‘Mulan’ actress loves Lea Salonga’s original theme song version

A fierce warrior: Liu Yifei in “Mulan”—DISNEY

LOS ANGELES—“I love Lea Salonga’s version a lot,” said Liu Yifei, who plays Mulan in the 2020 live-action movie, about the Filipino singer’s take of “Reflection” in the original 1998 animated film.

“I’m the same as anybody else,” added Liu, who landed the plum warrior role in director Niki Caro’s production. “‘Reflection’ is definitely one of my favorite songs. I sang that song in one of my auditions for school. So yeah, it’s special. It’s just so sweet and strong at the same time.”

Lea memorably sang “Reflection” in the critically and commercially acclaimed original animated “Mulan.” For her work as the singing voice of Mulan and Jasmine in “Aladdin” (her “A Whole New World” duet with Brad Kane from that movie is also a classic), the Philippines’ pride earned the Disney Legend Award, an honor bestowed on talents who have made extraordinary contributions to The Walt Disney Company.

In Niki’s take of the beloved tale of a Chinese maiden who disguises herself as a male warrior to save her father, an orchestral version of “Reflection” is played in a pivotal scene.

A new theme song, “Loyal Brave and True,” sung by Christina Aguilera, is played as the credits roll in the new “Mulan” movie, immediately followed by her new version of “Reflection.” She sang the pop version of the song in the 1998 animated film.

A Mandarin Chinese version of “Reflection,” sung by Liu, comes after Christina’s 2020 version.

“One of the ways I tried to honor the animation version was actually to use ‘Reflection,’” explained Niki, who directed the award-winning 2002 film, “Whale Rider.” We recently interviewed Niki and Liu together at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

“That tune is used orchestrally in the most important moment of the movie, which is where Mulan commits to her own truth, sheds her disguise and runs into battle as a woman.

“Additionally, Christina Aguilera honored us by rerecording the song for our credit sequence. It follows the original song (‘Loyal Brave True’). And it’s a beautiful story actually because when Christina was chosen to record ‘Reflection’ for the first time, she was a girl and that song made her a star. So, she was determined to sing it again now for us as a woman.”

Don’t expect this live-action version to be as light and charming as the hit animation original. Niki intentionally veered toward a more dramatic interpretation of the Chinese folklore, “The Ballad of Mulan.”

“The 1998 animation version opened up that world for a global audience,” said the New Zealand filmmaker. “That movie so defined the childhood of a generation. I hope that this movie could be seen as a companion piece, as a coming of age for that audience. And of course, any time another culture gets opened up to a Western audience is cause for celebration for me.”

Niki elaborated on her decision to take a more dramatic approach: “I had an epic vision for this story in my mind. When I spoke to Disney about it, I think they were waiting for a director to come in with that vision because that was what they were hoping for. For me, the opportunity to make this story in live action was the opportunity to commit to the real journey of a young woman.

“Mulan takes her father’s place in war to save his life, crosses a huge continent, has to pass as a man in a man’s army, then fight as a woman.”

The movie’s opening in China was delayed indefinitely since the country temporarily closed its moviehouses due to the coronavirus outbreak. Liu was born in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“My grandma is still in Wuhan and she’s doing great, thank you,” Liu shared. “I just hope that this will work out soon.”

“We look forward to the day when we can take this story home,” Niki said about “Mulan’s” release in China, which has become the world’s fastest growing film market. On that day, there will be great cause for celebration.”

When Liu was asked about the audition that led her to bag the major role, Niki interjected with a laugh, “She’ll be so modest about it. Can I tell you what I put her through? We searched the world for a year, and we couldn’t find Mulan. We searched all through China, couldn’t find Mulan. So we started again.

Director Niki Caro (left) an d Liu —RUBEN V. NEPALES

“And Yifei was available. So, we brought her to Los Angeles. She took a 14-hour flight from Beijing–worst jetlag in the world, FYI–to LA. She arrived in the evening and didn’t sleep that night. She thought she could sleep the next day because the audition wasn’t till 2 in the afternoon.

“But the head of the studio asked her to come in and have a meeting, so the poor thing, who had no sleep, had to wait around for me. She did a two-hour audition in English. Even though she speaks beautiful English, it’s not her first language. She did five scenes. One of those scenes had five pages of dialogue.

“She was so fierce as a dramatic actress. That took two hours. Then, we sent her to the other critical part of the process, which was to send her to the gym with a personal trainer to do a punishing 90-minute workout that was designed to test her physical limits.

“And she went through this whole process. She never ever once asked to take a break, never said, ‘I can’t do it,’ always did exactly what was asked of her. Ladies and gentlemen, Mulan (points to Liu)!”

“You’re boosting my ego again,” Yifei reacted with a laugh. From ages 10 to 15, Liu lived with her mother in New York. When she returned to China, Liu studied at the Performance Institute at the Beijing Film Academy, which led to her being cast in TV shows and eventually, films. She starred opposite Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat and Nicolas Cage.

She also recorded a Japanese single and album with Sony Music Entertainment Japan.

“Mulan” reunited Liu with Jet Li, with whom she starred in “The Forbidden Kingdom.” “Mulan” also stars Donnie Yen, Li Gong, Jason Scott Lee and Yoson An.

Liu praised her director, Niki, who is only the second female director hired by Disney to direct a movie with a budget in excess of $100 million.

“Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined that I would work with a woman director who is this talented, and on this scale of a big movie,” said the 32-year-old actress. “So, if you ask me, was I nervous at the audition? Of course.”

Niki revealed how many actresses applied to be Mulan: “Easily in excess of a thousand actresses. And particularly in China, we saw so many people, going almost village to village. Because I had a romantic idea that we might find her in a village in China, that needle in that haystack, which was the way I searched for Keisha (Castle-Hughes) when I made ‘Whale Rider.’”

Asked about people who inspired her, Niki answered, “When I was a teenager, when I first wanted to make films, I couldn’t see anybody who looked like me, who directed movies, until Jane Campion. I remain Jane’s most devoted fan to this day because she not only looked like me, she also came from the same part of the world, and she saw things like me.

“Yesterday was so moving because we did a lot of TV interviews and we were interviewed many times by women and many times by Asian women. It was so touching that they could see themselves in Mulan.

“Now, there’s a reason for that. Of course, ‘Mulan’ has always been there for all time but telling the story through a female lens, the story being told by somebody who looks like you, sees like you, feels like you, might be the difference here. I’m very honored to have been allowed to tell it on this scale in this time.”

E-mail [email protected]. Follow him at ruben nepales (@nepalesruben) | Twitter.