WARRIOR PRINCESS ARISES

An ancient Chinese poem about a daughter pretending to be a son in order to take the place of her conscripted father in the Imperial Army was made into a Disney animated classic. Rather than have singing and a sidekick dragon in the live-action remake, New Zealand filmmaker Niki Caro (The Zookeeper’s Wife) focused more on the source material. “Our intention with Mulan was to honour the original ‘Ballad of Mulan’ which was written over 1,500 years ago. This drove all of us involved with the film into real China. We drew great inspiration from being down on the ground there. While this movie is a real visceral, raw, high-octane epic action adventure, it still honours some of the iconic elements from the animation that I love.” Chinese cinema influenced the visual language. “Zhang Yimou [House Of Flying Daggers] was such a huge inspiration for me because of the otherworldliness of his films, the incredible action sequences and the design, in particular, the costume design.”

A 14-minute previs cut by editor David Coulson () of the midpoint battle which VFX producer Diana Giorgiutti (). “It always makes a huge difference when a filmmaker is willing to admit to themselves that they are dealing with an element that they are not familiar with.” Certain guidelines were set by the studio which required some creative solutions. “Under the Disney label you can’t show violence and bloodshed so I wrestled with the idea of how can I build this epic battle sequence without it being ,” notes Caro. “What I decided to do was to set it in a geothermal valley so there is steam drifting throughout all of the fighting that tends to obscure violence and adds another layer of beauty.”