
Seeing beautiful actresses pretending to be men is not uncommon in dramas and films but you gotta admit that most of the time, the outcome isn’t so convincing. They end up looking feminine and basically still appear as women in men’s clothing.
Disney’s live-action #Mulan remake is taking a ‘David Lean or Kurosawa’ approach to the story – exclusive image: https://t.co/BgbuXrSdnK pic.twitter.com/gBcsRN56Uw— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) September 30, 2019
But the recently-released photo of the movie Mulan by Empire Magazine had Crystal Liu Yifei wowing netizens after she transformed from angelic-faced into a manly soldier! I, myself, am amazed by how well they did her make-up. The armor and the helmet don’t seem the least bit awkward. The last time I was impressed with women-disguised-as-men look was Ella Chen‘s character in the Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi, which was ages ago.
Seeing the soldiers together, the only giveaway that Crystal Liu is the odd one out is via the shape of her face. Hers is more round shaped compared to men whose faces tend to be more square-shaped. Standing next to her is actor Yoson An. The latter plays Chen Honghui, a cocky new recruit that will eventually become Mulan’s love interest. I’m still a bit bitter about Li Shang’s absence but this is an interesting twist to the story.

Sure, Crystal Liu feminine features make her look a bit softer than the rest of the men. She is, after all, adored as fairy sister. To this day, her ethereal appearance as Little Dragon Girl from the 2006 drama Return of the Condor Heroes is still regarded as one of the classics. Yet her glam team really went for it to make a convincing soldier.
Anonymous
Agree, she doesn't really look out of place among men in the picture above. While the make up artists of the movie deserve the credit, I personally think that in most Chinese dramas it was their intention to still show the audience that the disguising character is a lady — and a pretty one!
Anonymous
Well, that’s how most of them look without makeup. Her single eyelid is more prominent.
Anonymous
It doesn't matter if she looks the part or not she's famous for being one of China's worst actresses.
Anonymous
She's the number one everyone is jealous of because she's the prettiest. Beauty is a curse.
Just because she is pretty doesn't mean she cannot act vice versa.. Being too pretty or too ugly always suffer denials from people.
She's getting hate from her social media post about HK but I don't care about that anymore. Liu Yi Fei can believe what she choose to believe. Besides, her post is quite ambiguous. It sounded she was pertaining to whoever uses brutality and force (which can be either police or protesters) but what she saw might have been HK acting unpeaceful.
Anonymous
Well, people can make their own judgement about her acting even if she is so beautiful like a goddess. Doesn't mean they're jealous. We should care if people with the fame speaks out against democratic justice as we all know China is trying to repress HK civilians. We're all projecting our own thoughts onto what she posted on Weibo, but of course she supports China. She needs to make money. It's funny because she Chinese American and is against liberal protests for a more democratic society.
Unknown
The lady has a beauty that is gorgeous.