Disney’s costly live-action “Mulan” adaptation continues to cause headaches for the studio this week as criticism has arisen over some of its location filming.
While the majority of the movie was shot in New Zealand, portions of it (around 20 locations) were shot in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region to show off “some of the unique landscapes”. In the film’s end credits, the production gives ‘special thanks’ to eight different Chinese government organisations in the region.
It’s a region where reportedly an estimated one million members of the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority have been forcibly placed in internment camps in order to assimilate them with China’s majority Han population. Forced sterilizations, torture and inhumane treatment are reportedly taking place with some of Disney’s thanked organisations allegedly said to be directly involved.
Chinese authorities have banned major media outlets from writing about the movie in order to avoid directing attention to the mounting overseas criticism of the film’s ties to Xinjiang.
Disney’s chief financial officer Christine McCarthy acknowledged on Thursday during a Bank of America conference that the choice to shoot there was “an effort to accurately depict some of the unique landscape and geography of the country for this historical period piece.”
She also says it’s well known China requires government approvals and so: “it’s common to acknowledge in a film’s credits the national and local governments that allowed you to film there.”
Nevertheless the move has “generated a lot of issues for us… it has generated a lot of publicity. Let’s leave it at that.”
Niki Caro helmed the film which premiered last week on the Disney+ service and releases this Friday in China where it’s expected to bomb as it has had dismal advance ticket sales along with being swamped with bad press and scoring poor reviews from Chinese audiences who’ve seen pirated copies.
Source: Variety
