If you didn’t already know that Donnie Yen is the real deal as a martial artist after the “Ip Man” films and “Rogue One,” “Mulan” director Niki Caro is here to tell you that yes, he’s amazing.
In a new teaser for the film ahead of its Disney+ debut with a wealth of new footage, Caro talks about filming Yen in his role as Commander Tung for the live-action remake of “Mulan” and being blown away at how he manages to move a sword in one scene where he does a display in front of his army of new recruits.
“The way he moves a sword, it moves so fast, I had to shoot the sequence again in slow motion just to see what he was doing,” director Niki Caro said. “He is astonishing.”
Of course Caro also put her star Liu Yifei through the ringer in terms of training and similarly touted her as an accomplished martial artist herself. A previous stunt feature for “Mulan” said that she trained seven hours a day for three straight months in order to manage the fight sequences in the film.
“Nobody else could’ve played the role of Mulan,” Caro said. “Every moment Yifei was on set, she raised the bar. And she inspired all of us.”
“Mulan” is finally debuting after being delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and will be doing so in a risky, yet ambitious method as a premium video on demand for $29.99 on Disney+ beginning on September 4.
Check out the new “Mulan” teaser above.
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