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At the Movies

 Years before "KPop Demon Hunters," Domee Shi wrote "Turning Red." It's an animated film about pop music and about shame; I have nothing against "KPop," but "Turning Red" is smarter and funnier.


Mei Lee is thirteen, and she lives in Toronto. She is an excellent student and flutist; she really enjoys cleaning and tidying her domestic spaces; she has limitless time for the evening soap opera that her mother particularly likes. Mei observes that there can be a problem with "model child" behavior: "If you're so wrapped up in honoring your parents, you can forget to honor yourself." There is a pause. Then Mei declares, "That is NOT my problem!" (And this moment of self-delusion is a perfect little bow to tie around Act One.)

"Turning Red" is so sharp, so rich with lived experience, it's amazing that someone wrote the check that allowed Domee Shi to complete her project. When Mei (by accident) concedes that she has a crush on the local 7-Eleven employee, her mother makes a humiliating fuss. Mei then "makes friends" with her own anger. The fact of her anger is disorienting. Mei does not know what to do with her emotions. She attempts to suppress them--but they have a way of announcing themselves, day after day, in particularly solemn and formal settings.

I think the tension between Mei and her mother (a character beautifully played by Sandra Oh) is plausible for the full two hours. And the resolution is unusually sad and thorny; you generally do not find this level of thought in a Pixar movie (or, for that matter, any mainstream movie).

It's fun to watch this with my daughter--it's a movie that I don't mind revisiting. And that's high praise.
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