'Mulan' director Niki Caro and castmates Liu Yifei and Yoson An break down the scene where Mulan and Honghui meet in battle for the first time.
Caro walks us through her vision for this action sequence frame by frame.
Mulan releases September 4 to Disney+
- This one never stopped,never asked to take a break,never said she couldn't do anything.At the end of that dayit was just, it was clearwe'd found her, we hadliterally found Mulanafter over a year of searching everywherearound the world.Hi Vanity Fair, I'm Nicki Caro and I'mthe director of Disney's Mulan.- Hi, I'm Liu Yifei and I play Mulan.- Hi, my name's YosonAn, and I play Honghui.- [ALL] This is Notes On A Scene- Whoa- You're saying this likeyou've never seen the movieThis scene is the first time we see Mulan,who is known as Hua Junin this part of the movie,fight with Honghui.
Bothof them are conscriptsin a training camp.Right before this sceneMulan has to contend withboth being in disguiseas a man, but mostlynot being able to showthe strength she has.In order to maintain her disguise,she has to disguise all of herself.And so we enter this scenewith all the conscriptsgathered for a training session.In terms of the movie, weare in the middle of China,the vast country of China,but to shoot this scenewe were in New Zealand, ina beautiful place calledthe Ahuriri Valley.
Itwas also the location forour epic battle sceneonce and a number of othersmaller scenes in the movie.The first shot involvesa very big crane shot.It starts off in a highwide and you see allthe conscripts gathered below.Then the crane descends and movesalong a track really fast, then has tocome to a sudden stop, and the cranetelescopes out into the action andfinds these two sparring.- [Yoson] Me picking a fight with Mulan- [Nicki] Yeah, you enjoying it very much,all I remember from that shot- Yeah- Was the sound of all the guyshanging off the crane trying to stop itin time to telescope out between.- I think we rehearsed this scene for likethree months.
You did areally good job with that.- Thank you, you too- Oh thanks- [Nicki] I mean a sequence like this isa long time in the planning,it gets written first,and then the stuntcoordinator comes in and,with two stand-ins, worksout the action, and thenhe brings it to me andI work on it as well,editing it, and then wehand over to you guys- So that you learn the particular moves,and of course both ofyou had stunt doubles- In this scene, but you do a lot ofyour own work as well.A sequence like this is made of so manydifferent shots, and its shot by two unitsover a period of itseither two or three days- Yes yes- I love this, now it's serious this isa girl that hasn't wanted to puta spotlight on herself in any way,but now she is all emotion- And she's burst andhe, on the other hand,having a brilliant time, which justpisses her off.- We're going "Yes!
Bring it!"- To be honest, even though my character,Honghui, was getting his ass beat,I shouldn't say that, eventhough he was getting whoopedby Mulan, I feel like he was stillhaving a good time, until she was likeno I can't show too much.- Yeah, but as far as yourcharacter is concernedhere this is just another guy right?- Yeah yeah- A guy that he isforming a friendship with,and enjoying being around and caredand who actually has allof these crazy skillsthat he hadn't shown anybody- Yeah just out of the blue- You did that right?- Yifei, that's actually Yifei's strongballetic background making it possiblefor you to put your leg back but- Oh that wasn't that bad becausethat wasn't all the way so- Right- And it's a kick so youdon't have to like stay there- Yeah yeah yeah yeah- And this is where Mulanstarts to lose control,but we also see how muchcontrol she has over her body,so emotionally she's losing control,but physically she's showingeverybody what she's gotand you can see- I like their reactions so cute!- And you can see these guys are- Let's draw little mustaches on those!- Oh no no no no oh Cricket- I'm gonna draw a littlemustache on Cricket- We start to see by thereactions of the guys,first of all they're laughing becauseyou're getting your ass kicked- Yep- But then they arekind of contending withHua Jun's power, and that's a littleconfusing for some of them, particularlythe ones who aren't very bright.When we prepare for a sequence like this,it's not just preparingthe choreography, butpreparing the bodies, and the minds,and the stamina of the people that aregoing to be doing the work.So these two and the otherguys who you see in the scenewere in physical training,intense physical training,for three months.- Yes, or longer actually- Right, do you want totalk about that Yoson?- I think we, on top of stunt training,which was maybe two to three hours a day- For you two to three hours?
Not for me- Oh so you were better than him?- I was longer!- You were longer?
