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Feminist Movie Wednesday: Turning Red · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to step
0:07
Speaker 1: I never told your production of I Heart Radio. And
0:19
Speaker 1: we are here with a feminist movie Friday slash possibly
0:24
Speaker 1: feminist movie Wednesday, as sometimes happens. Yes, because we've got
0:29
Speaker 1: a lot of moving pieces right now. Also, we're doing
0:33
Speaker 1: um more than one movie I believe, in April and
0:37
Speaker 1: in May, because we love movies here. We hope that
0:41
Speaker 1: you love them as well, or at least love our critique,
0:46
Speaker 1: our feminist discussion around them. Yes, because we had a
0:51
Speaker 1: lot of things come out recently, plus some like events
0:54
Speaker 1: we want to hit, so get ready for multiple movie episodes.
0:59
Speaker 1: And this one we have mentioned before how excited we
1:03
Speaker 1: are to talk about turning red Pixar movie. It just
1:08
Speaker 1: came out just now streaming on Disney Plus. If you
1:12
Speaker 1: haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, to
1:14
Speaker 1: go check it out. It's really really sweet. Um. I've
1:16
Speaker 1: shown it to at least four people like I love it.
1:19
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Um. And we have
1:21
Speaker 1: a lot to discuss with this one, so uh, we better.
1:24
Speaker 1: We're better gonna move on because you know how we
1:27
Speaker 1: like to talk. And I got a lot of personal
1:30
Speaker 1: experience with some of the topics in this one, which
1:34
Speaker 1: reminds me you can see our past episodes on fan girls,
1:37
Speaker 1: fan fiction and women in romance. Actually, yes, and it
1:42
Speaker 1: does have common themes. So if you're like, what why,
1:47
Speaker 1: you'll see you'll see. Okay. So, Turning Red is an
1:52
Speaker 1: animated comedy fantasy coming of age story that was directed
1:56
Speaker 1: by Doomi she Um and she also wrote it along
1:59
Speaker 1: with Julia Chow. It was produced by Lindsey Collins and
2:02
Speaker 1: some of the animation style was inspired by anime, particularly
2:05
Speaker 1: Sailor Mood, and also I read it was also inspired
2:08
Speaker 1: separately by the Goofy movie, which I love. I've never
2:11
Speaker 1: actually seen the full movie. I've seen clips of it
2:13
Speaker 1: because people will have it up. I saw it as
2:17
Speaker 1: a kid, and I remember loving it. I have a
2:19
Speaker 1: friend of mine who adores that movie. That's like one
2:22
Speaker 1: first nostalgic. We go back to the Goofy movie and
2:26
Speaker 1: she is always trying to get me to watch it,
2:28
Speaker 1: and I always turned her down, and no, I'm thinking
2:30
Speaker 1: I need to. Yeah, I think so. Is Goofy a dog?
2:36
Speaker 1: I believe? So still quandary about why Goofy can talk
2:40
Speaker 1: and walk around and his son who was in the
2:43
Speaker 1: Goofy movie. But Pluto's Pluto. Whoy. That's the whole thing.
2:49
Speaker 1: There are different questions. I also just wanted to mention
2:53
Speaker 1: because as of today, Lindsay Collins and Domi she had
2:59
Speaker 1: both been promoted at Pixar. So Collins is going to
3:03
Speaker 1: be the senior vice president of Development and Demi she
3:07
Speaker 1: has been named vice president of Creative uh and she
3:11
Speaker 1: worked as an Internet Pixar um way way way back.
3:15
Speaker 1: So that's a nice that's a nice story to see.
3:18
Speaker 1: Well earned, ladies. Congratulations, Yes, congratulations, they're listening to our episode,
3:24
Speaker 1: but still congratulations. If you are, we love you, thank you,
3:29
Speaker 1: so good, so good. So. This movie is voiced by
3:32
Speaker 1: Rosalie Chiong, Sandra oh Orient, Lee, Ava Morrise, High End Park,
3:38
Speaker 1: My tre E, Rama, Christian Watching Hall, Tristan Eleric Chen,
3:43
Speaker 1: and James Hong. It's the first Pixar movie directed only
3:47
Speaker 1: by a woman, and only the second to feature an
3:50
Speaker 1: Asian character in a lead role. Despite the fact it
3:53
Speaker 1: was critically acclaimed, it attracted a lot of controversy, which
3:56
Speaker 1: we are going to get into. Thoughts, lots of thoughts.
4:02
Speaker 1: But anyway, the film, which takes place in Toronto in
4:06
Speaker 1: two thousand two, which yeah, I was like, oh this
4:09
Speaker 1: is they were a little bit younger than what I
4:10
Speaker 1: would have been in two thousand two, But I understood
4:12
Speaker 1: their love. I understood. Uh. It follows a thirteen year
4:15
Speaker 1: old Chinese Canadian girl, Meylan or may Lee, and overachieving
4:20
Speaker 1: student who excels in all of her classes and extracurriculars.
4:24
Speaker 1: She has a close group of friends, Miriam, Priya, and Abbey,
4:28
Speaker 1: who are incredibly supportive but also pushed her to take
4:31
Speaker 1: more time to honor herself and do what she wants
4:34
Speaker 1: as opposed to doing everything in her power to please
4:37
Speaker 1: her overbearing mother. While walking home from school, her friends
4:40
Speaker 1: stopped me so that they can ugle to cashier at
4:43
Speaker 1: a local store. May doesn't see what the fuss is
4:46
Speaker 1: about and turns down their invitation to karaoke so that
4:49
Speaker 1: she can go help mom clean the family temple, which
4:52
Speaker 1: apparently was a tradition for them daily tradition. Her friends
4:56
Speaker 1: let her go, but only after they've gushed over their
4:59
Speaker 1: love of boy band four town of course, declaring themselves
5:04
Speaker 1: four Townies Forever, Right or Die and singing their hit
5:08
Speaker 1: song together It's They harbonized. It was really nice. It
5:10
Speaker 1: was really nice. Upon returning home to the family temple,
5:15
Speaker 1: May helps her mother Ming, who clearly has high occupational
5:18
Speaker 1: hopes for her daughter, just high hopes in general. One
5:21
Speaker 1: of the family's ancestors, son Ye just with the temples
5:24
Speaker 1: sort of who the temple is sort of based around.
5:27
Speaker 1: Um loved animals, especially the red pandas so May often
5:30
Speaker 1: dresses as a red panda her visitors to the temple.
5:34
Speaker 1: Later that night, um May's doodling while listening to four Town.
