Mulan (2020)

Since Disney seems to be on this binge of making their movies into real life, this is the live-action version of one of my all-time favorite Disney movies, Mulan

Summary

-To save her father from death in military service, a young Chinese maiden goes undercover as a male soldier and thus, manages to save China from an impending attack from enemy forces

Cast

-Liu Yifei: Mulan

-Donnie Yen: Commander Tung

-Gong Li: Xianniang

-Jet Li: Emperor

-Jason Scott Lee: Bori Khan

-Yoson An: Honghui

-Tzi Ma: Zhou

-Rosalind Chao: Li

-Pei-Pei Cheng: Matchmaker

-Xana Tang: Xiu

-Ron Yuan: Sergeant Qiang

-Jun Yu: Cricket

-Chen Tang: Yao

-Doug Moua: Po

-Jimmy Wong: Ling

Did You Know?

-In the original 1998 Disney film, Mulan cuts off most of her waist-length hair to complete her disguise. This scene was not added into the live action version because it was considered unnecessary. In imperial China, long hair on men was common, so Mulan with long hair in the military camp would not have aroused any suspicion

-One of her soldiers is nicknamed Cricket, a nod to the lucky Cri-Kee from the original Disney film

-Martial artist/actor Jet Li initially refused the offer to play the Emperor because of pay and script. His daughters, however, reminded him that it's important to shed light on Chinese culture, so he changed his mind and accepted the role

-The film was made more historically accurate by making the enemy forces the Rouran, who lived at the same time and place of the original story, not the Huns

-When the film was released in China, Liu Yifei, Jet Li and Gong Li did Mandarin language overdubs

-The musical numbers from the original Disney film are not featured as prominently here. An instrumental of "Reflection" is played throughout the movie. An instrumental of "Honor to Us All" is heard playing when Mulan applies her makeup. Her commanding officer, Commander Tung, speaks some of the lyrics to "I'll Make a Man Out of You". When the soldiers talk about their dream girl, they speak some of the lyrics to "A Girl Worth Fighting For"

-More than 1,000 actresses auditioned for the role of Mulan. Casting directors were looking for specific things in the actress who play the famed Chinese legend. Skills in martial arts, ability to speak English and potential to be an international star were among the traits being searched for

-Gong Li, who plays the character Xianniang, was the real-life model for the animated title character's likeness in the 1998 film

-This is the first Disney live-action film to get a PG-13 rating. There only brief shots of corpses and scenes implying death and a few brief shots of blood drops

-In this film, Mulan is given a sister, Hua Xiu to make Mulan's decision to do what she does more impactful. In certain versions of the story of Mulan, she has siblings, such as a younger brother and sister

-When Liu Yifei showed up to auditions, she was suffering from jet lag, from her 14-hour flight from Beijing to Los Angeles. She overcame jet lag by completing four scenes for her audition, one of which lasted five pages and completed 90 minutes of weight training and her two-hour audition

-Mushu from the original 1998 film did not make an appearance here. Disney chose to keep this film as true and close to Chinese culture and traditions as possible. To keep that respect going, a phoenix was chosen. In Chinese culture, a phoenix represents peace and prosperity

-When Tony Bancroft, one of the directors of the original Disney film, heard there was going to be a live-action remake, he was overjoyed when he heard it was not going to be a carbon copy of the original

-This is the third Disney film for Jason Scott Lee. Prior to this, he played Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1994) and voiced David Kawena in Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005)

-Originally, Ang Lee was chosen to direct this, but he couldn't because he was busy promoting Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)

-Four of the cast members - Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Roger Yuan - were all part of the cast of Netflix's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)

-This is the second film where Liu Yifei and Jet Li worked together. The first film was 2008's The Forbidden Kingdom

-Tzi Ma and Ron Yuan provided their voices for the 2012 video game Sleeping Dogs

-Ming-na Wen, who voiced Mulan in the original Disney film, expressed interest in playing Mulan's mother, but her work schedule didn't allow it. Instead, she plays a guest who introduces Mulan to the Emperor

-There is a scene where Mulan is the only one carrying full pails of water up the mountain. This mirrors a scene from the original where she was the only one to figure out how to use the heavy medallions to get up the pole to get the arrow

-Rosalind Chao, who plays Mulan's mother, and Ming-na Wen, who played Mulan in the original, make brief appearances here. They both also starred in the film adaptation of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, both as daughters Rose and June

Rosalind Chao as Mulan's mother in 1998

Rosalind Chao as Li (2020)

Ming-na Wen as Mulan (1998)

Ming-na Wen in Mulan (2020)

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

This is the third installment of The Mummy series. This one completely moves away from ancient Egypt and instead moves on to ancient China.

