The bones of “Mulan” remain familiar, though. We first see the character as a playful, acrobatic young girl (played by Crystal Rao), climbing up and leaping across rooftops in her village to chase a chicken in a bit of foreshadowing of the action to come. Her father (Ma, as warm a presence here as he was in “The Farewell”) seems proud of his daughter’s plucky nature, but her mother (Rosalind Chao) reminds her that “a daughter brings honor through marriage.” A meeting with a matchmaker (the veteran Pei-Pei Cheng) that goes comically wrong is one of many indications that a traditionally servile, female path is not in Mulan’s future.  

When invaders led by the villainous Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) threaten the emperor (Jet Li) years later, the imperial army fans out across China to amass soldiers to protect the palace, gathering one man from each family. Mulan’s family has no sons, so her father—a wounded warrior himself—must join to maintain honor. Instead, Mulan grabs his sword and rides her horse under cover of darkness, reporting for duty to the stern commander (Yen) with her hair tucked under a cap and her voice slightly lowered. In the tradition of gender-bending movies ranging from “Yentl” to “Just One of the Guys,” Mulan must find convoluted ways to avoid changing clothes and showering in front of her fellow soldiers, including the handsome Honghui (Yoson An), with whom she enjoys a verbal and physical spark. She also struggles to avoid the shapeshifting sorceress Xianniang (Gong Li), Bori Khan’s menacing right-hand woman who keeps finding her. Despite her malevolent nature, she and Mulan have more in common than the young woman would like to admit, and the complicated and uncomfortably honest nature of their relationship gives the film an intriguing, feminist spark. (Li also gets to wear the most fabulously ornate costumes, including ones inspired by Xianniang’s ability to transform herself into a hawk.)

But the movie loses some momentum when it’s about the actual nuts and bolts of the plot against the emperor. Sure, it’s the narrative machinery that drives Mulan’s transformation, but it gets bogged-down and talky, and it’s not nearly as compelling as the character’s ultimate acceptance of her undeniable inner strength. The regal and fierce Xianniang has her number early on, and when they finally meet each other for battle, she wisely tells Mulan: “Your deceit weakens you. It poisons your qi.” There’s a bit of a Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker, love-hate dynamic to this showdown, but the underlying truth of that statement resonates. Her feminine strength has made her an outcast in this male-dominated world, but she recognizes that Mulan can’t achieve her own full potential until she’s fully honest about her identity.