Jimmy Wong, who plays Ling in the film, talks a bit about his character and the movie in
And here's a description of some footage shown in Milan today, followed by an interview with director Niki Caro. It's from an Italian website, so I used Google translator to translate the text. There are
Niki Caro presented three clips from the film (followed by a short montage similar to the trailer).
The first is a very intimate scene between Hua Mulan (Yifei Liu) and her father Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) who is preparing to go into battle. The girl observes the father who sharpens his sword, on which the symbols representing the words Loyal, Fearless, Sincere are shown. The sick man barely holds the sword in his hand, but still expresses great dignity. Mulan claims that if she was born male, he would not have had to leave, but he reproaches her for saying she is happy with the life she has had and that Mulan's role is to honor the most important value of all: that of the family. At the end of the scene, however, we see her holding the sword and we realize that the girl is convinced that she has to intervene in some way to prevent her father from leaving (almost certainly without ever returning).
The second scene opens with a group of a hundred soldiers placed in a field, in the middle of a valley in the mountains: they are training for combat, and among them are Mulan, disguised as a male, and Chen Honghui (Yoson An). The two do not just train: they start a real fight, and every time Honghui lashes out against Mulan trying to overwhelm her, she responds with very clever moves, until you get to beat him. This intrigues everyone: very few expected such an ability from a boy apparently minute and fragile like this young soldier.
In the third scene we finally see an epic sequence of action: two armies that collide. The invaders start the attack, led by Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee), who however separates with a small garrison and is chased by Mulan and a group of other soldiers who one by one are decimated by the arrows of Khan and his. The last survivors decide to run away, while Mulan takes courage and continues the pursuit.
Niki, what was your contribution to the film? What did you feel you could add to the Mulan legend in the Chinese myth and the Disney movie myth?
The thing that surprised me most when I started working on this film is that the beloved Disney cartoon is not the original Mulan. The original Mulan appears in a Chinese ballad that was written in the sixth century. The story has been told so many times since then, generation after generation: every Chinese child knows it, and it was really interesting to think about how to translate this story for the 21st century audience into live action. Obviously I wanted to honor the animated film, but first of all I wanted to honor the ballad. And the story of Mulan herself, a girl who disguises herself as a boy. For me it was a privilege to be able to do it, my job was to make this trip real.
We have just seen a few scenes, and I was very impressed by the strength of the speechless acting, with close-ups of silent actors, especially the protagonist. You who discovered Keisha Castle-Hughes (Oscar nominee for Whale Girl) how did you get to Liu Yifei?
We have searched Mulan all over the world, we have searched everywhere, every village in China and every country in the world. A year later we still hadn't found it. It was really important to find the right one, so we started again: we went back to China and met the actresses who initially were not available on the first lap. Liu Yifei was one of them. She has always been convinced that she was born to play Mulan, and I think so too. In these first images it is fantastic, but you haven't seen anything yet, I assure you.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was produced by William Kong. It is a fundamental film for Westerners: a bridge between the tradition of martial arts films and the very large western audience. What did William Kong's involvement in Mulan entail?
Bill was the first person I spoke to about this film. He was my mentor in making this film, a real godfather. I have always loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. However, the approach was different in one fundamental aspect: I had seen the use of suspension with cables in action scenes, but for me it was very important that we did not use them. Mulan's action scenes are very realistic on a physical level (... more or less!), In line with what a girl's body can do. I can say that Liu Yifei is incredible: she has done many action scenes on her own, she knows how to ride, she is very skilled in martial arts and in the use of the sword. She is very intelligent and ... she can also sing!
We could talk for hours about the differences between the 1998 cartoon and the 2020 live action film. There are changes, for many reasons. I would like to ask you about a particular change: we won't see Mushu in the 2020 film ...
The animated film is incredible, loved by everyone. But Mushu was not faithfully reproducible in live action: it works perfectly in animation and dubbing, but our way to respect it in the best way was to leave it to animation. We aim for a more true, intimate and epic story. I really appreciate Mushu's humor, in our film we recreated humor in Mulan's "real" relationships, and obviously in situations: even just because of the strange situation of being a woman in the shoes of a man.
So what did you manage to bring the animated film into live action?
There are several things, actually. I wanted to honor animation in a number of scenes. The first is the sequence in which weddings are combined, the second ... well, I've always loved the avalanche scene in the original, and since it wasn't in the initial script I insisted on paying homage to that sequence.
Speaking of disguises: do you think a female director disguises herself as a "man" director when he shoots action scenes, or is it a cliché? Did you give vent to a part of Niki Caro that you didn't know?
Look, I think this question is also "disguised": in practice one wonders how a female director can make an action movie! And the answer, Italy, is that for me it was the most natural thing in the world. I had never shot action films before, I love it and I enjoy it very much. In most action films the approach is "what would it be cool to see on the screen?", In this film instead the action is continuously connected to Mulan's story, to her path, to her journey, and for this reason in my opinion it is more credible. And then, I can say that ... it smashes!
What would you like to say to the public with this film of yours?
On Mulan's father's sword there are 3 characters: loyal, fearless, sincere. Mulan's story shows us that she is loyal and fearless, but when she disguises herself as a man she is not sincere. When he realizes it, he understands that only by showing his identity can he prove himself truly powerful and sincere. This is the message I want to say to the world. Gong Li says in the film he says it is "impossible for a woman to lead an army of men". It's what I did, not dressing up as a man but staying a woman, and I really feel comfortable as a woman in this world.
How does it feel after days, weeks and months of work to see the result on the big screen?
When you see the movie, I want you to watch a scene carefully: at a certain point during the military training, all the young people in training are assigned a task, and nobody can do it: reach the top of the mountain by carrying buckets of water. There is a splendid steadicam shot that follows Mulan to do it, to get to the top: this was my feeling.
How come you chose to direct this remake?
I never make a movie unless I'm really convinced I'm the right person. My first film was Whale Girl, I think it has a lot in common with this film, which is like the whale girl on steroids. In that film he reflects on leadership and what qualities are needed to be a good leader. It is a message that also refers to me: what is leadership? I lead a team of 900 people, and the film proves that I was able to be a warrior and have grace ... this project allowed me to do it on a gigantic scale.
In making this film you had to approach a culture different from yours, the Chinese one. Have you prepared yourself and your team, given the importance of the cultural element?
Throughout my career I have been working on several films that were not part of my culture. I experience this as a great responsibility: my collaborators and I do very thorough research for cultural specificity. With The Girl of the Whales I learned that the more you go into the details of a culture (the Maori one, in that case), the more you go on the specific cultural, the more universal you become. In the case of Chinese culture I understood that the most important aspect is absolute devotion to one's family, which I think is also important for Italian culture.
The images can be viewed much better there.
We also don't tend to break out in song doing anything else either. It's a narrative convention, people! Just say you look down on musicals and get it over with. That's a very narrow-minded perspective that stems from the false but common preconception that musicals can't deal with serious subject matter. She's obviously oblivious to the history of musical theater. And couldn't squeeze in any of the songs in? That's such a flimsy excuse. Reflection could have easily been included and so would I'll Make a Man Out of You during the training sequence. Most of the story beats from the original are carried over to the remake. Her take on the material is not as different as she's pretending to be. At least not in the first two acts judging from the trailers.
Naturally I would agree regardless, but that was well put.