Walt Disney Studios has cast Chinese actress Liu Yifei as the star of its upcoming live-action “Mulan,” scheduled for release sometime in 2019.
The film will be directed by Niki Caro (“The Zookeeper’s Wife”), according to USA Today.
The studio wanted an ethnically Chinese woman for the part and took a year to look at nearly 1,000 candidates for the role, which requires martial arts skills and the ability to speak English.
Lui has acted in several movies that have played in the U.S., most notably “The Forbidden Kingdom” with Jackie Chan and Jet Li in 2008, and “Outcast” with Nicholas Cage and Hayden Christensen in 2014, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news.
Liu has also starred in many Chinese films and TV shows, including “The Chinese Widow” and “Once Upon a Time.”
She won a Golden Lotus Award for Best Actress at the Macau International Movie Festival in 2013 for her performance in “The Assassins.”
She has been a brand ambassador for Dior, Tissot, Garnier, and Pantene, THR reported.
Her fans and the Chinese media have nicknamed her the “Fairy Sister” because of her innocence and pure beauty.
The live-action movie will be inspired by the 1998 animated “Mulan” and the original legendary Chinese ballad, NBC News reported. In both, Hua Mulan is a young Chinese woman who dresses as a man and takes her father’s place in the Chinese army during the fifth century.
Most on Twitter praised the choice and thought it was perfect.
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