![]() "It feels so good to let it out, so free," says Mei's imperious grandma (Wai Ching Ho), in just one of the many lines – penned by Shi and co-writer Julia Cho – that are borderline ribald in their suggestiveness. Turns out Mei's transformation isn't some freak occurrence but a kind of generational power inherited by the Lee women. Yes, Pixar's latest isn't just a parable about learning to be yourself and following your heart – it's a straight-up analogy for the growing pains of puberty, period gags and all. "Did the red peony bloom?" asks Ming, when the mortified Mei refuses to come out of her room. The next morning, Mei discovers she's 8-foot-tall and furry, a condition of extreme overexcitement that can only be suppressed by calming thoughts. When Ming discovers one of Mei's fanciful notebook sketches – an eroticised portrait of the local convenience store doofus, complete with bucket hat and merman tail – she marches her daughter right into an embarrassing moment that would make any teenager cringe for eternity. ![]() "This isn't just our first concert, this is our first step into womanhood," Mei tells her friends.īut for Mei, an honours student who feels duty bound to family tradition, her passion for pop – and for boys – is something to be kept secret from her pinched, disciplinarian mother Ming (Sandra Oh). The story pivots on four nerdy teenage girls' attempt to attend the biggest night of their young lives, a Toronto super-stadium concert being given by their idols, 4*Town – a dreamy boy band cross between *NSYNC and DuJour, whose songs, full of hilariously smooth harmonies and orch hits, were composed by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell. In fact, the film is positively teeming with teen hormones. It might surprise some audiences (and parents of younger kids drawn to the cuddly image of a goofy red panda) to discover that Turning Red is also the first Pixar movie to explicitly address sexual awakening. Like Brave, the last Pixar movie to involve a woman director – a whole decade ago – Shi's film feels more emotionally specific than the focus-grouped appeal of so many of the studio's recent efforts, dialling down the high-concept broadness to zero in on the turbulent relationship between mothers and teenage daughters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |