How I would rewrite Mulan 2020

#3 Mulan trains in the army and makes new friends

Mulan is on guard the moment she stepped into the camp, intimidated by the overwhelming presence of testosterone. She joins the throngs of men queuing to be registered, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, but an asshole named Yao, who is bothering a sweet, doe-eyed young boy nicknamed Cricket, causes a commission which ended up having someone pummeling towards Mulan and knocking her off her feet.

"You alright?" a nice young man, Shang, extended his hand to help her up. She pushes his hand aside and stands up by herself, muttering, "I'm fine.". Shang is a little taken aback by the coldness of this strange, petite, young boy, but shrugs it off and resumes his position standing behind Mulan.

Her guarded behaviour did not sit well with the hot-tempered Yao, who took it as a sign of arrogance and rudeness. He will often make snide remarks at Mulan and make fun of her, and sometimes play pranks on her with his friend, Ling. Harmless pranks, but Mulan is thoroughly annoyed and dislikes him.

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At first, Mulan has real trouble keeping up with the training. Sure, she had ran around the fields as a child and practiced martial arts and swords with her father, but she is still after all a lady that did not have to do heavy farm work. Needless to say, her physical condition is weaker than most of the men training alongside her. She is one of the last few in running drills, she can barely lift one stone weight to train her arms and her aiming with a bow is terrible (everyone is terrible at it too, except Cricket, who is extremely lucky).

Practice matches with bamboo poles as makeshift swords are the worst for Mulan. Initially, Mulan is matched with weaker opponents, such as Cricket, who has neither strength nor the skills to wield the bamboo pole. She easily defeats them with her skills, and is always humble after winning a match. As Cricket fell to the floor with a hard thump, Mulan extended her hand and commented, "Good match!" with a smile, earning a grateful smile back from Cricket as well as his respect and friendship. Her luck ran out when she is matched with Shang, whom, after an intense match, finally defeated Mulan with some skill and strength, tiring her out with powerful whacks of the pole and lasting longer with his good stamina, gotten from years of plowing the fields and other farm work for his father. The next day, she is matched with Yao, who is merciless in delivering blow after blow. His brute strength soon overpowered Mulan, who quickly fell to the floor with new bruises forming on her body. This continued for several days as she is matched with stronger and bigger opponents.

Everyday is torturous, and as Mulan lies her aching body carefully onto the hard wooden bed one night, a single tear drops from her face. She remembers her family, the last time she saw them before she left for the army. Her father laying quietly at the side, her mother with her face knotted in a worried frown as she slept beside him, gripping the hand of her sister sleeping on the floor. She struggles to keep her tears in, and forces herself to sleep.

But Mulan is not one to give up. Like her father, she is hardworking and smart, and over time she learns to adapt. Through sheer grit, she pushes herself to run faster everyday and no longer finishes as one of the last few. She can now lift one stone weight with one hand, which she passes to the other to work out both arms. She asks the better archers to teach her how to use the bow, and improves over time.

Finally, she is once again in a practice match, and her opponent is Yao. As Yao comes after her with all his strength, she avoids as much as she can, frowning as she tries to figure out how to defeat him. Yes, he is stronger than her, but what does she have that she can take advantage of to strike him? Distracted, she is hit in the stomach by him, and falls backwards on the floor. While Yao gloats and basks in the praises and cheers thrown for him, Mulan struggles to stand and uses her pole as a support. The bamboo pole bends a little but does not break, and this gives her an idea.

As Yao turns his attention back to Mulan, he smiles wickedly and sprints towards her, set to give her the final blow. To the crowd's surprise, Mulan sprints towards Yao as well. Right at the last moment, Mulan sticks the pole hard into the sand and jumps. The bamboo bends at Mulan's weight, but does not break, and as it recoils, it propels Mulan upwards and forward with such speed and force that for a split second, Mulan seems to be soaring in the air like a phoenix taking flight.

Everything is in slow motion as all eyes stare up at Mulan, who seem to be shining golden with the Sun at her back. Then, time speeds up as Mulan comes hurtling down fast, right leg sticking out to land a kick right at Yao's chest with extra force from gravity. The force is so great that Yao flew a few feet back before landing hard, the wind knocked right out of him.

Silence. Finally, Shang recovered and lets out a cheer for Mulan. Cricket's enthusiastic applause follows, and soon the whole crowd bursts into cheer. Mulan smiles as she receives the approval and respect of all these men, and she finally feels that she belongs.

On the other side of the ring, as Yao struggle to sit up, a couple of guys start booing and laughing at his pathetic state. Yao's friends Ling and Chein-Po rush to his aid. Mulan sees this and quickly makes her way to Yao, extending her hand to him. "Thank you for the good match Yao, really. You were a very tough opponent," Mulan said sincerely, letting her guard down and smiling for the first time at him. Yao is surprised at her smile, and smiles back, pleased that she finally does not seem arrogant. He takes her hand and stands, the two are finally friends, respecting each other.

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From then on, and after various incidents (one of them involving Shang and Mulan accidentally taking a bath together), Mulan unwittingly bonds with her group of new friends as she opens up more. Previously, she felt like a fish out of water and was extremely uncomfortable and intimidated around the men, hence her guarded attitude. But after feeling accepted by them and feeling like their equal, she is finally comfortable enough to let her guard down. She talks and jokes freely with Shang, Yao, Cricket, Ling and Chien-Po and expresses herself comfortably, with nothing as superficial as gender to hold her back.