[2009.11.21] VICKI ZHAO IS "MAN ENOUGH" TO PLAY MULAN

courtesy of takungpao.com

The holiday film MULAN two days ago held a premiere press conference in Shanghai. Director Jingle Ma Chor Sing along with leads Vicki Zhao Wei, Jaycee Chan (Fong Cho Ming), Nicky Lee Gau Jit and Xu Jiao appeared. Ma Chor Sing felt that Hua Mulan was the representative of "loyalty, filial piety and honor", a character that had a lot of emotions. Thus he did not make Hua Mulan into a leader role, but how a woman handle what she needed to face. A woman who had such a tough time should have a man quietly supporting her. This was also the director's personal view on love. As for why he chose Zhao Wei and Chen Kun as the leads, the director felt aside from their similar figures their aura was also a very important reason.

Many reporters after screening the film felt that it was rather "Qiong Yao". The Chen Kun played crown prince was in tears numerous times. Did Ma Chor Sing deliberately create such a "gentle" Chen Kun for Hua Mulan's "feminist" image? Ma Chor Sing said, "I never thought that much. He only cried when he should. As the story developed, when the actor's mood arrived, crying was very natural." As for the ending, Ma Chor sing expressed that it was Hua Mulan's most heroic performance; putting the fate of her nation before her own life was the noblest.  However he said that if the box office was good, everyone could see it in the sequel.

Zhao Wei summed up the film with the word "touching". Was her personality similar to Hua Mulan's? She honestly said that she understood Hua Mulan very well. Both were very strong inside so she did not need to get particularly close to her. Rarely worked on fight scenes, she had horse riding and martial art training to handle the film's numerous fight scenes in hopes of displaying leadership quality. In comparison to Chen Kun's "crybaby", Zhao Wei was extremely "masculine" and dirty for most of the film. No wonder Fong Cho Ming said that she was "half a female lead, half a male lead". Zhao Wei "corrected" him and said, "I am the male lead." Even Chen Kun praised her for being "man enough".