Allen Le

While Luca is a big hit coming of age adventure that anyone could connect with even if they are not a merboy from coastal Italy. Turning Red, in contrast, is so narrow that you could only connect to it if you’re a first generation Chinese in Toronto, coming of age in the early 2000s, pre-teen girl with mommy issues. The characters are uninteresting and the movie overplayed the tiger mom trope. A lot of young Asian parents are trying to move past that stereotype. The movie is inadequate in so many areas. This movie would be redeemable if the director could understand and explore where the mom is coming from. All we got was the grandma didn’t approve of the dad. Anything else? What turned the mom into a tiger mom? The director failed to show the mother love for her only child and wanting the best for her. Instead she portrayed her in all negative lights. The message is friends are more important. Missed opportunity to explore Asian family culture and value from the inside and not just the outside looking in, haha tiger mom, haha poor kid will grow up to be unadjusted adults, haha powerless dad without any say. From the beginning I was weirded out by the drawing and the whole period thing. Is that what turning red is a metaphor for—menstruating? Then it got weirder and weirder. We finished the movie not knowing what to tell the kids. I used the opportunity to teach my kids critical thinking and watching movie we have to also understand it’s made by people and we have to be careful of the message they’re trying to send.