China’s ‘Kung Fu Mulan’ upsets audience more than Disney’s Mulan
Kung Fu Mulan currently has a score of 3.1 out of 10 on Chinese review site Douban
When Disney's new live-action Mulan was released in September, audiences in China were not kind. The film was swiftly slammed online, with people saying it misrepresented Chinese culture and some comparing it to Western Chinese food.
Watch the trailer of "Kung Fu Mulan" here
Now a new Chinese-made animated film about Mulan is trying to rectify that. Gold Valley Film released its feature animation "Kung Fu Mulan" over the National Day holiday from October 3. Kung Fu Mulan is being billed as featuring "real China, real Mulan", as a poster for the film reads.
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Unfortunately for the studio behind it, the film turned into an even bigger flop than the Disney epic. Holidays in China are usually considered opportunities for domestic films, but it does not appear to have helped Kung Fu Mulan.
Immediately after its release, the film received a barrage of negative reviews online. Just three days later, the film was pulled from theatres.
Kung Fu Mulan currently has a score of 3.1 out of 10 on Chinese review site Douban based on more than 3,500 user ratings. That is even worse than that 4.9 that Disney's new Mulan has based on more than 213,800 ratings.
Kung Fu Mulan had a lower budget at US$15 million, Variety reported. With just three days in theatres, it did not have time to make much of that money back. Chinese ticket platform Maoyan shows the film grossed just 7.8 million yuan (US$1.1 million).
The Disney remake also lost money by some estimates, but it cost a whopping US$200 million to produce.
