Interesting facts from behind the scenes of Disney's Mulan (2020)
A live-action take on Mulan has been long sought after by fans all over the world even before Disney teased its production. The well-loved tale of a young woman risking her life out of love for family has become a source of inspiration for many people, especially young women. While we wait for its theatrical release of Mulan (2020) this September, here are a couple of fun production facts to learn about the upcoming film.
1. It took a year to find Hua Mulan
Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
The creators of Mulan (2020) went on a year-long global search for Hua Mulan, the film’s lead character. It wasn’t after seeing thousands of actresses, dancers, singers and martial artists that they found Yifei Liu. According to director Niki Caro, Yifei is “definitely the only one who could have ever played Mulan.’
Yifei Liu is a Chinese-American actress who has starred in a number of notable films such as ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ alongside Jackie Chan and Jet Li, ‘Outcast’ opposite Nicolas Cage, and Chinese romantic-fantasy film called ‘Once Upon a Time’.
2. The screenplay is inspired by ‘The Ballad of Mulan’
The screenplay of this live-action film was inspired by ‘The Ballad of Mulan,’ which was written over 1500 years ago. Although the 1998 animated film of the same title also took inspiration from the original Chinese poem, the creators of Mulan (2020) wanted to combine the essential elements of the ballad and as well as the beloved Disney animation to create something new and exciting.
3. Ideation for ‘Mulan’ started back in 2015
Although filming for Mulan (2020) started back in 2018, the ideation for the film actually began five years ago. Back then, writers Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin approached producing partners Chris Bender and Jake Weiner with the idea for ‘The Ballad of Mulan’. Soon after, Disney acquired the rights to the film and production had begun.
Producer Chris Bender said, “We were excited to develop something different than the original animated film since the underlying legend has such strong themes of empowerment.” With that, we can expect this live-action film to be full of surprises!
4. Filming took place in over 20+ locations around China
Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
In an effort to avoid green-screen-built environments, director Niki Caro brought the entire production team across China to shoot the live-action film. The filmmakers wanted to remain authentic to their source material - ‘The Ballad of Mulan’ - which has been retold multiple times over centuries, passing over dynasties and locations set in North China.
Some of the locations used include the Hubei province in Central China, the Singing Sand Dunes in Mingsha Shan Desert in Xinjiang Province, Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park in North Central China, Flame Mountain, Mazar Village and Dunhuang and Jiuquan in Gansu province in the Northwest. They also filmed some studio shots in the Zhejiang province in East China.
5. Battle scenes were filmed in New Zealand
Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
While a chunk of the filming was done across China, several significant scenes in the film were actually shot in New Zealand to alleviate logistical challenges. Filming locations included Mackenzie District, Poolburn, Rangiopo, Hanua, Muriwai, Woodpile and Ahuriri Valley in South Island - which was where one of the battle scenes, involving 900 people, was filmed.
6. Stunt teams from all over the world
In order to achieve the film’s epic battle scenes, the filmmakers brought in stunt teams from all over the world - from China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, New Zealand and Australia to work with the film’s stunt coordinator and actors. With 75 days to film the movie, the actors did over three months of martial arts training in order to prepare themselves for the complex stunt sequences.
Caro said that the stunt coordinators also worked closely with kung fu masters to demonstrate the battle scenes as authentically as possible.
7. Leads had to train for a complicated Wushu sword-work for fight scenes
Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
As part of the physical training, the actors also had to learn a Wushu-style of sword-work, which is a contemporary form of Chinese martial arts. Together with the Chinese fight team, the actors trained diligently to get the fight choreography right - which even actor Jason Scott Lee, a martial artist himself, found complicated to do!
8. Over 4,000 weapons were made for the film
To meet the extraordinary standards of production, over 4,000 weapons had to be made for the film. With over 30 cast members and hundreds of extras on set, multiple variations of weapons had to be produced. For instance, the sword that Mulan takes into battle has two models - one made with a bronze handle and a steel blade with the words ‘Loyal Brave True’ etched onto it for close-up shots, and the other made of lightweight rubber weighing about 300 grams for Yifei to use in action scenes.
In addition to this, shields for the infantry, spears, bows and arrows, double-edged Jian swords, the broader Dao sword, a Kapinga dagger and fearsome daggers were also crafted for the film.
9. Thousands of costumes were created for the characters
Photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
Just as the production team did not skimp on props and weaponry, we can assure you that the costumes are just as elaborate and come by the thousands.
According to costume designer Bina Daigeler, only 40 people worked on the costumes for the film consisting of 2,062 costume items, 1,104 headwear items, 250 hats, 1,114 outfits for the extras, 590 costumes for the Imperial City scenes, 100 customers of the Tulou Village scenes, 281 sets pf Chinese army armour, 730 items of Rouran armour, plus the multiple three to five additional costumes of the 50 main characters.
10. Many musical Chinese instruments were used in the film’s score
One thing that audiences will notice is different from the animated film is that this live-action version of Mulan, is not a musical. Despite the retraction of several iconic tunes, composer Harry Gregson-Williams made sure that that the film’s score would do well to reflect the ancestry and heritage of the story they are trying to tell. In order to achieve this, the use of Chinese instruments were weaved into the full orchestral-score.
These instruments included the guzheng, a range of Chinese flutes, a pipa, a Chinese violin called erhu, and percussion instruments such as gongs, bells and cymbals.
Coming to cinemas near you soon
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