Mulan Movie Reflection

The movie Mulan tells the story of the legendary Chinese woman warrior, Fa Mulan. In the Disney movie, Mulan is the only child of a disabled veteran. When the Huns invade from the north, the Chinese Emperor sets a conscription saying that every family must provide a son to be a soldier in the Chinese army. Fearing for her father’s life, as he is the only man in the house, Mulan runs away and joins the army in his place, even though it is against the law for her to do so. She almost fails in her mission, but with renewed efforts, she manages to become one of the best soldiers in the company. Later in the film, Mulan saves the company from the Huns by cleverly shooting a cannon into the mountains and creating an avalanche. However she is stabbed

The haughty government official snaps back that she should hold her tongue in a man 's presence (Pinsky). Her own father looks away from her and says, “Mulan, you dishonor me.” When her father said that, it strengthened the despair Mulan has inside. Mulan is losing hope in her ability to bring honor to her family and do her duty. Later during dinner, Mulan tries to dissuade her father from joining the army but he shouts, “It is an honor to protect my country and my family! I will die doing what 's right!” (Mulan). The conscription offers Mulan an opportunity to redeem the family honor, save her father from a certain death in the army and to become the woman she wants to be (Dong). She takes the notice and runs away to join the army, disguised as a man. She is successful in her training and manages to save the entire company (and the entire nation) from the Huns by creating an avalanche. Her secret is only exposed when her injury is examined by a medic. All of the men in her company are shocked and act as if they have never seen a woman before; which is a contrast to the way they treated her earlier in the movie (Mulan). During training camp, her company accepted Mulan and treated her as an equal. She was just “one of the guys”. The revelation of her secret exposes Mulan to the death penalty because dressing as a man is strictly forbidden

In the original ballad Mulan runs away to join the army to spare her little brother and the ailing father (qtd. in “The Ballad”). The movie references Mulan’s brother by having her dog be called little brother (Mulan). Another noticeable difference between the ballad and the movie is that Mulan was in the army for 12 years and she did not fall in love with her commanding officer (qtd. in “The Ballad”). The main points of family, love for one’s nation, choosing to do the morally right thing are not lost over all of the singing and fighting. Mulan is a movie that has a strong female character but portrays women in a negative way and shows that sometimes to do the morally right thing, laws must be broken. Mulan is an excellent movie to show young children but there are some things that are definitely worth skipping