[FILM]
TURNING RED
So this is why being a teenager is so complicated...
★★★★
OUT NOW (DISNEY+) CERT TBC / 95 MINS
DIRECTOR Domee Shi
CAST Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park
PLOT Toronto, 2002. Meilin (Chiang) is a confident and contented 13-year-old with top grades, great friends, and a loving relationship with her mum (Oh) and dad (Lee). But soon, bodily changes begin to kick in: when she gets overwhelmed or overexcited, Mei transforms into a giant, fluffy red panda.
IN SO MANY ways, Pixar’s Turning Red — the feature debut from Domee Shi, the filmmaker behind Oscar-winning short Bao — is all about asserting a renewed identity. Chinese-Canadian almost-teen Meilin (Rosalie Chiang), aka Mei, has an assured sense of self, right from the off; she’s an unapologetically dorky academic achiever who loves playing the flute, feeding her Tamagotchi, and pining over boyband 4*Town (sample song: ‘Girl, I Love Your Jeans’). But as puberty — and an additional spiritual transformation — rears its head, she changes; some of the old Mei is left behind, but the new Mei is a blast.