The Curse of Turandot 图兰朵魔咒缘起 starring Guan Xiaotong and Dylan Sprouse has locked an October 15 premiere three years since filming was completed in July 2018. As someone who grew up watching Dylan Sprouse since his The Suite Life of Zack and Cody days, I couldn’t contain myself! After all, it’s not everyday that we see a Hollywood actor in Chinese entertainment.
The Curse of Turandot is adapted from the 1926 opera Turandot by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. The story follows Princess Turandot who is cursed by a mysterious power that will cause her to lose her humanity. A man must solve three riddles in order to save her. All of this takes place as chaos descends their kingdom. It sounds like your standard adventure romance though it does seem to have all the elements you’d need for an enjoyable movie.
Besides, I think the couple pairing between Guan Xiaotong and Dylan Sprouse is so unlikely that it’s amazing and fans seem to think so as well! The movie also features a strong supporting cast with actors like Jiang Wen as the King and Hu Jun as the general. French actress Sophie Marceau and Swiss actor Vincent Perez also star.
Apparently, Dylan had to learn Mandarin, sword fighting and horseback riding in six months?? I’ve been learning mandarin for half of my life and I still can’t speak as well as him. It’s his speaking voice we hear in the trailer though it’s likely that his character will be dubbed by a voice actor in the actual film.
Anyways, I want to know your thoughts on this and how you feel about Dylan Sprouse starring in his first ever Chinese movie. Comment below!
Source: 1
carmen
Estoy contando los dias para ver estreno, sera lindo verlo y hablar mandarin
tsevca
It doesn’t mean he is fluent. He probably just learned his lines with some needed basics concerning his text to know what he’s talking about, but I think you still know more.
BTW, just me, or the majority of Caucasians in Asian films/dramas is blond? Like they wanted to stress they’re different as much as possible. 😀
Anon
Question is why do they even need a caucasian in this movie? Is the story a cross-cultural setting? From the synopsis, it’s just a pretty standard fairy tale story. It might subconsciously come across as only a white hero could solve the riddles to save the princess.
Wen
Because in the Italian opera, suitors from all over the world came to court the princess.
Chris
I think it’s neat that there are crossovers–it’s always nice to see actors from all around the world working together–but I do think given the global issues right now, some people are going to see this as the white hero swooping in to save the world kind of trope. It’s not what I thought of when I first read the news of this movie a few years back, but given the comments I’ve seen around social media lately, I’m probably in the minority. Overall, I think it’s still a nice collaboration. I’m familiar with the opera and am interested to see how this was adapted into a movie. I hope I can find some place to watch it here.
I agree with Tsevca. He probably learned his lines really well, which is not too hard to do (speaking from experience), and enough of the script so he can look realistic when acting. I figured he’d be dubbed in the movie, but you never know–maybe they’ll end up using his real voice!