The film itself is great. We definitely need more films like this rather than just popcorn entertainment. It's very educational and has a great point. The bold cinematic forms are inspiring too.
But PLEASE, please get the Chinese language right. It's already the year of 2019, and it's almost absurd for me to see that every Chinese character in every single English language film can't speak Chinese.
I'm not even talking about the accent. Some of these actors are Chinese Americans who grew up without learning Chinese, and their native language is English. Some speak Cantonese, which is completely different from Mandarin. The only actor in this film that can speak Mandarin is 'Bo Xilai.'
When the language is so broken and child-like, it's really hard to believe in their characters, and it kills the scene. So please, please, please. Pay more attention to this. ADR the scene, find an assistant casting director that understands the language, cast uprising Mandarin-speaking actors, hire a language coach...there are a million ways to make it work if you just try a little harder.
But PLEASE, please get the Chinese language right. It's already the year of 2019, and it's almost absurd for me to see that every Chinese character in every single English language film can't speak Chinese.
I'm not even talking about the accent. Some of these actors are Chinese Americans who grew up without learning Chinese, and their native language is English. Some speak Cantonese, which is completely different from Mandarin. The only actor in this film that can speak Mandarin is 'Bo Xilai.'
When the language is so broken and child-like, it's really hard to believe in their characters, and it kills the scene. So please, please, please. Pay more attention to this. ADR the scene, find an assistant casting director that understands the language, cast uprising Mandarin-speaking actors, hire a language coach...there are a million ways to make it work if you just try a little harder.