There’s been a lot of news about Disney’s Mulan lately. The first image of Liu Yifei starring in the live action remake was released yesterday. Ling and Po have just been cast. There was also that picture of all the Disney princesses hanging out in Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2, which triggered the Internet into assuming Mulan is bisexual because she is wearing cuffed jeans, and apparently cuffed jeans are the international clothing symbol of bisexuality.
But enough about her animated counterpart — here’s everything we know already about the live-action remake of Mulan.
Liu Yifei is starring as Mulan
Thankfully, the film defied Hollywood’s usual habit of casting a white person in a non-white role. See Emma Stone in Aloha, Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell, Scarlett Johansson starring as All 12 Thai Boys And Their Coach In The Film Of Them Being Rescued From A Cave (probably). The casting team reportedly traversed a whole five (!) continents and auditioned over 1000 (!) actresses to find their Mulan. They ended up with Liu Yifei, who’s already hugely popular in China.
Two of Mulan’s three fellow army recruits have been cast
The characters Yao, Ling and Chien-Po add a dose of comic relief to the cartoon original. Now two of them have IRL iterations: Jimmy Wong will play Ling and Doua Moua will play Po. Jimmy shot to internet fame with viral video Ching Chong! Asians in the Library Song, his response to a previous video of a girl mocking Asian accents, cultures and mannerisms. He later consolidated his name in the digital realm through his role in the webseries Video Game High School. Doua’s best known for playing Spider in Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino.
It will be directed by Niki Caro
Hailing from New Zealand, Niki rose to international prominence with Whale Rider; powerful film that touches on similar themes of gender inequality. While Mulan has to dress up as man to be accepted into the army, Whale Rider traces protagonist Pai’s desire to become a Maori chief, a role not traditionally given to women in Maori culture. It proved Niki can tackle important gender issues within a delicate cultural context. We expect Mulan will be no different.
It’s being filmed in China and New Zealand
China makes sense because it’s where Mulan is set. New Zealand makes sense because it is where Caro’s from, is astonishingly beautiful and has really good tax breaks for international film productions.
Bisexual icon Li Shang won’t appear and people are sad
No cuffed jeans then I guess.