5:38
Speaker 1: When she realizes she's doodling a picture of Devon, the
5:41
Speaker 1: cashier her friends are drooling over earlier Um and something
5:45
Speaker 1: seems to just like click in her to kind of
5:47
Speaker 1: overcome her. She rolls under her bed and starts feverishly
5:51
Speaker 1: drawing pictures of her and Devon together holding each other,
5:55
Speaker 1: of him bare chested with a mermaid tail. Um As
5:59
Speaker 1: the light being behind her goes red, it gets redder
6:02
Speaker 1: and redder and more intense, and she starts sweating. Her
6:05
Speaker 1: mom comes in and is horrified by these drawings. Believing
6:10
Speaker 1: that Devon took advantage of May, Ming drives them both
6:15
Speaker 1: to the convenient store to confront Devon. With an audience
6:18
Speaker 1: of some of her classmates, including bullied Tyler, much to
6:22
Speaker 1: May's horror and to my horror as well, witnessing this
6:25
Speaker 1: whole thing, it was pretty bad. The confrontation ends with
6:30
Speaker 1: her mother dramatically presenting May's drawings to Devon, and the
6:34
Speaker 1: occupants look at them in horror and mock them. They
6:38
Speaker 1: mock May as Ming pulls May at the store, and
6:41
Speaker 1: it is like, thank goodness, I was there. Is there
6:43
Speaker 1: anything else? She saved her from this predator, which so
6:49
Speaker 1: there was no interest. But I get it. I get
6:51
Speaker 1: it as an adult, I get it. That night, May
6:55
Speaker 1: screams into a pillow and rips apart her other writings
6:58
Speaker 1: and drawings, telling herself forcefully that she is her mother's
7:03
Speaker 1: pride and joy and this will never happen again. She
7:07
Speaker 1: falls into an uneasy sleep and has a nightmare feverish
7:11
Speaker 1: dream about Devon and for Town, all bathed in red,
7:16
Speaker 1: and when she wakes, she is horrified to discover she
7:19
Speaker 1: is a large red panda. It was very cute like
7:22
Speaker 1: the discovery. She panics and hides in the shower, her mother,
7:27
Speaker 1: concluding that she has started her period. Um May manages
7:33
Speaker 1: to evade her mother and learns that the key to
7:35
Speaker 1: hiding the panda and becoming herself as a human girl
7:39
Speaker 1: is calming her emotions. Any strong emotion will trigger the panda, love, happiness,
7:46
Speaker 1: any of that. However, her hair is now red, which
7:49
Speaker 1: for a lot of Asian people that would be a
7:51
Speaker 1: delight because I wanted my hair red and it was
7:54
Speaker 1: hard to die, just so you know. But she does
7:57
Speaker 1: hide it under a cap or a beanie. Some of
8:00
Speaker 1: us call it yes, and they called it something else
8:03
Speaker 1: they did in turning around, like that's a Canadian turn.
8:07
Speaker 1: They I think they said to buy, but I think
8:08
Speaker 1: they said like talk or talk like they had a
8:11
Speaker 1: short Yeah, Canadian little series. You can write it and
8:15
Speaker 1: let us know. Make controls her emotions, even when her
8:19
Speaker 1: mother offers her tea for cramps to relax the and
8:23
Speaker 1: she makes this hand gesture that's like kind of the
8:27
Speaker 1: base sort of thing. It was very awkward. It was
8:30
Speaker 1: very awkward. She handles her emotions when she learns that
8:33
Speaker 1: Tyler is putting up drawings of her making out with
8:36
Speaker 1: Devon and mocks her in front of their classmates. Um
8:40
Speaker 1: when she sees a fellow student and feels attraction, but
8:42
Speaker 1: she loses control and goes panda. When her mother shows up,
8:47
Speaker 1: makes a scene in front of her classmates, shouting that
8:50
Speaker 1: she forgot y'all passed and it has this is holding
8:55
Speaker 1: out pads in front of everybody. Um so yes amgo.
9:00
Speaker 1: Panda makes a run through Toronto to the family temple,
9:04
Speaker 1: causing much chaos and destruction along the way. Her mother
9:07
Speaker 1: arrives and reveals to her that their ancestor son he
9:10
Speaker 1: was given this gift in order to protect her daughters,
9:13
Speaker 1: and that ever since then, every girl has been given
9:16
Speaker 1: the same gift when they come of age. Though Ming
9:18
Speaker 1: calls it an inconvenience, Ming reassures May that she went
9:23
Speaker 1: through the same thing and that there is a ritual
9:25
Speaker 1: to banish the panda into an item, into a talisman
9:28
Speaker 1: type thing. They just have to wait for the night
9:31
Speaker 1: of the Red Moon, which is a month away. May
9:35
Speaker 1: is desponded and restorts to throwing herself against walls to
9:38
Speaker 1: try to get rid of the panda, despite her father
9:41
Speaker 1: Jin telling her that red is a lucky color. It
9:44
Speaker 1: was a lucky color. Uh so. May's friends show up
9:48
Speaker 1: outside her window to tell her that for Town is
9:51
Speaker 1: coming to Toronto in a few weeks. Did you have
9:54
Speaker 1: this experience with a boy band like you were so exciting? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
9:57
Speaker 1: I can't wait to talk about it yet. In her excitement,
10:02
Speaker 1: May opens the curtains and her friends initially freak out
10:06
Speaker 1: at the sight of the big red panda, which yes,
10:12
Speaker 1: she's also really cute and cuddly, and one of her
10:13
Speaker 1: friends say this, so May convinces them it's her and
10:16
Speaker 1: tells them what's going on. Upset, she tells them there's
10:20
Speaker 1: no way she'll have the panda under control by then,
10:23
Speaker 1: and curls up, crying, tell telling them to go without her.
10:27
Speaker 1: Her friends start singing four Towns hit song, coaxing May
10:30
Speaker 1: to sing with them and chewing her up. They hug
10:33
Speaker 1: her and tell her they love her Panda or no Panda,
10:37
Speaker 1: and May transforms back into her human form, also revealing
10:41
Speaker 1: her red hair, which they're like, oh god, we love it.
10:44
Speaker 1: She realizes that something about her friends neutralizes the panda,
10:48
Speaker 1: and that if she can convince her mother she has
10:50
Speaker 1: it under control, maybe her mother will let her go
10:53
Speaker 1: to for Town who we've already seen her say, who
10:56
Speaker 1: are these kids? What's up in their hippy? I asked
11:03
Speaker 1: that question often? What is this operate, Ming puts May
11:07
Speaker 1: through a series of triggers to tests that she has
11:10
Speaker 1: her motions and her panda under control, including the kittens.
11:15
Speaker 1: I was that was super cute and I was like,
11:17
Speaker 1: let me hug them, and May passes with flying colors.
