Reaction to Liu Yifei for Disney's Live-Action Mulan : An Asian Fan's POV | #MovieMonday

No, it's not a #MusicMonday today, but a #MovieMonday! Something new and different in light of the latest casting choice from Disney that has the internet exploding: Liu YiFei, aka Crystal Liu, as Mulan in the 2019 Live-Action film. I have...a lot of emotions regarding this, but until I went on a half an hour rant to my best friend over the phone, I wasn't sure quite sure how I could go about articulating it...

Liu YiFei. Mulan. Both important points of my youth.

If you're interested in what I think, continue reading. If not...you'd better move on now, because this is going to be very long and very much in-depth. I literally have my childhood riding on this.

Without further ado, let's begin.

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My Fan-Girl Cred
I've been a fan of Liu YiFei since 2003 (yep, that many years, but has since tapered off a little), so believe me when I say that I've been following her career for a while. Here's a list of films/series that I've seen her in (so you know EXACTLY where I'm coming from, underlined are the ones I especially liked her acting in):

                                                                                                             This is the first time I saw Liu YiFei. Watched it that year.
                                                                               2003 Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龙八部, one of Liu YiFei's first films, 16 at the time)

                                                                                          2005 Chinese Paladin (仙剑奇侠传)     |     2006 The Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶)

                                2008 The Forbidden Kingdom (功夫之王, first time America really saw her)     |     2011 A Chinese Ghost Story/A Chinese Fairy Tail (倩女幽魂)

                                                                                              2014 For Love or Money (露水红颜)     |     2017 Once Upon a Time (三生三世十里桃花)

In addition, as a pre-teen/teenager, I used to collect newspaper and magazine clippings of her and listened to some of her 2006 singles when they first came out (on repeat), including "Mayonaka no door" and "放飞美丽". (yep, she sings too).

So, to say that I know more about Liu YiFei than many people in the Western Hemisphere who have shared "LIU YI FEI is the BEST MULAN" or "I'M SHOOK OVER MULAN RIGHT NOW", etc (quoting things I've seen on Twitter) isn't too far of a stretch. 

If you're reading this and happen to ALSO be a long-time fan of hers, know that I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about those that literally only heard about her when Disney made the announcement. Just so we're clear :) 
Long-time fans of Liu YiFei hopefully share my sentiments on this issue.

Quick disclaimer: I personally ENJOY wuxia style TV series, but I'll try my best to leave that bias here.

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Liu YiFei is 100% Qualified. Yes.
When it was first announced that Disney was looking for their Mulan, I immediately thought of several actresses that I've seen in US made productions before, such as Summer Glau and Jamie Chung, as they have made appearances before. They are talented actresses, have acted in American-made productions before (so they're "known"), and can obviously act in a fight scene. Unfortunately, they are NOT Chinese. So I hoped that they wouldn't make the cut. 

Then there's the obvious, Ming-Na Wen who voiced Mulan back in the day. While I didn't expect them to pick her (due to her age), I hope (and still do) that they'll maybe have her in the movie as the mom. What a great shout-out to the original that would be, right?!
By the way, here's how Ming-Na reacted to the news. Unsurprisingly, she's in full support of our girl. YES.

When I learned that Disney went through over A THOUSAND women before making their choice, I was ecstatic that they were really trying to do this right. And they landed on Liu YiFei. Here's what our girl has going for her. WITHOUT A DOUBT. 

1) She speaks English. 
Liu YiFei grew up in NY for a time, so we don't have to worry about that.

2) She's a beautiful Chinese woman. 
My idea of a good representation of some of the best natural beauty that the Chinese have to offer the world. Equal parts cute and elegant, she does NOT look 30. And if her mother is any indication, she's going to be aging VERY gracefully. Here's a picture of them from around 2005.

3) She's no stranger to fight-scenes.
Liu YiFei has had some of the best choreography given to her over the course of her career. The Forbidden Kingdom was America's first exposure of her skills, so it's no surprise that the fight scenes were some of the most loved bits from that film.

Say it with me, is she qualified to play as Mulan? 100% YES.

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America's first "big-name" exposure to Liu YiFei was in 2008 The Forbidden Kingdom (功夫之王). At the time, I was excited that she was getting exposure in the States, but after the initial excitement of having a Chinese star-studded film (e.g., Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Fan BingBing, + the then up-and-coming Liu YiFei), people kind of forgot about her and Google searches of her were either 1) the same articles or 2) Chinese articles that kept up to date on her activities. Trust me. I liked enough that I CHECKED, okay? I was Liu YiFei obsessed back in the day. You can ask my parents. 

Post-announcement, if you Google Liu YiFei, it's filled for at least the first several pages with Disney's announcement and how people are putting her on a pedestal as the "perfect Mulan". They're not wrong. She's GREAT for the role. But let's be REAL here for a second. 

Lots of these people didn't even know she existed before Disney's announcement. Where was the love for her as an actress prior to this? Is this why there weren't any other articles to be found for the past few years (unless Asian made)? "Instant stardom" for any artist is dangerous, precisely because it comes so fast and the internet is a very fickle lover. I'm very apprehensive about the kind of media that people are putting out on behalf of the Mulan casting choice, from just about every huge "viral" news page...BuzzFeed, USA Today, BBC News, Mashable...sites that are based in the Western Hemisphere for the most part and have had absolutely NO INTEREST in her as an actress till this point. 

Fortunately, they are all 100% in support of her, but looking deeper into their "support", you can tell that there is a weakness...they've seen screenshots from Chinese productions and seen her acting where she's speaking English, and ignored the one trait that has persisted through A LOT of her acting career (with good reason). 


Her nickname, "Fairy Sister" is well-earned. She's had MANY MANY roles where she had to be (and was so good at it she's won awards for these roles):
- sweet
- convincingly naive/innocent/sheltered
- ethereal
- a little "cold" and hard to approach (due to limited interactions with men)

Yes, she has acted in movies recently (as she got older) that are slightly on the "hard"/"cool" side of the spectrum, and has certainly had more romantic scenes, but her traits that allowed her to earn that nickname are hardly what Mulan needs to be. That said, she's constantly improving and gaining new experience, so I'm not saying she CAN'T act. I'm just...hesitant.

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Closing Thoughts

In conclusion, we can celebrate the fact that big-name Disney has made an ethnically accurate choice for Mulan. We still have the rest of the cast to hear about, but with the selection of Liu YiFei, I can say that I'm hopeful for the future. Small note that this is a comment I'm making with NO FURTHER information than the casting of Liu YiFei as Mulan.

If Liu YiFei can successfully put aside the well-known "fairy sister" persona that she has successfully acted out in MANY productions, and can come off "hard-core" enough to pull of a great Mulan, I'll be in tears by the end of the movie and you probably won't hear me shut up about it for the rest of my life.  

 Here's hoping our girl represents our people with pride.

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WELL, that was a very long and very different Monday than usual, wasn't it? Did we like it? 
Please comment below, as I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter.
Subscribe in the top left corner for more and I'll see you in the next post!

~Ariel

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