Parenting is not for the faint of heart. Each stage brings new joys and challenges. For me, the hardest part was during the tween years. There are marks of independence between parents and children before that age, but it steps up considerably during the middle school years. Domee Shi’s “Turning Red,” streaming on Disney+ shows this exceptionally well.
The movie follows Meilin (Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl. She works with her mother Ming (Sandra Oh) at their family temple honoring Sun Yee, the matriarch ancestor who turned herself into a giant red panda to protect her family. Her father Jin (Orion Lee) is the family cook. Meilin (referred to as Mei Mei by her family) loves school, playing the flute, boy band 4*Town, her friends, and her parents. She is a Good Girl.
One day she is doodling on her homework and realizes that she has a crush on a boy. She fills her notebook with pictures of them together and when her mother finds it, she embarrasses Meilin by accusing the boy of trying to seduce her daughter and shows him the pictures. The humiliation triggers one of my favorite scenes where we see Mei in her room, flying through emotions at a breakneck pace until she finally falls asleep, only to awake as a giant red panda herself.
The movie uses the red panda as a metaphor in multiple ways. The most obvious is that of a teenage girl getting her first period, which we see underlined hilariously by Ming rushing to her daughter’s distressed cries in the bathroom armed with all of her period supplies.
But more than that, it is about the wild, uncontrollable feelings that the onset of puberty brings on for everyone, regardless of their gender. The tween years are difficult for everyone because while you are by no means an adult (despite the many statements from Mei and her friends that going to a boy band concert will make them women), this is the first real foray into adulthood. It’s the time when you want to hang out with your friends rather than with your parents. It’s the time when you start noticing attractions. It’s the time when you’re finding out who you are going to be as an adult.
All of these themes are relayed beautifully in this movie. Domee Shi and Julia Cho wrote a story that is unapologetically Asian and female, but is also applicable for anyone who would choose to watch it. There has been some discussion about how relatable this film is to a wide audience, but if the audience has experienced or will experience puberty, it’s relatable.
Movies like “Stand By Me” and “The Sandlot” have been staples of the adolescent coming-of-age genre despite being about a very specific era, because they touch something deeper. They speak to the feelings and friendships we have in our tweens. I hope “Turning Red” finds its place less in the realm of Pixar movies, and more in the pantheon of great coming-of-age films. Because that’s what it really is.
ALISE CHAFFINS is a Morgantown writer who loves movies and sharing her opinions. Find more at MacGuffin or Meaning on Substack.