11:21
Speaker 1: After May gives an elaborate presentation about why she should
11:25
Speaker 1: be allowed to go to see four Town, but her
11:28
Speaker 1: mom shoots her down, telling her that she doesn't approve
11:31
Speaker 1: of their gyrations and that she'll see them and Panda
11:36
Speaker 1: all over the place. She might not be wrong, I
11:38
Speaker 1: mean panda all over the place. Can we say that
11:41
Speaker 1: as a euphemism from now on? Anyway? Annoying May storms
11:46
Speaker 1: away as Ming is complaining about how she could look
11:49
Speaker 1: at her mother that way, and she at the same time,
11:52
Speaker 1: she tries to dodge a call from her own mother,
11:55
Speaker 1: who insists on coming to help Ming with May's ritual
11:58
Speaker 1: despite means protest with reinforcements. Yeah, and you can tell
12:04
Speaker 1: from that that phone call her mother, Ming's mother isn't his.
12:11
Speaker 1: So the next day, the girls, this group of friends
12:15
Speaker 1: who all got shot down by their guardians in their
12:18
Speaker 1: quest to go to four Town, decide to rebel and
12:21
Speaker 1: find a way to go to the concert anyway. They
12:25
Speaker 1: they're trying to come up with a way to raise
12:26
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars with the tickets are two hundred dollars apiece. Um.
12:29
Speaker 1: When they get the idea to hustle the panda as
12:32
Speaker 1: and sell merchandise and pictures with the panda to their
12:36
Speaker 1: fellow students to push themselves over their goal, May agrees
12:40
Speaker 1: to go to Tyler's party. Tyler, the bully that we
12:42
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. UM. He wants her to come so everyone
12:46
Speaker 1: else will come, because everyone's kind of enamored with this panda,
12:48
Speaker 1: like all the students love the panda. She agrees to
12:51
Speaker 1: come for an hour if he gives them two hundred dollars.
12:55
Speaker 1: As May is sneaking out that night, Ming's mother and
12:57
Speaker 1: her four sisters arrived the rein forcements. They delay her,
13:01
Speaker 1: but May eventually eludes them and makes her way to
13:04
Speaker 1: Tyler's party, but not before her grandmother tells her, like,
13:08
Speaker 1: I know you're still turning into the panda. Every time
13:10
Speaker 1: you turn into it, it's the harder it is to
13:15
Speaker 1: to do the ritual to get rid of it. Don't
13:17
Speaker 1: do it anymore. But yes, May goes. She at first
13:22
Speaker 1: is trying to use like her costume and not actually
13:25
Speaker 1: transform into the panda, but she eventually gives in and
13:28
Speaker 1: she is the life of the party and her friends
13:30
Speaker 1: ask her if going through this ritual to get rid
13:32
Speaker 1: of the red panda is necessary. May says all of
13:36
Speaker 1: her mom's hopes and dreams are penned on her and
13:38
Speaker 1: that she can't let her down. As they're celebrating making
13:42
Speaker 1: enough money to go see for a town, they learn
13:45
Speaker 1: that they've got the wrong date. They've had the wrong
13:49
Speaker 1: date in mind this whole time, and that the concert, yes,
13:54
Speaker 1: the concert is the same night as the ritual. May
13:59
Speaker 1: lose this control role at this news and goes panda
14:02
Speaker 1: attacking Tyler. Ming arrived seeing this Um after she had
14:06
Speaker 1: discovered all this panda merchandise and lower grade papers under
14:10
Speaker 1: May's bed like she'd gotten Um Laura Laura grades recently.
14:15
Speaker 1: Tyler's parents yell at Ming, calling me an animal, and
14:19
Speaker 1: Ming chastises May's friends, blaming them for her behavior. They
14:24
Speaker 1: are left in shock when May doesn't defend them Um,
14:27
Speaker 1: and May accidentally leaves her gigapete. I wrote gigapete, but
14:30
Speaker 1: this is a very It's something of that nature which
14:34
Speaker 1: if you don't know what that is. It was like
14:35
Speaker 1: a little device, a little circular device. Kids. I didn't
14:42
Speaker 1: have funey either. It had a little graphic and you
14:45
Speaker 1: could see this, you know, animal or creature. There's even
14:47
Speaker 1: an archie D two one, UM, and you would feed
14:50
Speaker 1: it and take care of it protected. I did have
14:53
Speaker 1: a Neo pets account, which is a similar version on
14:55
Speaker 1: the internet. Right, But anyway, she had she had this
14:58
Speaker 1: little device she left behind UM and she had named
15:02
Speaker 1: it Robert Jr. After the lead singer of Foretown of course,
15:06
Speaker 1: and of course who knows French, which is what that
15:09
Speaker 1: get him. So May's friends go to the concert without her,
15:17
Speaker 1: though they are sad at this turn of events. As
15:20
Speaker 1: May waits for the ritual, her and her dad have
15:22
Speaker 1: a heart to heart where Gen revels he's seen means
15:25
Speaker 1: panda once and when it came after her mother insulted
15:29
Speaker 1: Jin and that she was big and incredible. Um. Also
15:33
Speaker 1: he had also told her that he discovered the footage
15:35
Speaker 1: of me and her friends, and he shows uh that
15:38
Speaker 1: footage that he found and he just kind of re
15:42
Speaker 1: iterates about their friendship. Was really sweet about how he
15:44
Speaker 1: thinks that she's having fun for the first time that
15:47
Speaker 1: he's seen and with me going back and forth between
15:52
Speaker 1: being human and panda, telling her that everyone has a
15:54
Speaker 1: messy side and that this side of her made him laugh.
15:59
Speaker 1: He enjoyed watching that, and then I think it also
16:02
Speaker 1: told him about the way that she was able to
16:04
Speaker 1: control it, because he did try to let her know
16:06
Speaker 1: this was a little different than her mom, who was big.
16:09
Speaker 1: He said. Um. The ritual commences, which requires singing from
16:14
Speaker 1: the heart inside a chalk circle, and apparently any song
16:17
Speaker 1: would do according to the shaman. He's like, it doesn't matter,
16:19
Speaker 1: it just has to come from your heart. He was
16:21
Speaker 1: very cute about this. May goes through the spiritual realm,
16:24
Speaker 1: a forest with a black portal that reflects her image
16:27
Speaker 1: before the panda. She struggles to push through it and
16:31
Speaker 1: looks back at her panda as it is being separated
16:34
Speaker 1: from her. Flooded with the memories, she embraces the panda,
16:37
Speaker 1: telling her family she's keeping it, much to their horror
16:40
Speaker 1: and dismay, and they tried to hold Panda May back,
16:43
Speaker 1: but she pushes them back and telling them she's going
16:46
Speaker 1: to the concert. As her family's yell at her, tellsman
16:49
Speaker 1: that holds means panda breaks. It's a very cool like
16:55
Speaker 1: there's the Red Moon stands up and she's like, how
16:59
Speaker 1: can she do this to her own mother? Yes? Yeah, okay,
17:04
Speaker 1: So May uses the panda uh to jump into the
17:08
Speaker 1: concert venue. I like that. See a lot where she's
17:10
Speaker 1: kind of going back and forth, back and forth to
17:13
Speaker 1: jump and get to this concert which is in the SkyDome,
17:16
Speaker 1: which is important because she can jump through the top.
