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I am an English and Film major, cinephile, and aspiring writer! When I'm not buried in school work and lectures, I'm usually in the depths of streaming services and their plethora of film options. Or reading.
“I like boys! I like loud music! I like gyrating! I’m 13, deal with it!”
The 95th Academy Awards is just around the corner and Turning Red, the popular 2022 animated film, produced by Pixar and distributed by Disney, is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. The film was created by Julia Cho, Sarah Streicher, and Domee Shi (Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4), and directed by the latter. Turning Red follows Shi’s Bao, an animated Pixar short film released back in 2018, with both films sharing similar themes of family life in Asian households, namely focusing on the adolescence growing up in Toronto.
Mei Discovers Herself
Meilin “Mei” Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) is only 13 years old, she’s practically an adult because she said so herself! At some point in our youth, we’ve all stopped chasing endorphins through cartoon shows and streetball games and found that same rush through romantic attraction. In the most innocent sense, considering this is a kids’ movie, Mei grows obsessively fond of the older, broody, hip convenience store worker, Devon (voiced by Addison Chandler). So much so that she resorts to drawing creepy portraits of the two of them.
I, an Asian-American in my twenties, have experienced my fair share of pre-teen public humiliation, lots of which are akin to what Mei experiences herself. Carrying a notebook around middle school with every page full of M.A.S.H. games listing my crush as my only love interest option was a bold move for 13-year-old me. I truly tested my luck flaunting the embarrassing love declaration around, only to meet my demise when the poor boy heard word of it and said, verbatim, “I’d rather die.”
In Mei’s situation, her mother, Ming Lee (Sandra Oh; Big Fat Liar, Grey’s Anatomy, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Chair, Umma, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Invincible), finds Mei’s drawings and gets the wrong idea. Ming drags Mei along with her to confront a perplexed Devon for poisoning her daughter’s innocent young mind. The visuals were absolutely perfect at representing the magnitude of humiliation both Mei and I feel. It was intense with quick and slo-mo shots of laughing shoppers, and pulsing effects that really capture the essence of wanting to die out of embarrassment.
Oh, Mother…
The second Ming puts Mei in that embarrassing position, the bond of trust between mother and daughter was slightly stretched and altered. There is a hesitation now when Ming asks Mei how she’s feeling, and Mei is quick to bend the truth out of fear of another lash-out. However, in all of this, Mei still finds a way to blame herself. She is overall mad for disappointing her mother, who, first of all, acted a bit aggressively and out of line. Although, this fear of disappointing one’s parent(s) is fairly common for the Asian diaspora.
Complemented by a very strong and personality-diverse friend group, a hormonal boy band obsession, and the yearning for her mother’s approval, Mei is also kind of a weirdo. We all knew a girl like her in our middle school days. Maybe some of us were her. But if there’s one thing that’s been defining her personality, it’s her idolization of her mother and her value for her opinion.
Red For Anger, Red For Panda, Red For Puberty
The Lee Family has a long list of ancestors, one of which they owe the inconvenient blessing of turning into a literal beast to ancestor Sun Yee. When Mei turns into a red panda for the first time, it becomes clear it’s a metaphor for puberty and menstruation, most notably through the stereotypical symptom of moodiness. And if it weren’t more obvious, she’s red.
With that mother/daughter trust bond weakened, Mei lets her mother believe she started her period and doesn’t at all confide in her for help in her unnatural dilemma. Mei continues on to school in a panic, and Ming continues her spur of humiliation when she shows up, hiding behind a tree, watching Mei in class, and waiting for the perfect opportunity with everyone gathered around to tell her “You forgot your pads!” It triggers her red panda transformation, and later Ming explains the family history when she is finished chasing her through town.
Ming’s overbearing helicopter parenting is slightly explained. She thought she would have more time to prepare Mei if she watched her like a hawk for any symptoms.
Were you silent, or were you silenced?
“I can’t be like this forever. My whole family would freak. Especially my mom. All her hopes and dreams are pinned on me.”
Meilin “Mei” Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), Turning Red
Hope for a normal life is not so far away for Mei when their family can perform a ritual to tame the beast on the next full-blood moon. Ming explains that any strong emotion will release the panda. I cannot help but see that negative connotation towards uncontrollable hormonal emotion, representing it as a beast of its own. Now so far, it could be taken at face value, or perhaps there’s an opportunity for a lesson by the end of Turning Red to break generational patterns.
Enter: Grandma Wu (voiced by Wai Ching Ho; Daredevil, Iron Fist, The Defenders). She is a woman who is part of a harder-to-suade generation, and one Ming fears disappointing the most, especially if she fails to get Mei in line. Ming becomes a character we sympathize with now because she’s facing personal mother issues of her own, garnering the attention of older audience members who can relate.