Summary
-When Alex O'Connell is excavating at a dig site in China, he unearths the first emperor of the Qin dynasty-a brutal, shape-shifting creature who was cursed by a witch long ago.

Cast
-Brendan Fraser: Rick O'Connell
-Jet Li: Emperor
-Maria Bello: Evelyn O'Connell
-John Hannah: Jonathan Carnahan
-Michelle Yeoh: Zi Yuan
-Luke Ford: Alex O'Connell
-Isabella Leong: Lin
-Anthony Chau-Sang Wong: General Yang
-Russell Wong: Ming Guo
-Liam Cunningham: Roger Wilson

Did You Know?
-Jet Li was only available for part of the shoot. To do his scenes as the Dragon Emperor, it was decided that his character would be seen as either a rotting mummy or as a terracotta mummy. It was done this way so that he could do his live scenes and the remainder would be done through CGI
-In the scene with the tombs, the crossbow traps were based on real life. According to Chinese archaeologists, there were similar traps when archaeologists tried excavating the site of the Terra Cotta Army
-In the movie, there is a device that triggers a trap by dropping a small bronze ball from a dragon's mouth into a frog's mouth. This is said to be inspired by an ancient machine that could predict what direction an earthquake was coming from and is considered to be the father of the modern seismograph
-The scenes in the Himalayan Mountains were actually filmed in summer heat on a soundstage
-This was the Hollywood debut for Chinese martial arts legend Wu Jing, who appeared as one of the soldiers having a brief battle with Jet Li at the start of the movie
-Rob Cohen, director of the movie, had always been incredibly fascinated with Chinese history and culture. When he was approached about filming a movie in China, he was all for it. He wanted the movie to be filmed in China as much as possible and also to pay respect to the culture, he wanted Chinese history and culture to be depicted as accurately as possible
-This movie involves another collaboration between Jet Li and Russell Wong. The first movie starring the two martial artist/actors was 2000's Romeo Must Die

Day 29-Hopes, dreams, plans for the next year

This is going to be interesting...

Go to London
-I have saved up more than enough money, the thing holding me back is the motivation to do it. I would have to take two weeks at least. I don't think a week would cut it because I would also take my sister and we would make a day trip out of going to Flamingo Land in Yorkshire and the Beatles Museum in Liverpool. What can I say? I love listening to the Beatles. I've always had my heart set on London since senior year of high school, when I first heard the music of the Fab Four

Travel more
-I'd love to visit Australia, Japan, China, Italy as well. But that might be one or two years down the road, who knows how things will work out?

See more concerts
-I would love, more than anything, to see Judas Priest in concert again. The first time I saw them was as a headlining band at 2015's Rock on the Range in Columbus, OH. What made it more special was having my sister there and laughing at her saying "I love this song" when "Hell Bent for Leather" and "Breaking the Law" played. She loved seeing Rob ride out on his Harley. I would love to see Iron Maiden just once. As for other bands, I wouldn't mind seeing Black Sabbath, AC/DC or Def Leppard

Day 24-Something random

Places I want to travel to. I would also have to take my sister with me to Australia and England; she wants to visit Flamingo Land in Yorkshire, lol

 



Corey Yuen

Corey Yuen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corey_Yuen

Birth name: Ying Gang-ming
DOB: 2/15/1951
Where: Hong Kong, China
Height:

Trivia
-Mainly speaks Cantonese; does not speak English very well
-Attended the China Drama Academy along with Jackie Chan. While there, had the name Yuen Kwai and was a member of the Seven Little Fortunes theatre troupe. And like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung Kam-bo and Yuen Biao, they spent days training in a harshly disciplined school run by Master Yu Jim-yuen


