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Mulan Photo: VCG
New from Disney Mulan, an action drama based on a centuries-old traditional Chinese story, made its debut in mainland China on Friday. Though starring popular Chinese actors, the film received a cold shoulder due to its moralistic portrayal, which failed to resonate with Chinese audiences.
Starting at 9 pm, Mulan raised 48 million yuan ($ 7 million), showed the Maoyan real-time box office monitoring platform. Maoyan predicted that MulanThe total box office in mainland China could reach 291 million yuan, compared to the spy movie. Beginning406 million yuan and the Chinese war epic The eight hundred 2.91 billion yuan.
With COVID-19 under control, Chinese cinemas have gradually reopened. Domestic and foreign films are lining up to be shown after months of delays. Among the first batch of films, The Eight Hundred grossed 141 million yuan on its first day, with projected box office revenues 10 times that of Mulan.
This was not the first time that Disney tried to film Chinese history. The previous animated version had introduced the Chinese character to the world. As a live-action adaptation of the animated version, it had attracted attention even before it was screened.
However, with high expectations, his word of mouth has unexpectedly diminished. It scored 4.7 on the Chinese movie review platform Douban, compared to Beginning7.8.
Shi Wenxue, a film critic and professor at the Beijing Academy, told the Global Times on Friday that the poor box office performance of Mulan in mainland China it is not surprising because it failed to tell a Chinese story in an accurate and engaging way.
The movie is just a mix of oriental elements and symbols in the eyes of Westerners. “For example, in the movie, Mulan Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) lived in earthen building, a type of construction using raw earth invented during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The general in the movie played Taichi, who was created in the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), “Shi said.
“It also mixed conventional Western traditional fairy tale settings incompatible with Chinese historical stories. Disney didn’t do enough research on non-Western elements and stories. That led to a lot of silly mistakes in the film,” he said.
“Instead of a Chinese story, it may be more appropriate to call it a Disney princess story, like Frozen,” Yun Feiyang, a Chinese film critic with more than 1.51 million followers on China’s Twitter, told the Global Times. , Sina Weibo. .
The film made several vital changes from the original story, which the Chinese have learned since they were young, said one viewer who found it difficult to enjoy.
Chinese netizens also disagreed with the values expressed in the film, saying that traditional Chinese history had a patriotic theme, which was changed to a story of soldiers blindly protecting a king.
Some Western politicians and media have relentlessly politicized the film, hoping to trigger a backlash in mainland China, such as smearing the film’s credits, thanking Xinjiang regional government agencies that assisted in filming, and the support of its main actress Liu Yifei to Hong. Kong police amid months of unrest in the city last year.
However, their hope is doomed once again, experts said.
The unpopularity of the film has nothing to do with the defamation of the West, which the Chinese audience does not care about. It is only the low level of art it displays and misunderstandings of Chinese culture that disappointed the market, they added.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Friday criticized malicious movements by anti-China forces, saying that giving credit to regional government bodies in Xinjiang that helped produce the film is nothing more than practice. common.
Zhao also gave a “thumbs up” when asked about Chinese actress Liu Yifei’s support for the Hong Kong police, praising her as modern. Mulan.
Although the film may underperform in mainland China, the projected box office of 291 million yuan is still much better than in other foreign markets, experts said. As the pandemic continues to sweep across the world, China has been the only major economy that has recovered quickly and efficiently.
The golden week of National Day in October is expected to be an opportunity for the service sector to accelerate the recovery, including the movie business. At least eight films will be released during the holidays, including one about the Chinese women’s volleyball team, which has attracted a lot of attention on the mainland.
Newspaper Headline: Disney’s Mulan Story Fails To Win Chinese Audience
