Summary
We see the Great Wall of China at night. A hawk flies down and knocks off the helmet of one of the night guards when suddenly, the Hun army begins to invade. The guard climbs up a ladder to give a warning, when he comes face-to-face with the owner of the hawk, Shan Yu. He lights a fire to give a warning about the Hun invasion and tells Shan Yu that all of China knows he is there.
General Li visits the Emperor to tell him what has happened. The Emperor's advisor, Chi Fu, does not believe that this could have happened, but the Emperor tells him to deliver conscription notices throughout the provinces, calling for recruits for the army. "A single grain of rice can tip the scale," says the Emperor, suggesting that a new soldier might be just what the army needs to win.
The scene shifts to Fa Mulan, a young girl who is preparing to meet with a matchmaker, as she eats rice and writes notes on her arm. As a rooster crows, she runs to go find her family, and stumbles upon her small dog, who helps her with her chores, dragging grain out to the animals outside.
Mulan's father, Fa Zhou, is a farmer, who goes to a small temple to pray for his daughter. "Please help Mulan impress the matchmaker today," he prays, when suddenly, he is interrupted by Mulan's dog, dragging gain into the temple and barking wildly. The chickens follow, pecking away at the grains.
Mulan brings her father tea, telling him that the doctor told him to drink three cups in the morning and three at night. He tells her to hurry to town, as they are counting on her "to uphold the family honor." She runs off to town, where her mother Fa Li is waiting for her. Also there is Mulan's grandmother, who has a good-luck cricket in a cage for Mulan. To prove the efficacy of the cricket, Grandma covers her eyes and walks across the busy city streets, causing a great deal of chaos, but remaining completely unscathed.
Mulan arrives on a horse, late and a mess. The women sing a song as they clean up Mulan, "Bring Honor to Us All." As they bathe her, Fa Li notices the notes on Mulan's arm. The women sing about what men want in a women, and the fact that men must fight in the army, while women must bear sons. Mulan's grandmother gives her the cricket and some other good luck charms, including an apple and a pendant, and sends her on her way.
Mulan follows the cranky matchmaker in to be evaluated. The matchmaker thinks she is too skinny to bear sons and makes a note, as the lucky cricket somehow manages to burst out of its cage and begin hopping around, much to Mulan's distress. As Mulan pushes the cricket into her mouth to hide it, the matchmaker asks her to recite the "final admonition."
Mulan reads the admonition off of her arm, and the matchmaker tries to see if she's written hints on the fan. As she leads Mulan away, she gets the ink from Mulan's arm on her hand. As the matchmaker tells Mulan to pour some tea as part of her evaluation, she unknowingly smudges ink on her face in a way that looks like facial hair. Mulan looks down at the tea she has poured, noticing that the cricket is sitting in it, but she cannot remove the cricket before the matchmaker picks up the cup and goes to drink.
Mulan tries to take the cup back, but it spills on the matchmaker, and the cricket gets stuck in her dress. Confused about the cricket, the matchmaker knocks over a pot of coal and sits in it, burning her backside and screaming. The matchmaker comes screaming out of the building and Mulan throws tea on her to put out the fire, before walking away with her head hung low, followed by the cricket. "You may look like a bride, but you will never bring your family honor!" screams the matchmaker.
When Mulan returns home, she is ashamed to tell her father that it went badly. Putting the horse in its stable, she looks at her reflection in its trough and sings a song about her identity and the fact that she is a disappointment, "Reflection." She removes her makeup and looks at her reflection in some mirrors, before sitting on a bench in the garden.
Mulan's father goes to her and talks about the beautiful cherry blossoms around the yard, suggesting that the late-blooming blossom will be the most beautiful of all. Suddenly, they are interrupted by the arrival of Chi Fu, who announces that one man from each family must serve in the imperial military. Mulan watches as they call for a member from her family to serve, and her father, who walks with a cane, steps forward, limping.
Worried for her father, Mulan runs forward and begs for them to not make her father serve in the military, but Chi Fu cuts her off, telling her not to be so forthright in front of a man. Inside, Mulan watches her father practice with a sword, but fall to the ground in weakness.
That night, Mulan pours tea for her family, before slamming down her cup and insisting that her father ought not to go to war. "It is an honor to protect my country and my family," he says, angrily, as Mulan runs outside. Standing outside in the rain, Mulan contemplates how to help her family. She goes into the temple, lights some incense for the ancestors and prays.
Afterward, she takes the summons that her father received from beside his bed and cuts off her hair, tying it up like a man's. She then puts on a man's armor and rides away on the family horse. Grandma wakes up, feeling that Mulan is gone, and alerts Mulan's parents. Her father looks at his bedside table, where he finds Mulan's comb. He then finds that Mulan has taken his armor, and Mulan's mother tells him to go after her. She will certainly be killed, however, if the army finds out she is actually a girl.
Analysis
The film starts with a military conflict. The Han Dynasty has been set upon by the ruthless Huns, who have unexpectedly breached the Great Wall. A major imperial conflict gets set in motion before the viewer knows anything about the context or characters, which raises the stakes, and foreshadows the fact that the narrative arc will follow the structure of a geopolitical conflict. The well-being of the Han Dynasty is at stake, and it will take a great hero to defend the region.
No sooner has this conflict been set up than we meet the eponymous Mulan, a young tomboy who is trying to fulfill the expectations of her family. While she is somewhat absentminded and ungraceful, she must pass herself off as feminine and poised for the matchmaker who is coming to pair her up with a husband. Mulan's struggle is one of identity. She cannot match how she feels inside with her womanly exterior, as she reveals in the song, "Reflection."
A great deal of Mulan's identity issues have to do with social expectations about gender. As outlined in the song, "Bring Honor to Us All," a woman is expected to be beautiful, have good taste, and bear children for her husband. Men are meant to fight and protect the Dynasty, but women are more ornamental, as represented by the fineries and makeup that Mulan wears to visit the matchmaker. Mulan does not naturally enjoy these feminine undertakings, preferring to live a more rustic and independent life, and her struggle to fit in in order to "bring honor" to her family is at the heart of her personal conflict. This struggle has to do with her struggles not only to fit in, but more specifically, to fit in as the child-bearing, heterosexual woman that people expect her to be.
A definitive moment comes when Mulan decides to join the army in her father's place. She makes a determined decision, cuts her hair, dons his armor, and rides away on a horse, ready to fight in his stead. No sooner has she been rejected by the world of feminine grace and marriage than Mulan decides to go in the completely opposite direction, and try to live in the world of men. While her decision is motivated not by her rejection from female society, but by her desire to help her father, Mulan sees an opportunity to assume a completely new identity, perhaps one that will deliver her from her existential confusion.
The film is beautifully animated, immersing the viewer in the world of Imperial China through its depiction of the clothes, landscapes, and objects of ancient times. While the narrative and dialogue are quite modern and easy to understand and apply to contemporary life, the visual palette of the film is authentic to the time in which the film is set, while also taking playful liberties.