What I’ve learned so far about Turning Red is that there really are two target audiences: kids in general and kids of Asian immigrants. The latter may recognize the seemingly unbreakable patterns of generational trauma and fear subtly expressed throughout the film (i.e. the eagerness to prove you’re doing everything right when it comes to parenting). It is an age-old classic mother-of-the-mother trope, where we are angered by the first wrong do-er until the second is introduced and we now understand why Ming is the way she is. However, the creators portray Mei as an obedient enough daughter so as to not propagandize and influence young minds.
“We are walking into that concert girls and coming out women.”
Shi, Turning Red
Family revelations aside, Mei has a new mission on her paws: getting to the 4*Town concert with her friends so that they can become women. Even though Mei has found a way to neutralize the panda outbursts through happy thoughts of her friends, her mother still rebuffs her idea of attending the concert. In a rebellious pre-teen manner, Mei and her friends still try to find a way to raise money and go anyway. They do this by capitalizing on Mei’s abilities and hustling their way through meet-and-greets and merch.
They barely make enough money to go with their final paycheck coming from a fellow schoolmate Tyler (voiced by Tristan Allerick Chen) with the promise of a certain panda’s guest appearance at his birthday party. Mei and her friends find out that they have got the concert date wrong and that it actually falls on the night she is supposed to perform the ritual. The stress becomes too much for Mei and she gets caught in the act of almost mauling Tyler by her mother. She still cares far more about her mother’s opinion, so much so that she doesn’t go to defend her friends when they are thrown under the bus.
Turning Red and Breaking the Mold
Mei’s friends decide to go to the concert without her as she stays at home to perform the beast-taming ritual with her entire family, aunts and all. Other than the fantasy semantics, a part I found fairly hard to believe was that they were able to buy tickets to a popular boy band’s concert on the day of and at the same rate it was a month ago. Okayyy.
During the ritual, Mei meets her ancestor Sun Yee in some astral realm where she must fight to rid herself of that ancestral inconvenience. But lo and behold, Mei has learned to love herself as the panda because it is everything she is and nothing everyone else wants her to be.
Panda Mei sprints to try and catch the concert. Ming, in her own flood of frustration, betrayal, and anger, unleashes her beast and chases after Mei. Turns out, Ming is an even more terrifying Godzilla-esque version of Mei’s cute and cuddly panda bear.
All sympathy for Ming rushes out of me every time she does something to embarrass Mei. Like pulling apart the concert venue roof in front of thousands of people to chastise Mei. Even though Mei is actually a really good daughter who never asks for anything. When you’re an Asian child, that’s not enough, apparently.
Eventually, things come to a Hero’s Journey resolution when Grandma and all the aunties break out their beasts to help save Ming from a terror she cannot control. All together now in that astral world, we get that “I’m proud of you” spiel from Grandma and everyone takes turns returning to their human forms. Ming stops trying to shove Mei into the perfectly crafted mold she created for her, and lets her keep the panda.
It ultimately works out for them all because Mei’s power is a popular add-on to their family’s temple tours!
Final Thoughts on Turning Red
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The writing, animation, storyline, casting, and everything in between give perfect reasoning behind Turning Red’s Oscar nomination. Although intense on the film’s message in some parts, it still acts as great entertainment for families, and educational for everyone involved. Since its release, there have been some controversies revolving around Turning Red’s themes, particularly the “inappropriateness” of puberty in a kids’ film, and the out-of-character behavior from Mei that may influence kids to act the same way.
The bottom line is: kids are going to go through puberty and that’s non-negotiable. With Turning Red, it’s done in a tasteful manner that showcases only the tip of the iceberg. If the immaturity runs that far deep for you, Barney’s getting a reboot next year! Check it out!
As for Mei’s outburst towards the end, take that as a parenting lesson in and of itself. A child is bound to explode if they are coddled and watched as much as Mei is. Pick up a book on parenting and understand that a film is not responsible for raising your child; you are.
Rant aside, it was a truly enjoyable film that expands the road for Asian representation in film. It tackles the hard stuff but also manages to keep it light-hearted with lovable characters and a swoony boy band. 4*Town for life! It is a rollercoaster of emotions complete with cultural and familial obligations, and a song bound to tug at your heartstrings and get stuck in your head. Turning Red is wholesome, heartfelt, funny, and overall, entertaining enough for a re-watch.
I am an English and Film major, cinephile, and aspiring writer! When I'm not buried in school work and lectures, I'm usually in the depths of streaming services and their plethora of film options. Or reading.
This article was edited by John Tangalin.