Turning Red: The Pixar coming-of-age story that gets it
The 2022 Pixar film directed by Domee Shi is a semi-autobiographical story of Meilin “Mei” Lee a thirteen-year-old Chinese-Canadian who is torn between being a dutiful daughter and exploring life as a teenager all while managing some big changes. When she experiences extreme emotions, she finds herself transforming into a giant, furry red panda because of a hereditary curse.
This movie tapped into many things for me, and I find myself watching clips of it at least once a month, as certain scenes are extremely relatable and comforting.
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The immigrant experience, especially Chinese-Canadian
Domee Shi grew up in Canada and aspects of her own childhood is clearly reflected in the movie. It is so quintessentially Canadian and Chinese, just like Mei is. We see aspects of this Canadian-Chinese culture from her Canadian flag decal stickers and maple-leaf pajama shirt to her mom’s passion for Celine Dion and their life in Chinatown. Mei’s mother, Ming, is overbearing, loving, strict, and controlling. Ming Lee wants what is best for her daughter and has high expectations for her daughter to succeed and contribute to the family by helping with the family temple.
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That other big scary red thing, ahem, ladies
People who menstruate may quickly identify with Mei’s horror waking up and feeling like a completely different creature. There was even a joke made about it in the movie, with Ming accidentally mistaking her daughter’s “code red” as menstruation rather than the panda problem. This scene is comedic and carries into the next with Mei attempting to act normal in school only to be mortified with her mother’s attempts to deliver menstrual pads to her in front of her classmates. Oh, god, I can relate to the feeling. Not only does experiencing your period for the first time change how you see yourself, like Mei, sometimes we do feel stinky, messy, hairy in ways that we hadn’t before. Feelings of shame, anger, and fear all swirl in one hormonal cloud.
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Mother-daughter relationships
This story is ultimately about mother-daughter relationships. As the movie progresses, we see how Ming Lee’s own relationship with her mother may differ or mirror how she has raised Mei. When Ming’s mother calls on the phone, we see Ming cowering in fear. This is perhaps an exaggerated example of the way that Ming feels towards conversations with her mother. We can hear the years of disappointment between Ming and Grandma Wu.
In the forest scene, Mei stumbles upon her mother, a teenager, crying. Her mother is inconsolable, upset that her panda had hurt her mother. In this moment, we see how the teenage version of Ming had held so much inside for so long that when she released it, it was like an explosion. This is symbolized by the size of her red panda as well. Mei comforts her mother and together they walk back to the portal together, with her mom slowly transforming to her modern-day self, dejected. Here, we can see the transformation of their relationship, with Mei seeing more behind the overbearing behavior of her mom.
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The power of friendship
Mei’s friends are a significant part of her life. They encourage her to go outside the tiny circle her mother has drawn for her. She can be her weird, wacky self with her friends. Together, they obsess over the band 4Town and crush over teenage boys in school. Thinking about Mei’s friends is what grounds her and allows her to control her panda. Though she feels guilty that “thinking about the people she loves the most” and it’s not her parents, it does show the very true reality of teens as they start to find sense of themselves and meet the family their chosen family.
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Generational trauma and the uniquely feminine experience
Sun Yee, the family’s ancestor had turned into a red panda to save her people and passed this blessing on to her daughters. For what had been a blessing at the time became more of an “inconvenience” in modern times with even slight emotions resulting in transforming into the red panda. At odds with modern lifestyle, we can see how ancestral survival methods or traditions become something to hide from the world. Shi does a great job at explaining generational trauma through the red panda passed through the women in the family.
It was great to see all the aunties, a significant cultural part of Chinese life, show up in time of need. Now, I don’t think Ming nor Mei asked for the aunties to come, but they showed up, nonetheless. In their hilarity and chaos, we can relate both to their elder behaviors (gossiping, nagging) and admire that they came in a time of need. Family is always a core tenant of life. The women in the family are the backbone to their culture and customs and sense of belonging.
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Being your authentic self
At the end of the movie, Mei is left with the choice to separate from her panda as originally planned. As Mei sees the pain that it causes her elders to separate from their panda, she finds herself attached to that part of herself. Mei decides to keep her panda, breaking the cycle of ancestors who separated from their emotional and messy side. It seems that Mei made the right decision for her as Sun Yee, stoic throughout the movie, shifts into a smile and without saying a word, swoops in to embrace her panda descendent.
If there is anything I can take away from this movie, it’s the last line that Mei says, breaking the fourth wall once again: “We’ve all got an inner beast. We’ve all got a messy, loud, weird part of ourselves hidden away. And a lot of us never let it out. But I did. How about you?”