Jackie Chan

Yuen Biao



Sammo Hung Kam-bo

-He is an action choreographer, director.
-In both Hong Kong and the US, Corey Yuen is one of the top names in action directing. In 1981, he made his directorial debut with Ninja in the Dragon's Den, starring Hiroyuki Sanada. His American directorial debut came in June 1985, when he directed No Retreat, No Surrender, which also marked the debut of Belgian-born martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme
-In 1993, he started becoming good friends with Jet Li. He directed most of Li's films, including Fong Sai-yuk I & Fong Sai-yuk II, The Bodyguard from Beijing, My Father is a Hero, The New Legend of Shaolin. He also provided choreography on two of Li's films: High Risk and The New Legend of Shaolin
-When Li gained worldly attention starring as Triad snakehead Wah Sing Ku in Lethal Weapon 4, Yuen also gained attention in the West. He provided work on the 2000 movie X-Men. And he also provided martial arts and action choreography on 6 of Li's other American movies: Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 the Grave, The One, War, The Expendables


The Expendables

The One



Cradle 2 the Grave



Romeo Must Die



War

-One of his trademarks for action choreography is the ability to mix hand-to-hand combat with gun fighting, two things not normally used in Hong Kong cinema. But in the US, mixing martial arts and gun fighting in movies can sometimes be referred to as 'Gun-fu", something Chow Yun-fat is best known for

The Wild Thornberrys: Watched This When I Was a Kid

This cartooon was on was I was a kid
The Wild Thornberrys

-Animated cartoon series on Nickelodeon during the 1990s and ran occasionally until 2007

Summary
-The show focuses on a nomad-like family that travel the world because of the work the parents do. They are nature documentarians and as such, they must travel to do documentaries on different cultures and animals

Characters
Elizabeth "Eliza" Thornberry
-The younger daughter of the family. She is 12, and can talk to any animal she meets. She's intelligent, brave, and good natured. Eliza is depicted as the stereotypical nerd with glasses, braces, hair red hair in braids and freckles
-Voiced by: Lacey Chabert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darwin Thornberry

-Darwin is the chimp that the Thornberry's unofficially adopt. He is Eliza's best friend. He is almost always seen wearing a tank top with horizontal blue and white stripes and blue shorts. He speaks with a very obvious and distinct upper class British accent. He is almost like Eliza's conscience, telling her right from wrong

-Voiced by: Tom Kane

Donald "Donnie" Michael Thornberry

-Feral boy raised by orangutans. His real parents, Michael and Lisa, were extreme nature lovers who loved and protected animals to utmost extent. One night, a mother and son orangutan were almost captured to be sold by poachers. Donnie's parents saved them, but were killed for interfering. Local villages came to know about how they saved the animals and know about their deaths. He is then found by the Thornberry family so he can have a human family. He wears a pair of board shorts with a leopard-print design on them and eats all kinds of bugs. He is around age 4, and speaks in incoherent babbling and animal noises

-Voiced by: Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Deborah "Debbie" Thornberry
-The most typical image of a teenager. Debbie is the oldest child of this family. She is shown as the stereotypical teenager: snobbish, shallow, self-centered, and uncaring personality. She'd much rather listen to music and shop than work. She tends to whine and complain about her family moving around and desires a normal life. Dislikes her sister Eliza, who has a mutual dislike for Debbie's self-centered attitude
-Voiced by: Danielle Harris

Sir Nigel Archibald Thornberry

-The patriarch of the Thornberry clan, he was born in Australia to Radcliffe and Cordelia Thornberry (Lynn Redgrave). He is the star of the documentaries they make, he narrates while mother Marianne films. He speaks with an obvious English accent, and is usually cheery and in high spirits about anything, even in the face of danger. In one of the later episodes, titled "Sir Nigel" he is offered a professorship at Oxford University in England, but turns it down, much to his mother's disapproval. He is an expert in zoology, as well as nature, and can sometimes be a little naive and absent-minded
-Voiced by: Tim Curry

Marianne Hunter Thornberry, Lady Thornberry
-She is the matriarch of the family. She is the wife and the cameraperson for their documentaries. Her parents are Frank (Ed Asner) and Sophie Hunter (Betty White). She's the strong-willed voice of reason for the family, she takes the reigns of discipline in the family and like Eliza, she scuba dives.
-Voiced by: Jodi Carlisle

Episodes