“The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.”
Disney has heard your wishes and cast Cfensi’s top choice for Mulan.
Hollywood Reporter reported that Crystal Liu Yifei has been cast as Disney’s Mulan. The film is directed by Niko Caro and set for a 2019 release. Liu Yifei is one of the most famous young actress in China, and is known for her graceful martial arts roles. Based on the casting calls, she will likely speak Chinese for a Chinese version and English for the English-speaking audience. The plot has been significantly changed, most significantly cutting out Mushu, replacing Shang with a fellow soldier, and resetting the story in the Tang dynasty.
I’m so happy for her and for the audience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cool Liu Yifei as Mulan poster found online. cr:???
I like the casting! Even though I like the other actresses mentioned here, I still like LYF being cast … I’m not her fan but I watched a few of her movies. She’s not the best out there but sometimes even her experienced (or ‘better’) male leads are not the best in the movies.. But for a Disney character, she’s hopefully not going to be bad because most of their live adaptations are not meant to be outstanding emotional performances (both Cinderella & Beauty & the beast were rather similar to the animated ones)..they banked a lot on our childhood fantasies/movies whilst throwing ‘messages of empowerment’ through the promos and in the film..And well, I quite like that she’s slender (but not exceedingly thin at the moment.. unlike a lot of c-actresses); she’s Chinese (so MAJOR props for that) and despite being beautiful, she looks really approachable (?)(nini is stunningly beautiful; there’s something in her that screams different beauty and would make her stand out anywhere?)..LYF kind of fits the bill for this average, yet beautiful Disney heroine..as for those more sceptical about her acting chops (you make me wary of watching Roch/her other movies), what do you expect about the Disney adaptations in general (Beyond the cast)? I quite like Emma Watson, but I was unable to of the adaptation as anything other than a real person play-out of the very simplified and childish cartoon..:)
LOL i probs am a bit too sleepy to make sense..
Since they’ve cast Liu Yifei, a lot of people are guessing they’ll cast a high-profile Chinese American (or Chinese-Canadian, British, etc.) for the male lead, too.
Shawn Dou? Wang Leehom? Aarif Lee? Maybe even our own rising superhero Lin Ludi?
I’m not a super fan of Liu Yifei but I’ve liked her since her turn as Xiao Longnu in ROCH 2006. Honestly, I would have liked to see Ni Ni, Liu Shishi, Zhao Liying and other Chinese actresses as Mulan too. I do think they’ve got stronger acting chop than LYF.
So I guess you can take my comments with a pinch of salt, but objectively speaking.. I don’t think it could have been anyone else but Liu Yifei..
1. Zhang Ziyi, Fan Bingbing, Li Bingbing, Zhao Wei and all the other older generation actresses are way too established/old/well-known to be cast as Mulan. And considering their star power, I’m guessing if they’d cast any one of these A-listers, they’d blow their budget. Liu Yifei is … established and a known figure but I think…. not as famous as these A-listers.
2. I don’t think that Chinese netizens would have been really happy if someone who is not ethnically Chinese had been cast as Mulan.. who is just such an important historical and cultural figure….
3. English. Mulan must be able to speak English fluently.. so that really narrowed the range a lot. Ni Ni and Jing Tian and other actresses can speak English fluently too.. but that brings me to my next point.
4. Fanbase and box office power. I think the size of Liu Yifei’s fanbase is a huge plus point ….which means.. box office profits would be pretty sweet. Not that convinced of the size of the other
actresses’ international fanbases.
5. She does seem a bit wooden in many of her roles.. but it’s pretty obvious she’s trying. And as bad as the movie version of 3L3W was.. she was pretty good at portraying Bai Qian’s drunken grief.. so that’s like a tiny breakthrough for LYF in years. Hopefully Niki Caro is a good director.
And please let there be CHEMISTRY between LYF and the male lead haha..
Okay I’m done speculating. LOL. Just my opinions. Please feel free to tell me I’m spouting nonsense.
I really, really wanted Ni Ni for this. I e-mailed and snail-mailed pictures of Ni Ni to both the casting agency and the director. I think Ni Ni’s face is perfect, and I loved Ni Ni’s acting even in all the rom-coms that douban hated.
Liu Yifei has had a really bad streak of late, but I think people forget that a lot of acting is based on directing, and Liu Yifei’s acting isn’t un-directable (unlike some of her costars who shall not be named). She’s put out good roles before, and I don’t doubt she can do it again with the right script and director.
WHOA was not expecting this at all. Pleasantly surprised that we got an actual Chinese actress, but I’m not sure if LYF has the acting chops to pull this off. But I’ll definitely go watch it.
This is surprising to say the least. I was really hoping they’d get an Asian American who could really use this exposure. LYF is beautiful but imagining her as Mulan just makes Mulan look too soft and weak in my mind. I honestly don’t believe for a second that out of thousands of auditions, they really couldn’t find anybody better. Zhang Ziyi and Tang Wei, despite being older than the required age of Mulan, would even be better candidates because I think they’d be able to act out the ruggedness and toughness that is essential to Mulan’s character. My hopes for this movie just went downhill real fast.
LYF is Asian American, and she has no exposure outside of East Asia. Her US passport is part of the reason why she’s cast in a lot of coproductions. I actually wonder if part of the reason why they cast her over other Chinese actresses is because she’s American, so they wouldn’t have to deal with visa issues and more importantly union complaints.
I was thinking about this too.. idarklight, do you have any idea if there any major Chinese investors or production companies involved in this?
Not that I know of. I don’t think Disney would want outside investment.
Bill Kong, producer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Monster Hunt is the exec producer for Mulan.
absolutely best choice for this role
I agree with Dee, LYF is gorgeous but that’s about it…none of the characters she’s played have ever really caught my interest. I was really hoping for Ni Ni to be cast–she is a fantastic actress and totally looks the part (just looking at her stills in Rise of the Phoenixes, I think she is the best I’ve ever seen of a girl cross-dressing as a man in an ancient series). Oh well, I’m still looking forward to live-action Mulan and hope it delivers!
I think she’ll do fine with a good director and voice coach. Her baseline acting imo is about the same as Gal Gadot, and Gal Gadot shined in her role thanks to a good director.
Feng Shaofeng and Liu Yifei both gave their best performance in White Vengeance. I highly recommend it, especially for Feng Shaofeng.
I actually have watched White Vengeance. I was impressed by FSF (I didn’t think he could pull off that character before I watched the movie) but LYF felt like her usual vase role. By no means am i saying she was bad–I have no criticisms against her acting in that movie. But she’s just not that captivating or memorable, and I usually don’t feel all that much chemistry between her and her costars.
Hope you’re right though and a good director will help her bring out the character.
you share the same opinion as me. honestly i also thought of ni ni – she’s freaking gorgeous but at the same time, has a certain toughness in her look.
Not a big fan of her. Wish they would have cast someone else. Sure she got the looks but acting wise I feel like she’s lacking. Every time I watch her drama I can’t feel her emotions or I can’t feel her being out her character, it just feel one dimensional. Sorry to offend her fans.