Director Jingle Ma's version of film Mulan evokes the timeless themes of a Chinese ancient folktale. [Provided to China Daily]

Mulan's world, like ours, is full of conflict, war and strife. It is an old story, but somehow it is still current; we can see our own reflection in it.

花木兰的故事已经流传了很多年，可是花木兰的世界似乎离我们并不遥远。重返那个充满矛盾和争斗的时代，足以让我们这些现代人反观自身。

The folktale of Mulan has been told for centuries - loved because it has it all: action, romance, betrayal, morality and cross-dressing. In retelling the ancient folktale Mulan, director Jingle Ma has evoked the story's timeless themes: womanhood, manhood, sacrifice and homeland.

Established actress and pop singer Zhao Wei (of Red Cliff and Shaolin Soccer) plays Hua Mulan, the daughter who takes her sick father's place in the Northern Wei army. In a not-so-believable man-disguise, she joins the battle against the invading Rouran tribes.

Mulan's boyhood friend spots her in the army's ranks and tries to dissuade her from going to war - this isn't a woman's place, he says.

Tiger: (You have to) talk less, laugh less.

Shǎo shuōhuà，shǎoxiào.

少说话，少笑。

Mulan: Why?

Wèi shénme?

为什么?

Tiger: You laugh like this: Hi hi hi. We laugh like this: Ha ha ha.

Nǐ xiào shì：xī xī xī。Wǒmen xiào shì：hā hā hā 。

你笑是：嘻嘻嘻。我们笑是：哈哈哈。

Also, don't open your eyes so wide.

Háiyǒu，yǎnjing búyào zhēng nàme dà。

还有，眼睛不要睁那么大。

Mulan: Why not?

Wèi shénme?

为什么?

Tiger: Our eyes are not that big.

Wǒmen yǎnjing nǎyǒu nàme dà。

我们眼睛哪有那么大。

Mulan: You mean, your eyes are too small.

Shì nǐ yǎnjing tàixiǎo le。

是你眼睛太小了。

Like other cross-dressing women soldiers - Joan of Arc, Catalina de Euraso, or the two pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read - Mulan defies expectations about a woman's role; she is stronger, faster and smarter than the men she fights with. Mulan proves herself a skilled kungfu fighter and an adept soldier on the battlefield. She quickly rises through the ranks and becomes a senior general in the Northern Wei army.

But even as she leads a successful war campaign, Mulan grapples with her conscience. She questions whether she is strong enough to lead her army and brutal enough to sacrifice her fellow soldiers. She didn't understand when she was a young girl in her village, but she comes to learn that war is ugly.

A complex love grows between Mulan and fellow general Wentai. Wentai learns of Mulan's true identity, but swears to keep her secret.

After losing a whole battalion of soldiers to a Rouran ambush, Mulan confides in him:

Mulan: I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to be a general. I want to be a normal person.

Wǒ bùxiǎng zài dǎzhàng，wǒ bùxiǎng dāng jiāngjūn，wǒ yào zuò yígè pǔtōng rén.

我不想再打仗，我不想当将军，我要做一个普通人。

Wentai: Who wants to fight! I also don't want to fight anymore!

Sheí xiǎng dǎzhàng!Wǒ yě bùxiǎng zài dǎzhàng le!

谁想打仗!我也不想再打仗了!

If I could use my life to stop this battle, I would have done it long ago!

Rúguǒ néng yòng wǒde shēngmìng qù tíngzhǐ zhèchǎng zhànzhēng, wǒ zǎo jiù zuòle 。

如果能用我的生命去停止这场战争，我早就做了。

The problem is we cannot choose!

Kě wèntí shì，wǒmen méi dé xuǎnzé!

可问题是，我们没得选择!

Once you put on a general's armor, your life is no longer yours. This is what war is about!

Nǐ chuānshàng le jiāngjūn de zhànjiǎ，nǐ jiù búzài shǔyú nǐ。Zhè jiùshì zhànzhēng!

你穿上了将军的战甲，你就不再属于你。这就是战争!

Mulan and General Wentai's love never comes to fruition. But there are tender moments, like when Wentai nurses Mulan back to life after she is wounded in a particularly bloody battle. There are so few supplies in their war camp that, in lieu of water, Wentai cuts his arm and squeezes his own blood into Mulan's mouth, reviving her. It is the closest that they ever come to kissing.

Mulan: I dreamed that I died. You all left me. There was no one around me.

Wǒ mèngdào wǒ sǐle，nǐmen dōu zǒule，zhōuwéi yígè rén yě méiyǒu 。

我梦到我死了，你们都走了，周围一个人也没有。

Wentai: I count the stars every night and have not counted an extra one. So you won't die.

Wǒ měitiān wǎnshang dōu shù xīngxing，yígè dōu méiyǒu duō，suǒyǐ nǐ yídìng búhuì sǐ。

我每天晚上都数星星，一个都没有多，所以你一定不会死。

Mulan: You're so good to me.

Nǐ zhēnhǎo。

你真好。

Ma's version of Mulan is a war epic, propelled by the unrequited love between Mulan and Wentai. Their emotions and their moral dilemmas feel like problems that we might also have, or like those that face our contemporary world leaders. Mulan's world - and ours - is full of conflict, war and strife.

Though an old story, it's somehow still current; we can still see ourselves reflected in it. Fables have the ability to do that, to continue to speak to us no matter how ancient they are.

Courtesy of The World of Chinese, www.theworldofchinese.com