17:18
Speaker 1: It was in the SkyDome so they could see the
17:20
Speaker 1: Red Moon, and she reunites and reconciles with her friends
17:24
Speaker 1: after it's revealed that Miriam has been taking care of
17:27
Speaker 1: Robart Junior. They also learned that Tyler is a four
17:32
Speaker 1: Town fan and they bring him into the fold. The
17:36
Speaker 1: group has moved to Tears. As the band starts, um,
17:39
Speaker 1: they could like emerge from these cages. They have these introductions.
17:42
Speaker 1: The music starts. They have these big wings and they
17:46
Speaker 1: like float up and fly, but they are quickly interrupted
17:51
Speaker 1: by means enormous panda like I've seen it compared to Ghostbusters.
17:58
Speaker 1: The Yeah like that. Marshall's Marshall exactly. She's huge. The
18:05
Speaker 1: crowd disperses in horror as pandam Ming enters the arena
18:10
Speaker 1: shouting like May, where are you? And the members of
18:14
Speaker 1: the band are cowering and fear. May's family arrives, telling
18:18
Speaker 1: her that they have to do the ritual again to
18:20
Speaker 1: save Ming while Jen drops this massive, very impressive chalk circle.
18:25
Speaker 1: Pandem confronts Pandem Ming, telling her that this was all
18:29
Speaker 1: her idea, that she likes boys, she likes loud music,
18:32
Speaker 1: and she likes gyrating that she's third teen, so deal
18:35
Speaker 1: with it, and she does some booty dancing to make
18:38
Speaker 1: her mom back away in horror into the circle and
18:41
Speaker 1: her mom tells her that she never went to concerts.
18:45
Speaker 1: She put her family first, and May tells her she's sorry,
18:48
Speaker 1: she's not perfect, she's not good enough, and manages to
18:51
Speaker 1: knock out her mom just outside of the circle. Right,
18:56
Speaker 1: there's a massive battle, fantastic battle between the two of them.
19:00
Speaker 1: The body dancing was quite hilarious and funny, and I'm like,
19:04
Speaker 1: this is yeah, panda booty, here we go. I would
19:07
Speaker 1: atty bootys all the time, so mine as well. Yeah.
19:11
Speaker 1: So May tries her best to pull her into the circle,
19:14
Speaker 1: this gigantic panda, but her grandmother realizes that it wouldn't
19:18
Speaker 1: be enough. She praised her own talisman, freeing her panda,
19:22
Speaker 1: instructing her daughters to do the same. Uh. They all
19:25
Speaker 1: joined forces to pull me in the circle while chanting.
19:28
Speaker 1: But it's not enough. And that's when May's friends and
19:31
Speaker 1: for Town, who was still hanging up by the wires,
19:34
Speaker 1: Uh starts singing their hit song, drawing back the crowd
19:37
Speaker 1: who all joined in. It's like a lovely little melody
19:41
Speaker 1: it is. It's really cool. I like that a lot.
19:44
Speaker 1: And also I teared up. I teared up with that part.
19:49
Speaker 1: Um May, It's once again transported to the spiritual world
19:53
Speaker 1: or the austral realm, where she finds her mother as
19:55
Speaker 1: a young teen crying and May ask her what's wrong,
19:59
Speaker 1: and Ing says like she hurt her mother, which I
20:02
Speaker 1: didn't realize the scar on her mother's face from the
20:05
Speaker 1: panda um and that Ming felt she would never be
20:09
Speaker 1: good enough for her mother, that she was so sick
20:11
Speaker 1: of being perfect. May comforts her mom, telling her that
20:15
Speaker 1: even though it feels that way all the time, isn't
20:18
Speaker 1: true and leads her through the forest, her mother returning
20:22
Speaker 1: to her age as they as they find the rest
20:24
Speaker 1: of the women in their family, Ming and her mother
20:27
Speaker 1: hug and the women go through the portal one by one,
20:30
Speaker 1: separating from their pandas until it's just Ming and May left.
20:34
Speaker 1: Ming tells me that she sees how hard May is
20:37
Speaker 1: on herself and apologizes as she is the one that
20:40
Speaker 1: taught her that, and that the father you go, the
20:44
Speaker 1: prouder I'll be. Um, don't let anyone stop you. Still
20:48
Speaker 1: in the spirit realm, May ask son Ye if she
20:51
Speaker 1: will regret it, and that to fly into the skies
20:53
Speaker 1: pandas holding hands back in the real world, May reveals
20:58
Speaker 1: that the family is trying to fix the damnit is
21:00
Speaker 1: done by Ming's panda and that May it transforms into
21:03
Speaker 1: the panda to attract people to their family temple. Um.
21:06
Speaker 1: So they're doing this and when her friends arrive, including Tyler,
21:11
Speaker 1: who's now part of the group. Um, they asked her
21:14
Speaker 1: to go karaoke with him. Mean tries to stop her
21:17
Speaker 1: at first, but they compromise. Um. I'd love how she
21:20
Speaker 1: says my panda, my body, my panda ball because she
21:25
Speaker 1: goes out with like your ears and your tail. Yeah yeah,
21:29
Speaker 1: but yeah, they compromise in Being invites her friends to
21:32
Speaker 1: come over for dinner after for the first time, while
21:35
Speaker 1: May is in part sad that things have changed and
21:38
Speaker 1: that she misses how things used to be a little
21:40
Speaker 1: um as part of life, and that all of us
21:42
Speaker 1: have these messy bits of ourselves. And then it cuts
21:45
Speaker 1: to a really excellent credit scene where the the beats
21:49
Speaker 1: of fore Town play. So I wanted to see this movie,
22:09
Speaker 1: but I don't think I would have watched it the
22:12
Speaker 1: day it came out, which I did, unless there hadn't
22:16
Speaker 1: been so much controversy about it. And I saw this
22:20
Speaker 1: headline I think it was on CNN, and it said
22:24
Speaker 1: something about Turning Red tackles puberty and periods in a
22:28
Speaker 1: way we've never seen an animated film before. And I
22:30
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I have to watch this. I have
22:32
Speaker 1: to watch this. I have to know what this is.
