unconsciously use the standard of "conforming to historical facts" to measure.
such as Mulan's makeup. In fact, it is a restoration of the animation modeling, but it is particularly against the real person. The makeup of
is transplanted to the face of a real person, which violates
and is like magic. Because it digressed too far, Disney deleted the role of the magic dragon, but the magic element was still retained, because "How can it be considered a Disney movie without miracles and magic?"
But in the eyes of Chinese audiences, there are real people with magic Mulan, how do you return it?Can it be regarded as "Mulan"?
In fact, in order to "close to history", the Disney team has also made a lot of efforts. Grant Major, the art director of "Mulan", is the art director of the trilogy of the movie "Dragon Valley", "King Kong" and "The Lord of the Rings", and has won the Oscar for best art direction. For this film, he spared no effort to study the design characteristics of the past dynasties in China, with special reference to the Tang Dynasty elements from 618 AD to 907 AD.
Capital City
military camp, transformed from a real camp in 700 AD into the costume design of
film, Pena Degler and styling design Dennis King are the first time to participate in the film production of Chinese elements. In order to get as close to ancient Chinese clothing as possible, Daigle specially came to China to conduct research, communicate with experts, go to museums, and learn from reference books. The stylist Dennis King carefully studied Chinese history through paintings, brocades and sculptures of the time. The shape of the past.
What Daegler likes most is the set of women's clothing worn by Mulan at the beginning of the movie-a lavender silk skirt dotted with bright pink, and a phoenix pattern embroidered on the belt, symbolizing the power of women. A magnolia flower is sewn on the inner lining, which appears repeatedly in the design as an iconic pattern of magnolia.
"Yifei fits the line of this skirt very well. This skirt highlights Mulan's feminine beauty. This is very important because she will wear men's clothing in the next part of the film. This design will enhance the contrast between the two images. "Degler explained.
It is a pity that such a costly design does not appeal to domestic audiences: the set that Grant is proud of has been criticized as a random mix of historical elements. Degler's favorite clothing was criticized for being too vulgar in color. The makeup that Dennis worked so hard to design was criticized for being too earthy. Even the heroine Liu Yifei, who was highly anticipated at the beginning, was nothing but "beauty".
was complained about the colorful costume modeling
Hollywood's imagination of China is still stuck in the era of "high red lanterns". The aesthetic orientation of our audience has evolved to the level of "Strategy of Yanxi Palace", "Twelve Hours of Chang'an", and "Celebrating More Than Years". Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why "Mulan" has been ridiculed by the masses in the country after working hard and blood.
Disney is doing something to please the audience?
The fate of "Mulan" is reminiscent of the movie "Golden Romance" released in 2018. It is also an Asian theme. It is also popular and popular in the US market, but in the domestic market, it is both popular at the box office.
In the "Film Criticism Today" program, the film critic Zhou Liming commented on the marketing strategy of "Mulan", including the fixed posters that were spit out "ugly to the point". Zhou Liming believes that the poster is a means of propaganda, the purpose is to let everyone see the familiar faces of the actors, "I know a lot of big stars, I went to see it, this is an effective, simple and rude thing. "
The biggest selling point of the story of "Mulan" is not the movie fans and youth in first-tier cities, but the people who watch only a few blockbuster movies a year in third- and fourth-tier cities. "If a film is bought for 1 billion or more than 2 billion, it is mainly not based on culture and youth, not on first-tier cities, but on the broad audience."
Zhou Liming further explained that "Mulan" wants to be a Chinese story. International narration. "If you want to see a Chinese narration of a Chinese story, then its positioning itself does not fit you." Some netizens believe that everyone should revise their expectations: "Don't hold Americans can take good pictures of Chinese history, as well as the Chinese people’s aesthetic expectations of serving the Tao. It’s just like a Chinese-style overhead myth."
Actually, compared with the animated version, the live-action version of "Mulan" Made innovations in concept. Whether it is the animated version or "Mulan Poetry", the foothold is still in the traditional values of loyalty and filial piety. However, the live-action movie throws the topic of "female identity awakening" more directly. This is obviously more in line with the current value orientation of modern society.
Hua Mulan and Li Xiang
To avoid the "METOO" trend, the role of Mulan’s boyfriend in the cartoon was deleted in the live-action version: because he is also the leader of Mulan, 20Watching this love scene in the next year, I can't help but feel suspected of workplace PUA.
This is why, in the eyes of ordinary foreign audiences, "Mulan" is at least a qualified blockbuster. After
"Mulan" was released, on foreign social networks, Mulan's makeup attracted netizens to imitate, and some children drew heavy makeup that was complained by domestic audiences. Wearing Mulan's clothes, they presented the classic posters. posture.
A Western audience commented that most Hollywood blockbusters are based on Western worldviews such as knight culture and Nordic mythology, while "Mulan" is based on the Eastern worldview.
"(This movie) allows us to get in touch with millennial myths and stories of other cultures. It's really cool. At this point, I like Disney." Some materials provided by
: Disney, director Nikki Carlo Instagram
