EXCLUSIVE: Actress Liu Yifei on Mulan's unspeakable belief and strength

StarLifestyle was in New Zealand on location to visit the set of 'Mulan' and speak to its star, Liu Yifei.

Mulan is sitting in a van, wrapped in a thick winter jacket, glad to be out of the cold New Zealand wind, for a while at least.

Huddled together with Mulan (or rather, Liu Yifei, the actress playing her) on that day in September 2018, was a group of international journalists who had been waiting almost all day to meet her. But in hindsight, that wait pales in comparison with the wait we’ve had to endure for the movie itself to be released.

This is a story two years in the making. Well, not the original story of Fa Mulan, of course – the Chinese legend of the filial daughter who takes her father’s place as a soldier in the army is hundreds of years old. Heck, even Walt Disney’s animated adaptation of Mulan is 22 years old this year.

No, this is the story of the live-action remake of the animated film, which began filming in 2018 in New Zealand and was scheduled to be released earlier this year. However, the Covid-19 pandemic had other plans, and with cinemas worldwide shuttered, the movie has suffered delay after delay, and, there were doubts about whether the movie would even be able to make it to cinemas or not.

Thankfully, the movie finally opens in Malaysian cinemas today, so we can finally see the final product. StarLifestyle was on set in New Zealand back in 2018 to talk to some of the cast and crew of the movie, and while much has changed since then, there is still plenty to talk about.

Don't expect Mulan to be breaking out in song during the movie.

Let’s get down to business

“Sigh, you’re going to ask about Mushu, aren’t you?” says producer Jason Reed with a fake groan when asked what he had to leave out of the movie.

Indeed, much has been said about how this version of Mulan is not going to be a shot-for-shot remake like many of the other live-action remakes of Disney’s popular animated features such as Aladdin, Beauty And The Beast and The Lion King.

For one, Eddie Murphy’s tiny wise-cracking dragon won’t be featuring at all.

“Mushu is a beloved character, but it turns out that maybe that’s not the most culturally appropriate way to represent a dragon in this culture, ” Reed explains during an interview on set. “We do have fantastical elements connected to traditional Chinese mythology, but Mushu will live only in animation for now.”

Great pains were taken to make sure the costumes and sets were culturally appropriate.

One of these “fantastical elements” is played by Chinese actress Gong Li, whose character Xian Lang is a sorceress aligned to Jason Scott Lee’s villain, Bori Khan.

According to Reed, this emphasis on cultural accuracy extends to the rest of the movie. “We had military historians, cultural historians, architectural historians we researched extensively through all our departments, ” he said.

“One thing that kept coming back to us was that the treatment of the Emperor in the original was not accurate or respectful, so we’ve changed that and made sure that the proper treatment is given to the Emperor (who is played by Jet Li in the movie).”

Na, Donnie Yen won't be singing "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" here either.

If you were hoping to hear Liu performing the Reflection song or Donnie Yen’s Commander Tung singing about making men out of his recruits, then you’ll be sorely disappointed. While Reed says the tunes will still play an important role in the movie (he even refers to the training camp scene as the “Make A Man Out Of You scene”), you won’t be seeing the actors breaking out into song anytime soon.

“Many of the songs you loved from the original will be present in this movie. We will have the songs in the movie, but it’s not going to be a traditional ‘break into song’ kind of musical. The music will still play a prominent part, ” he said.

Producer Reed says that Liu Yifei was the "great discovery" of the film.

Bringing honour to us all

But for all the changes they have made, the main story of Mulan remains, and according to Reed, their lead actress was the “great discovery” of the movie.

“Yifei is very smart and thoughtful, and talented, but what’s really impressive was that she has this determination, a fierceness of spirit that really is the story we are trying to tell, ” he said.

“She has been unbelievable – no one works as hard as she does, no one trains as hard as she does, no one works as many days she is indefatigable, and she’s had such a great attitude about it.”

Being an actress really helped Liu answer the question of who she really is.

That brings us back to Liu herself, sitting in that van. In person, she is soft-spoken, a little shy perhaps, but there is a quiet determination in her eyes, which light up every time she talks about her character and what Mulan means to her, personally.

“All the love people have for Mulan is wonderful, but it’s also important to know who I am too. It comes back to being your very true self and believing in it, ” she said.

“The choices we take really make who we are, and the faith in ourselves is what sets how far we can go. So with Mulan, it’s about the conscious choices she makes, which is really inspiring for young girls, no matter what age you are and what you do.”

Liu went on to explain that being an actress really helped her answer the question of who she really is.

“I just love to act! I love being an actress. Every journey for me is brand new. For this, I did three months of training, and I really loved it. I got some muscles but it’s not extreme!” she said, laughing.

Liu doesn't overthink situations like the ones where Mulan has to dress up as a man and go to war.

For more dramatic scenes like the one where Mulan disguises herself as a man to join the army, Liu went with her instinct.

“I don’t want to overthink it too much. What I do is try to put myself in those circumstances and see how it feels, ” she said. “(What Mulan goes through) is a very extreme situation, where every step is so dangerous and impossible. But she makes it, and enjoys it, and it became a whole other experience for her.”

Ultimately, Liu reckons that the spirit of Mulan is the simpleness of the story and the character’s belief.

“The spirit of Mulan is her unspeakable belief and strength. This part inspires me. If I were to tell girls what Mulan means, it would be, ‘Be yourself!’”