22:35
Speaker 1: I have to know. And so that is definitely one
22:39
Speaker 1: of the themes about this whole movie. And I even
22:43
Speaker 1: saw I was checking headlines today to make sure like
22:48
Speaker 1: that there wasn't anything we were leaving out that's new news,
22:52
Speaker 1: and I saw a headline that was like, how did
22:54
Speaker 1: DOOMI she get a magical tale about periods made by picks.
23:01
Speaker 1: It's like, I have the same question, because I literally
23:05
Speaker 1: I texted you the night I watched it, and I said,
23:08
Speaker 1: I've never seen this many paths in any children's movie
23:13
Speaker 1: in my entire life. Right, And it's interesting because we
23:16
Speaker 1: are going to come back to this. But one of
23:18
Speaker 1: the things I did want to say is, like, the
23:20
Speaker 1: first thing that I saw the controversy, and it was
23:23
Speaker 1: even before it was technically released. People were talking about it,
23:26
Speaker 1: and we know it will talk about the fact that
23:28
Speaker 1: they didn't do a lot of publicity for this movie,
23:31
Speaker 1: unlike the rest of them. And there's many reasons to that,
23:33
Speaker 1: this one controversy being one of them. But the other
23:36
Speaker 1: part to that is we there was a movie critic
23:38
Speaker 1: who owns his own production company and or magazine review
23:42
Speaker 1: company whatever, or at least is high up, made a
23:47
Speaker 1: review and essentially was downplaying the fact that this was
23:50
Speaker 1: relevant at all. He's a white man if you are
23:54
Speaker 1: not surprised by this, who literally was like, you know,
23:56
Speaker 1: this might resonate for some people, and and the director
24:00
Speaker 1: and the right are sure. It seemed like she made
24:02
Speaker 1: this for herself and her small group of friends and family.
24:06
Speaker 1: It's really the meaning in every freaking way. So people
24:09
Speaker 1: lost their minds, as they should because they were like wait,
24:13
Speaker 1: how ridiculous are you that you sit here saying because
24:18
Speaker 1: you are not a person of color, an Asian person,
24:21
Speaker 1: a Chinese person from Toronto, you can't relate to this movie,
24:24
Speaker 1: so it's not significant and it shouldn't be treated as such.
24:27
Speaker 1: Who are you? Um? And there's this whole conversation of
24:30
Speaker 1: like representation and the fact that we have a modern
24:33
Speaker 1: representation instead of the stylized, ridiculous ideology and fetishism of
24:39
Speaker 1: Asian people that we've seen so much throughout every movie.
24:44
Speaker 1: But also even in Disney, Mulan had the whole other
24:46
Speaker 1: conversation that we need talk about. I love Mulan, don't
24:49
Speaker 1: get me wrong. She is a powerful stance and a
24:51
Speaker 1: representation during that time, but it also had a level
24:54
Speaker 1: of fetishism and trying to make her a princess even
24:57
Speaker 1: though she wasn't a princess new conversation, I know, but
25:01
Speaker 1: he had the goal to do so, And so many
25:03
Speaker 1: people came in in the defense of it, being like, hey, dude,
25:06
Speaker 1: what's wrong with you? Just because he didn't quote unquote
25:09
Speaker 1: relate and it it wasn't made for you doesn't mean it's
25:12
Speaker 1: not a good movie. That's the only reason you're saying
25:15
Speaker 1: this is not a good movie, then we need to
25:16
Speaker 1: have in this conversation about you being an entitled as
25:21
Speaker 1: in general. But yeah, I want to come back to that.
25:24
Speaker 1: But he he absolutely referencing that I wasn't a young girl,
25:27
Speaker 1: so I can't relate. So this movie is not good.
25:29
Speaker 1: I'm not Chinese Canadian, I can't relate. This movie is
25:32
Speaker 1: not good. Like saying all of these levels and people
25:35
Speaker 1: actually running with it for a little while being like,
25:37
Speaker 1: you're so right. We shouldn't be talking about this because
25:39
Speaker 1: this shouldn't be something that we talked about in public,
25:43
Speaker 1: and because it's not white centric, it's not relatable so
25:48
Speaker 1: many things. But yes, one of the things he included
25:51
Speaker 1: was being a young girl. Yeah, yeah, we're definitely going
25:55
Speaker 1: to come back to that because it was infuriating on
25:57
Speaker 1: several several theres and it's just so hypocritical like every
26:02
Speaker 1: other Disney movie that's ever been made. But whatever, Okay,
26:05
Speaker 1: So I do love I think it's become clear probably
26:08
Speaker 1: through these segments. I I love like a movie that
26:11
Speaker 1: is a not heavy handed but like clear metaphor for something.
26:16
Speaker 1: Um I love looking at like, oh, I think it
26:18
Speaker 1: means this, Oh, I think it means this and so
26:20
Speaker 1: this one the panda like and turning red. This red
26:26
Speaker 1: panda is definitely it was an intentionally a metaphor for
26:29
Speaker 1: periods and adolescence in general. Um. I love that whole
26:33
Speaker 1: bit where she's like, she's smelly, she's hairy, she's emotional,
26:39
Speaker 1: she's messy, like all of those things, like that she
26:41
Speaker 1: wears her jacket around her waist. There's so many like
26:45
Speaker 1: nice touches where I'm like yes, or like that where
26:47
Speaker 1: she felt like she was bloated, like yes, this is it,
26:51
Speaker 1: this is it. I love her mom when she thinks
26:56
Speaker 1: that the panda that she's had her period and she's
27:00
Speaker 1: did the red peony bloom. That's one of my favorite
27:03
Speaker 1: depanisms I've ever heard for a period in my life. Yes,
27:09
Speaker 1: I think it was handled really well and it's kind
27:12
Speaker 1: of all comment. I don't know about your first experience,
27:14
Speaker 1: but my first experience at the age of twelve, I
27:17
Speaker 1: think I had just turned twelve, coming home and or
27:21
Speaker 1: calling my mom and be like, I don't know what's happening.
27:23
Speaker 1: And the first thing my mom did, she didn't really
27:25
Speaker 1: talk to me. She just handed me a box of
27:27
Speaker 1: painting liners. Because it was like the beginning of things
27:30
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, what is this? And then
27:31
Speaker 1: from then on anytime, like because my periods were excruciating
27:37
Speaker 1: growing up, and my mom understood it and she understood
27:40
Speaker 1: what I was coming from. I didn't. We talked about
27:42
Speaker 1: this whole like level of fantasizing about like this being
27:46
Speaker 1: the moment of womanhood. Yes, we did, and I never
27:50
Speaker 1: had that conversation. Then. To me, that was like shocking.