Oh.- Sorry to interrupt please continue- We went through someother training, we didstrengthening conditioning on top of that,which got us into that warrior spirit.What you see here is reallythrough our training.- Yeah, it means youguys can walk on to setand be really well prepared,not just physicallyand not just with yourcog- with the choreography,but critically emotionally prepared.- Yeah yeah yeah- They can drop in from the 21st Century- Trueto Ancient ChinaThis is actually a verycomplicated sequence to shoot,because it requires twoactors, two stunt doubles,three cameras, pretty muchthree camera positions,so we are looking thisway of course, to Mulan,we're looking this wayto Honghui, and we'rewe've got the camera kind of travelingvery quickly down thetrack behind these spearswhich is this really kind of amazinggraphic and strobe-y image.And it means it's possible for me touse your stunt double,Yashei, in one of those shots,and that is Yashei on camera, but becausewe've got the strobing of the spearsin the front of the lens wetotally get away with it.When you're scheduling a scene like this,as much as I would'veliked to do all of it,in the main unit, my schedule onlyallows me to be shootingthe actors, not thestunt people so its almost like, sort of,embroidery, trying toget all the shots correctand have two unitsshooting the same size shotwith different performers inthe same lighting conditionsover two days, which is really difficultas we know in New Zealand,because the weather changes so much.Here we go, oh stillenjoying yourself Yoson,- [Yoson] Yeah yeah- But not for too much longer.This is an interestingmove because this is whereyou see male strength likeget the spear in thereand just like kick thespear out of her hands,and she's having none of it.- The rhythm is so good, therhythm is telling the mood- And all of that is workedout like months beforewe keep refining it and keep refining it,so when we get on set and we've only gota certain amount of hours to do our work,that we're not going'oh what if we did thisor what if we did this'this movie was not made like that.- [Yoson] Look at how focused she is- She's yeah and you too my friend- I'm like 'what's shegonna throw at me next?'- [Nicki] Yeah so now it'svery very intense between them,and you can see from thereactions of our other guys here,good, doing well, possibly,not quite looking at the right place,but it's okay- [Yoson] Is he looking at the camera?- He might be but pointsoff, this one very good.And a lot of those are stunt people,they're our kung-fu masters,and then additionallythere are a bunch of extras.In this scene there wasabout a hundred I think.This movie is very costume driven.Costume is incredibly importantin this part of the moviebecause we're talking about all the guyscoming to training campand starting to learnhow to wear armor.
This isyour practice armor right?- This is it's a lot lighterthan the actual armor.There's the shoulder piece here,and then there's a chest piece,and then there's also theone that guards the quads,but also- And then you've got the wrist guards- Oh yeah- This is connected tohere this is connectto here that's how they wrap it- The first time we took40 minutes to put it on,the last time past it'sgetting faster but stilltaking about an ho- half an hour- It takes a while butit looks really good- Yeah it looks good- And also you can't hearthrough remember this,this takes a while too- And that's really, that was genius,our costume designer, Bina Diageler,came up with this idea because, of course,all men in that time had really long hair,therefore it went up in a top-knot,to make wigs for the hundreds of peoplewe needed to make wigs for was,it just wasn't a possibility,so these head wraps becamea part of the costume,with a little like alittle cup underneath.- It was like a straw cupto emulate the hair bun- I have a real one, yeah- You've got a real top-knot,and you guys had wigs- Yes- Underneath those but everybodyelse had the head wear.Even though this movie is an action movie,and the action's explosiveand it's very raw,and very visceral, it wasalso as important, to me,to make a movie that was very beautiful.Like, photographically, beautiful.Along with the stunning landscapes,we have a production design that hasboth the incredibly andintensely colorful imperial citywhen Mulan gets dressedfor the match maker,it's really gorgeous, butthen, when Mulan goes to warin the middle of the movie, we go intothis very sort ofmonochromatic environment,and the predominant color there is red.You can't see this so wellhere under the practice armorbut the tunic is redand it makes for reallykind of graphic, stylized images.- I love the red because I think it'sreally in line with love,passion, and this strongness.- Everyone came from theirrespective villages, right,and I think going into this world,where everyone's dressed the same way,dressed in the same red way,that brings a certain energy,and as you both said itbrings a certain passion,in terms of bringing everyonetogether for the same mission.