I didn't think Maggie Cheung's lips moved in sync with the Mandarin dialog. I had just seen Hero so I figured her speaking voice would be much lower. Does anyone know if she (and Michelle Yeoh/Khan) was dubbed? The male actors and the mother looked like they were really speaking Mandarin.
shareTo be thoroughly honest, don't expect that it was her voice you heard in Hero, either. In far too many movies from HK, they dub over the original actors' voices far too often IMO. It was amazing how much cultural significance this has in China and Taiwan. You start going, hey! i know that character and that one. Not long after I saw Soong Sisters, I saw an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about Ai-Ling, who happened to be in SF. I was greatly saddened when she finally did pass away, but she lived a loooong time. She was the one married to Chang Kai-shek, I believe.
I found out not so long ago that there were brothers, too, but they didn't get included in the movie for some reason. They played major roles too, didn't they?
It was Soong Mei-ling that married Chiang Kai-shek and lived in America. And yes, she lived for very long--- 105 years--- and died on october 23, 2003. Soon Ai-ling married H.H Kung, the finance minister of China prior to the Communist takeover. Soong Ching-ling married Dr Sun Yat-sen. The 3 brothers were Tse-Ven Soong who was the Prime Minister, and Tse-Liang Soong and Tse-An Soong, both financiers.
shareIf Ai-Ling was the oldest, she married H. H. Kung, said to be the wealthiest man in China.
As for the brothers: one was graduated from Harvard, in economics, and when he returned to China established a chain of banks -- and a chain of pawn shops.
He was also the Chiang Kia-shek gov't's treasurer.
The book "The Soong Dynasty" gives the details on all of that and more.
Michelle Yeoh and Maggie cheung were both dubbed..I am sure about that
shareThey were obviously dubbed, but not in the entire movie.
You can hear Michelle's real voice when they speak English. The dubbing is a female voice much higher than Michelle's deep voice. You can hear Michelle's voice in her later movies. There is a taped interview with her on the specials in the DVD of Magnificent Warriors. If I'm correct, it's also her voice in Tomorrow Never Dies (Bond), Crouching Tiger, and Geisha.
I'm 99% sure that it's also Maggie's voice when they speak English. Maggie's voice isn't quite husky, but much richer than the voice of the dubber. Her later movies feature her voice. See "Comrades, Almost a Love Story," which happens to be an excellent film.