27:53
Speaker 1: And I only saw that on TV women like literally
27:56
Speaker 1: some some sitcoms would be like we go shopping to
27:59
Speaker 1: celebrate your woman and I'm like, why didn't I get that?
28:05
Speaker 1: I love that, But in understand this is biology and
28:08
Speaker 1: I should we can celebrate it. That's not the big deal.
28:11
Speaker 1: You do you. I love celebrating being a woman. You
28:13
Speaker 1: do you, but doesn't necessarily define anything, but that we
28:16
Speaker 1: need to have a conversation about what this is and
28:19
Speaker 1: the fact that it's not shameful. It's nice too. Yeah,
28:23
Speaker 1: And I think that was one of the big things
28:24
Speaker 1: about this was again, like I texted you, I've never
28:27
Speaker 1: seen this in a movie before. I was shocked. I
28:30
Speaker 1: was shocked, and that shouldn't be that way, Like going
28:33
Speaker 1: back to that reviewer, it's like, I can't relate well
28:36
Speaker 1: about fifty of us can and we've never seen this before, right.
28:43
Speaker 1: I actually saw on Twitter someone talking about they had
28:45
Speaker 1: burst out crying because they love the fact that it
28:48
Speaker 1: was actually talked about and that it was given some
28:52
Speaker 1: of the respect it should like the fact that this
28:54
Speaker 1: may hurt, this may be a problem, you may feel
28:56
Speaker 1: some things, and that instead of saying you're ab normal,
29:00
Speaker 1: ignore it, they were able to be like, Okay, here
29:03
Speaker 1: you go, let me assist you. And yeah, the same
29:05
Speaker 1: way you were talking about've never seen so many paths
29:06
Speaker 1: she talked about this. She's like, I've never seen a
29:08
Speaker 1: cartoon bring out pads, and the fact that it was
29:11
Speaker 1: actually illustrated in I was like, yeah, that's amazing. I
29:15
Speaker 1: love the different brands. Let's go shed like different time.
29:20
Speaker 1: It was so good, and I love when she brings
29:23
Speaker 1: out like here's the t here's the hot water. She
29:25
Speaker 1: had all these things. I loved it, and I was,
29:29
Speaker 1: as I said, I was shocked they got this made
29:32
Speaker 1: um And there have been articles about how they were
29:34
Speaker 1: able to get this made if you want to go
29:37
Speaker 1: read those. I also thought that whole kind of like
29:40
Speaker 1: having to skip events because of your period. I related
29:43
Speaker 1: to that too, just like, oh, I can't go to
29:45
Speaker 1: the concert because of this. Like I feel like a
29:48
Speaker 1: lot of us recognized, like we've had those times, especially
29:51
Speaker 1: if like a bathing suit situations involved, or something where
29:54
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I can't go and you can't you
29:56
Speaker 1: don't really want to explain why you can't go, but
30:00
Speaker 1: you don't feel comfortable going, right, Um, and then that
30:06
Speaker 1: whole like shame factor, as you said, like gott to
30:08
Speaker 1: hide the panda. Her mom even says at one point,
30:11
Speaker 1: like we can't let anyone see her like this. I
30:15
Speaker 1: have to hide it. She's can like she says, she
30:17
Speaker 1: has to get home and has to hide. She's clearly
30:20
Speaker 1: embarrassed when anyone sees her before she realizes that she
30:23
Speaker 1: can make some money and people actually thinks it looks good. Right, Yeah,
30:27
Speaker 1: And I think that's that was interesting too, of sort
30:30
Speaker 1: of you know, embracing this thing you've been told to
30:33
Speaker 1: be ashamed of all these messy sides. As her dad
30:37
Speaker 1: says that that inner beast, I don't know that that
30:40
Speaker 1: was that was interesting because I found that somebody told
30:45
Speaker 1: me once that, like a lot of things, you think
30:47
Speaker 1: are your weaknesses or your powers? I thought with that
30:49
Speaker 1: with this, like she embraced it and was able to
30:53
Speaker 1: like control it but also let it out like she
30:57
Speaker 1: I don't know it was really I thought it was
30:58
Speaker 1: really powerful. Absolutely. I think it's fantastic to see her
31:03
Speaker 1: being loved and loving and who was willing to accept
31:06
Speaker 1: what that said a lot, Like there's so much trepidation
31:10
Speaker 1: and being who you are, and then when you're feeling accepted,
31:14
Speaker 1: that's a whole new level of power. It really is
31:16
Speaker 1: like level of self confidence and once you see people
31:19
Speaker 1: behind you, it's amazing. Yeah, and you know, now we're
31:23
Speaker 1: talking about this. I wonder this could be me reading
31:26
Speaker 1: way too much into things again, but I wonder if
31:28
Speaker 1: there's any sort of intention on the creator's parts to
31:32
Speaker 1: be like, you can embrace this femininity, these parts of
31:36
Speaker 1: women that we've made taboo for so long, and you
31:38
Speaker 1: can make money off of it, Like people will like
31:40
Speaker 1: it and there are stories that people want to hear.