- It is all about makingeverybody look the same,you know when you go intothe army whatever army it is,and the interestingthing is that in amongstthese thousands of menis this one young woman,and she manages to disappear within them,but is seen like this,where she shines a spotlighton herself, exposes her topotentially being found out,yet she can't be anythingbut true to herselfand her emotions you canreally see this here.A: what an amazing stillhere, amazing performance,and a lot of this movie isshot on really long lenses,and so you see Yifei infocus and everybody else,who are quite close to her,out of focus behind her.And we, this is a lenscalled a Pittsburgh lens,our favorite lensit really kind of radicallysoftens the outside,bringing all of your focusinto the inside of the frame.And most of the way weframe stuff was to frameMulan, Yifei, like right at the center,so we would always use this lens on you,and it, only in very veryextraordinary circumstancesdid we ever shoot anybodyelse with that lensbecause it was all yours.- You know standing on theside, in front of the camera,most of the time Icouldn't actually see wherethe camera was, becauseit was so far away,because the lens was so far you know.- It's a good point Yoson,because being on thelonger lenses means the actors can performand feel very free- I remember that sayingwhen I need to ride a horsewe would have a group ofpeople ride a horse togetherforward on that road on one road andI'm like there's no camera!Are we on a film set?- It's a 2800ml lensits about as big as youCJ's there you know rolling- and then I see himeventually and he's like'cause its a low low how do you saylow shot?- Low angle- Low angle yeah and its ahh there it is- We had two lenses built, one of which,the other special one,a 58ml lens gouse lens,which had a what you calla chromatic apparitionin it, which will distortthe shot so there'salmost like little rainbowslittle flarey rainbowsin it and what we were trying to do wasexpress Mulan's chi her power,and this lens did it for us.So you see how much the,how much distortion is here,how much softness here.- But the focus is really- I think this is the only shot right,in this sequence, that was on a wire,so that she could leap high and thenwe pan back to your startled face.And here you see Mulan as HuaJun realize what she's done,she's put a spotlight on herself.With this movie we tried very hard tokeep off wires - a lotof martial arts moviesemploy a lot of wire work but for us,particularly for Mulanwho's not a superhero,we wanted to ground the action somewhatin the laws of physics,and so for me it was likethe beauty of seeing astrong female body in action.- When you are on a harness, sometimes,it feels like oh they'rehelping you right,because they're controlling you,but I feel like our methodis I have to just dothe exact move, don'tthink about the wire,and just to be you, sothere is actually a partof your body actuallyso that way I feel likeI can come to the balance better,and knowing where and when to land,and knowing which direction I'm going.- So the lines are up there right,that's the one where it's wrapped right?So one wire, and then theywrap it so that you spin?- So basically use this legand do a little pull off,and then its that kind of move.- Yeah and all the wire doesis just get some elevation,but the force, theexplosive force of body,is coming right through the hips.And you also have balletso, it meant, for me,even though we had an amazing stunt doublefor Yifei, often we would ask for Yifei,rather than the stuntdouble because in her bodyshe has tremendous gracethat goes with the strength,and incredible extension.'Cause what she would dosometimes when we wentoff the choreography,was more instinctive and more beautiful.- When we practiced real martial artsyou're trying to hit that person,to take that other person down,but here I learnt thatyou have to make sureyou don't hit the other person, at all.Where I turned around, this part,I struggled with this move so much,I think I did it weshot it like five times,I don't know something like that,I finally got it on the sixth take,and everybody clapped 'cause it was likea big achievement for mejust to get that move.We had to make sure we worked togetheron this particular scene becausethe edge of my spear was on Yifei's wristand I didn't want to, you know- Oh right you don't want to, yeah- I didn't want, exactly yeah becauseyou know these are realweapons we're playing with so- Yeah, they did have rubber tips though,just so everybody's- Yeah yeah yeah of course- I guess one of the bigsurprises, certainly for me,was how easily I came to action sequences.I really love them I loveeverything about them,from the writing of themto the designing of them,and the constant kindof refinement of them inthe planning stage.You know, there's a wayto shoot them where you just, which is howaction sequences which isjust with a lot of coverage,just coverage coverage coverage,so you've always got that moment,and then there's the way we approach them.But what Mandy and I weredoing with the camerawas really explosive.In other sequences we arekind of turning the camera180, 360 degrees inthe middle of the shot,we're tipping the frame up on it's side,we're doing all kinds ofjoyous and expressive thingswith the camera that justliterally came out ofthe sheer joy of being able to do it,and being able to playwith these big toys.I had worked for Disneybefore, I made a moviecalled McFarland USA,and they knew that I wasa stalking fan of Mulan,so they let me in the door,and it turned out that myvision for the live actionversion of Mulan, which is a huge,very real epic action adventure movie,was exactly what they were hopinga director would comethrough the door and provide.Thanks very much Vanity Fair!- We hope you enjoy Mulan!- This has been Notes On A Scene