After facing protests from pro-democratic activists, now Disney's Mulan is facing the ire of people for giving special credit to authorities of China's Xinjiang province. The region is known as the site of alleged human rights abuses, including detaining of over one million Uighur Muslims.
Parts of Disney's big-budget action drama Mulan were filmed in China's controversial site in Xinjiang. The movie was released on September 4, but slowly people started noticing the credits and were in for a shock when they saw special thanks for authorities of Xinjiang allegedly responsible for human rights violation cases.
Mulan's end credits include thanks to eight government entities in Xinjiang. This includes authorities of Turpan, where Uighurs are allegedly held in extra-judicial detention. The movie also thanked the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uighur Autonomy Region Committee. This has led to people intensifying their protest against the movie.
Actress Yifei Liu's Comments Bring Trouble to Mulan
Mulan action drama produced by Walt Disney Pictures is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1998 animated film of the same name. The story is based on the Chinese folklore The Ballad of Mulan, Yifei Liu plays the title role in the movie whereas Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Ron Yuan, Gong Li, and Jet Li have played major roles in the $200 Million movie. Mulan is directed by Niki Caro, has screenplay by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin.
Mulan first created trouble for Disney as the protagonist Yifei Liu was criticized for her comments about the developments in Hong Kong. The actress had shared an image on Weibo stating "I support Hong Kong's police, you can beat me up now." She added in English: "What a shame for Hong Kong."
This led to pro-democracy activists staging protest against actress Yifei and asking people to #boycottMulan. But only time will tell if the controversy of movie being shot in Xinjiang province have an impact on the movie-goers. Meanwhile, Mulan has grossed $5.9 million from nine countries in its international opening weekend, including $1.2 million in Thailand, $700,000 in Singapore, $800,000 in both United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Reports claim that the movie took the top spot in Singapore in its opening weekend. The movie collected Singapore $1,001,935 from its release across 194 screens. The movie overtook Hollywood science-fiction movie Tenet that had collected $763,765 in the opening weekend. Mulan also surpassed Korean zombie movie Train To Busan: Peninsula that earned $962,000 from its weekend shows.
Mulan's Challenges in China
Mulan was not released in theatres in the United States. Instead it was released for a premium fee on Disney+ on September 4. The movie will be available for the purchase until Nov. 2, 2020 and will be available for all subscribers on December 4.
Mulan will release in China on September 11. The movie is expected to do great in China but two factors are worrying the makers. The first one is the affect of coronavirus as expected number of people might not come out to watch the movie in the theater. The second reason is that the movie was made in English and has been dubbed into Mandarin. So there are chances that people might not be thrilled to watch the Chinese folklore in a dubbed version.
After facing protests from pro-democratic activists, now Disney's Mulan is facing the ire of people for giving special credit to authorities of China's Xinjiang province. The region is known as the site of alleged human rights abuses, including detaining of over one million Uighur Muslims.
Parts of Disney's big-budget action drama Mulan were filmed in China's controversial site in Xinjiang. The movie was released on September 4, but slowly people started noticing the credits and were in for a shock when they saw special thanks for authorities of Xinjiang allegedly responsible for human rights violation cases.
Mulan's end credits include thanks to eight government entities in Xinjiang. This also includes authorities of Turpan, where Uighurs are allegedly held in extra-judicial detention. The movie also thanked the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uighur Autonomy Region Committee. This has led to people intensifying their protest against the movie.
Actress Yifei Liu's Comments Bring Trouble to Mulan
Mulan action drama produced by Walt Disney Pictures is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1998 animated film of the same name. The story is based on the Chinese folklore "The Ballad of Mulan". Yifei Liu plays the title role in the movie whereas Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Ron Yuan, Gong Li, and Jet Li have played major roles in the $200 Million movie. Mulan is directed by Niki Caro, has screenplay by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin.
Mulan first created trouble for Disney as the protagonist Yifei Liu was criticized for her comments about the developments in Hong Kong. The actress had shared an image on Weibo stating "I support Hong Kong's police, you can beat me up now." She added in English: "What a shame for Hong Kong."
This led to pro-democracy activists staging protest against actress Yifei and asking people to boycott Mulan. But only time will tell if the controversy of movie being shot in Xinjiang province have an impact on the movie-goers. Meanwhile, Mulan has grossed $5.9 million from nine countries in its international opening weekend, including $1.2 million in Thailand, $700,000 in Singapore, $800,000 in both United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Reports claim that the movie took the top spot in Singapore in its opening weekend. The movie collected Singapore $1,001,935 from its release across 194 screens. The movie overtook science-fiction movie Tenet that had collected $763,765 in the opening weekend. Mulan also surpassed Korean zombie movie Train To Busan: Peninsula that earned $962,000 from its weekend shows.
Mulan's Challenges in China
Mulan was not released in theaters in the United States. Instead, it was released for a premium fee on Disney+ on September 4. The movie will be available for purchase until Nov. 2, 2020 and will be available for all subscribers on December 4.
Mulan will release in China on September 11. The movie is expected to do great in China but two factors are worrying the makers. The first one is the effect of coronavirus as expected number of people might not come out to watch the movie in the theater. The second reason is that the movie was made in English and has been dubbed into Mandarin. So there are chances that people might not be thrilled to watch the Chinese folklore in a dubbed version.
