After a year of searching, Disney has found the actress that will portray Mulan in the live-action adaptation of the celebrated animated film.
According to Hollywood Reporter, a team of casting directors visited five continents and interviewed nearly 1,000 candidates for the role which required an odd mix of features. The women set to be Mulan had to meet three standards: "credible martial arts skills, the ability to speak English and the most ineffable requirement of all: star quality."
Chinese actress Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, met all of these requirements.
Liu her first major acting award (at the Macau International Movie Festival) for her role in The Assassins, acted in English in The Forbidden Kingdom, alongside Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and 2014's Outcast, opposite Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen. She also starred opposite Emile Hirsch in Danish auteur Bille August's period romance The Chinese Widow, which opened the Shanghai International Film Festival in June.
The live-action adaptation of Mulan will be directed by Niki Caro, who directed The Zookeeper's Wife, Whale Rider and more.
After reports of live-action Ghost in the Shell film testing visual effects to make actors appear more Asian, seeing an actual Asian woman take the role of an Asian character is great.
