The teaser trailer for Disney’s live-action version of Mulan (1998) has arrived, giving the world its first glimpse of Chinese actress Crystal Liu Yifei portraying the good daughter who heroically transforms herself into a great warrior for her country.
The trailer, which debuted during the Women’s World Cup final game on Sunday, rather than show us the characters played by other high-profile cast members such as Donnie Yen, Jet Li or Gong Li, the teaser revolves around the two sides of Mulan, who is told by her parents about the 'excellent news' that a matchmaker has found her an auspicious match, to which she replies: “Yes, I will bring honour to us all.”
Somewhat ironically, we then hear a voice-over from Cheng Pei-pei, one of the top martial arts actresses in Chinese-language cinema, about “the qualities we see in a good wife, the qualities we see in Mulan”, as a montage of Mulan training to be a soldier and fighting on the battlefield plays.
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Notably, and disappointingly for some, there is also no sight of Mushu the wisecracking dragon in the trailer, which appears to suggest a realistic war epic is in the offing. We also aren’t hearing any of the classic songs from the animated original. Mulan's love interest Captain Li Shang was also missing, much to the disappointment of fans.
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Mulan is one of the most anticipated of Disney’s recent live-action remakes and comes after such popular films as Maleficent (loosely based on Sleeping Beauty), Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.
Directed by Niki Caro, Mulan will open in cinemas on March 27, 2020, and will be the first major Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast since Crazy Rich Asians took the American box office by storm in 2018.
Watch the first trailer of Mulan here:
(Source: Youtube and Instagram)