31:44
Speaker 1: That's interesting. And then yeah, I did like the whole
31:47
Speaker 1: my pantom my choice mom when she's going out, because
31:50
Speaker 1: we've talked about that before. Where and I had a
31:54
Speaker 1: lot of experiences where my parents would be like leaving
31:59
Speaker 1: the house and they would tell me stop, they wait,
32:02
Speaker 1: you can't go out in that. And it did make
32:04
Speaker 1: me very self conscious about my body and like why
32:07
Speaker 1: I couldn't go out like that? Um. And it has
32:10
Speaker 1: been interesting during this pandemic where I've really just like
32:14
Speaker 1: I don't care out my shirt, no bra whatever, right,
32:20
Speaker 1: It kind of has come to the point of like,
32:22
Speaker 1: what's the point of fancy clothes. Don't get me wrong,
32:25
Speaker 1: stressing up is nice, but at the same time, like
32:27
Speaker 1: there's also something to be said to where pajama pants
32:30
Speaker 1: all day long as I am and currently as we're
32:32
Speaker 1: recording this and not having a brawn being in the
32:35
Speaker 1: sweats and just be like, yeah, I'm good, I'm fine,
32:39
Speaker 1: and then like walking out because I absolutely grew up
32:42
Speaker 1: with the mother in the generation of you need to
32:44
Speaker 1: have makeup on at all times, don't let people see
32:47
Speaker 1: you like this. You look old, you look haggard, you
32:50
Speaker 1: look tired, any of those things, and feeling like if
32:54
Speaker 1: I look this way, I have failed somehow, and to
32:57
Speaker 1: the point of like, oh, wait, I'm fine, this is
33:00
Speaker 1: who I am. Why should I care what you think
33:03
Speaker 1: of me? I don't know you moving on? Yeah, Oh yeah,
33:07
Speaker 1: for sure, and like that, you know, there's a part
33:09
Speaker 1: of me that it's really unfortunate and we're going to
33:12
Speaker 1: talk about this in a second, but like there's a
33:15
Speaker 1: part of me that gets like my body at that
33:17
Speaker 1: age was going to be sexualized, like no matter what,
33:20
Speaker 1: but especially if I went out without a bra or
33:22
Speaker 1: whatever it was. So my parents are kind of being protective,
33:25
Speaker 1: but because of that, it's like a no win situation
33:27
Speaker 1: for me personally are young girls in general that we're
33:31
Speaker 1: being told like, oh, you're sexualized, you can't wear that,
33:34
Speaker 1: and then it makes you feel sexualized and then you
33:36
Speaker 1: feel weird. Um. Also, I did want to just mention
33:40
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of us can relate to
33:42
Speaker 1: this too. I think this is sort of what I
33:43
Speaker 1: was talking about in our recent happy hour. I'm not
33:46
Speaker 1: sure if it's come out yet, it's out soon or
33:48
Speaker 1: has been out about the villain and kind of repaining
33:52
Speaker 1: yourself in this way, are are just rethinking about how
33:56
Speaker 1: people perceive you. But there's one point where May's looking
34:00
Speaker 1: in the mirror and she's preparing for this ritual and
34:02
Speaker 1: she has this memory, it's really vivid memory of her
34:05
Speaker 1: as a panda attacking Tyler and his like taken it
34:08
Speaker 1: back and feels so much guilt. And you can tell
34:09
Speaker 1: she feels so much guilt about around her mom and
34:12
Speaker 1: not being the perfect daughter. And I think a lot
34:15
Speaker 1: of us can relate to that too. Like I was
34:17
Speaker 1: joking with my friend other day, you know, the four
34:18
Speaker 1: aum memory of something you said in high school that
34:21
Speaker 1: just like comes back and keeps you up at night.
34:26
Speaker 1: Um So I think that's a really relatable experience as well.
34:30
Speaker 1: And then yeah, going back to what you said, Samantha,
34:33
Speaker 1: there was a lot of conversation which we have talked
34:38
Speaker 1: about before, around double standards and reviewing of movies, um
34:43
Speaker 1: or entertainment in general, and especially yes, this Canadian like
34:46
Speaker 1: white male writer really sparked it off all this backlash
34:51
Speaker 1: from that because he called it limiting, which again, if
34:53
Speaker 1: you like, I feel like so many times I've had
34:57
Speaker 1: to point out to like white male friends of mine,
35:01
Speaker 1: you're you're calling this like a women's only niche thing,
35:03
Speaker 1: But how many things have we watched that are just
35:05
Speaker 1: about white men, right, and you're centered and you don't
35:11
Speaker 1: question that, and they're so often that women who liking
35:16
Speaker 1: what is called masculine or men things are cool and
35:20
Speaker 1: not just one of those girls. But if you have
35:24
Speaker 1: the opposite, then those guys are too effeminate, and uh,
35:28
Speaker 1: there's so much like toxic masculine that comes down. He
35:32
Speaker 1: went on a whole new level of being racist as well,
35:35
Speaker 1: obviously because he really wanted to talk about that that
35:38
Speaker 1: no one's interested in Chinese culture, which when we look
35:41
Speaker 1: at what's happening around the world today, Uh, there's enough
35:43
Speaker 1: Asian hate happening that we don't need that rhetoric a B.
35:47
Speaker 1: But people still love and idealized and fetish size a
35:51
Speaker 1: lot of Asian cultures today and appropriate a lot of
35:53
Speaker 1: Asian culture today to the point of like they want
35:56
Speaker 1: to erase Asian history and the heritage by taking it
35:59
Speaker 1: over and claiming it as their own. And so this
36:02
Speaker 1: level of conversation, even though I'm sure in his mind
36:06
Speaker 1: he really thought it was just gonna be a puff
36:08
Speaker 1: piece moving on, this is my opinion, was capeful rhetoric
36:12
Speaker 1: and what he was saying, and how really kind of
36:15
Speaker 1: ignorant it was in general again to be like, Wow,
36:18
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be a worldly journalist, critique, critic, and
36:22
Speaker 1: you took this point of view as if you're talking
36:25
Speaker 1: to your family, who you may have raised to not
36:29
Speaker 1: care outside of your own white narrative. So that says
36:32
Speaker 1: a lot about you. But don't be in public platforms
36:35
Speaker 1: and don't think you're gonna get away with it, which
36:37
Speaker 1: I'm glad he didn't, right, But one of the most
36:54
Speaker 1: infuriating things that happened from that and from like because
36:59
Speaker 1: he wasn't the only one by far who wrote something
37:03
Speaker 1: that was like, oh god, periods. Um. There was a
37:07
Speaker 1: Reddit post one of my friends alerted me too when
37:10
Speaker 1: I was telling her how much I love this movie
37:13
Speaker 1: about it not being appropriate for young children, and it
37:16
Speaker 1: generated a lot of conversation and views and hits because
37:20
Speaker 1: parents were saying, like, I've heard a lot about this movie,
37:24
Speaker 1: is it appropriate for my children? And you and I
37:29
Speaker 1: were texting about this after you watched it, and you
37:32
Speaker 1: rightly pointed out, and others have rightly pointed out, um
37:36
Speaker 1: that there are you know, other Disney movies about under
37:39
Speaker 1: aged women marrying older men that are painted as romance
37:42
Speaker 1: or being kissed while unconscious, uh well under age also
37:46
Speaker 1: living with seven strangers while she was doing work, like
37:51
Speaker 1: like word for the Hello. Um, yeah, that's absolutely right,
37:55
Speaker 1: and part of that Reddit and and TikTok as well
37:58
Speaker 1: has been uh circulated because I love the TikTok's um
38:02
Speaker 1: as well, where conservative Christian men would sit up and say,
38:07
Speaker 1: we didn't say it sit longer than three minutes in
38:09
Speaker 1: this movie because not only does it show disrespect and
38:12
Speaker 1: this is why according to the Bible, you should have
38:14
Speaker 1: leave holding a freaking Bible and saying this is against
38:19
Speaker 1: God's will essentially to a movie. Once again, that really
38:24
Speaker 1: just it's age appropriate, Like that's the biggest Like it
38:27
Speaker 1: was funny. Again, I think that was one of my
38:29
Speaker 1: biggest complaints. When we were texting, it was like, at least,
38:32
Speaker 1: this is age appropriate. Fanning over boys thirteen years old?
38:37
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I did. I have fan over some boys.
38:39
Speaker 1: I love Jonathan Brandis with my whole being and by yes,
38:44
Speaker 1: I did r I by the way, but I adored him.
38:49
Speaker 1: Chris o'donald, one of my biggest crush, thank you very much.
38:53
Speaker 1: Has Yes, I haven't seen them recently, but you know whatever,
38:57
Speaker 1: all of those things happened at the age of thirteen,
39:01
Speaker 1: trying to and and much like her, and we're gonna
39:04
Speaker 1: talk about this again. Much like Maine, she loved her
39:07
Speaker 1: friends and her friends were people that she could be
39:11
Speaker 1: herself with. I felt that to my core, when you
39:15
Speaker 1: felt like you were hiding something from your family. And
39:17
Speaker 1: I think a lot of teenagers do this, if not all,
39:20
Speaker 1: teenagers do this. Feel the need to be different at
39:23
Speaker 1: home than they do with their friends, and that level
39:26
Speaker 1: of love and acceptance is a whole different level. And
39:30
Speaker 1: I remember feeling this way, Like I told my friends
39:34
Speaker 1: when I was going through hard times before I told
39:36
Speaker 1: my family. Uh, they knew when I was in trouble
39:39
Speaker 1: before my family. They knew the dirtiness that happened to
39:42
Speaker 1: my past before my family. Like all of those things
39:46
Speaker 1: were there because I loved my friends and trusted them
39:50
Speaker 1: because they were my chosen family. Of course, there's some
39:54
Speaker 1: ridiculous rhetoric and betrayal and drama that happens with friend groups,
39:59
Speaker 1: but that's that will of being that age, and that's
40:04
Speaker 1: what this this portrayed it so amazingly to me as well. Again,
40:10
Speaker 1: the other Disney movies that we have seen and I
40:12
Speaker 1: love them, still taught kids to grow up in a
40:16
Speaker 1: way to be these subservient princesses. The have to be
40:20
Speaker 1: all of these things in order to find my perfect prints,
40:25
Speaker 1: which what is that conversation? Once again, it wasn't until
40:30
Speaker 1: the new terms happened that we started seeing a progressive
40:35
Speaker 1: for conversation of maybe our whole goal isn't to find
40:39
Speaker 1: the perfect man. Yeah, yeah, we should come back and
40:44
Speaker 1: talk about that. Because there was that huge controversy with
40:47
Speaker 1: um Brave as well because she was like lesbian, maybe
40:51
Speaker 1: because she didn't want to get buried at I don't
40:53
Speaker 1: know fifteen, so right, something wrong there. It's the same
41:01
Speaker 1: way with Incanto that we talket like she's a young girl.
41:04
Speaker 1: I think everybody figured out she was like what fifteen,
41:08
Speaker 1: and everybody's like, oh, she's at age. But even in
41:11
Speaker 1: that rhetoric, she still was finding herself and being her
41:15
Speaker 1: own hero and finding herself away from our family, which
41:19
Speaker 1: doesn't he is really into right now, I know, And
41:22
Speaker 1: that's fine. Well, I didn't hear that many complaints about
41:25
Speaker 1: her rebelling against her family as much as I heard
41:28
Speaker 1: about this one. I think this one is too close
41:31
Speaker 1: to home because they see their own kids doing this
41:34
Speaker 1: right now because they again we're gonna talk about this
41:39
Speaker 1: is with religion and women, I know, But that whole
41:43
Speaker 1: idea of like if you suffocate them enough, they're going
41:45
Speaker 1: to grow up to be the mini version of you.
41:49
Speaker 1: But in the end they're their own humans, and oftentimes
41:52
Speaker 1: that pushes kids away. And that's kind of that same conversation.
41:55
Speaker 1: You can have the best intent, if you're doing this
41:58
Speaker 1: out of other reason other than just trying to let
42:04
Speaker 1: them be their best selves, then it's gonna probably blow
42:07
Speaker 1: up in your face. Uh, this kind of characteristic is happening,
42:11
Speaker 1: and it has happened. Uh, that's what we talked about
42:14
Speaker 1: with teenage rebellion, girls rebelling any of those rebellion when
42:18
Speaker 1: their expectations laid upon them. And it's unrealistic because you're
42:22
Speaker 1: projecting all of that to say this is a real
42:26
Speaker 1: honest and I think people are really scared of honest. Yes,
42:30
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to young girls and sexuality, which
42:33
Speaker 1: we've talked about a lot um. And so you know,
42:36
Speaker 1: I have to talk about fan fiction because you know,
42:40
Speaker 1: because after this movie came out and there was all
42:44
Speaker 1: this freaking out about it, the hashtag at thirteen got
42:48
Speaker 1: over one million treats and it was about fan fiction
42:52
Speaker 1: people were writing at thirteen. So people were like, no, yeah,
42:56
Speaker 1: this is right, Like, yeah, I definitely snuck in some
42:59
Speaker 1: of those realm Its books that I saw my friend's parents.
43:03
Speaker 1: Yes you did, Yes you did. And it's been really
43:07
Speaker 1: interesting because, like the creators have been very open about,
43:11
Speaker 1: you know, their own fan fiction experiences. They're just been
43:14
Speaker 1: fandom in general of like really crushing over this band
43:17
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. I felt it was very Backstreet
43:20
Speaker 1: Boys band, but you know, I'm gonna go with in
43:22
Speaker 1: sync with the Wh'll have to get ahold of it.
43:27
Speaker 1: If you're listening, please let them know. Women gain developers
43:30
Speaker 1: specifically start. They wrote about how writing fan fiction helped
43:34
Speaker 1: them start their career as part of this conversation, and I,
43:39
Speaker 1: as I alluded to at the top, I related to
43:42
Speaker 1: this so hard because I had Yes a Green Day
43:45
Speaker 1: fan fiction about high save Billy Joe's life and then
43:48
Speaker 1: he fell in love with me. Obviously I wrote it
43:51
Speaker 1: when I was like fourteen, and then I've had fan fiction,
43:57
Speaker 1: not that one, but other fan fiction that I written.
44:00
Speaker 1: I had one read by my mom accidentally and one
44:03
Speaker 1: read by a friend of my brothers accidentally, and it
44:06
Speaker 1: was humiliating, like so that part I was like, oh
44:08
Speaker 1: my god, yes, when her mom throws down the images
44:12
Speaker 1: in front of everybody, that she drawn of her and
44:15
Speaker 1: Devon and Devon's got a mermaid tail. I was like,
44:17
Speaker 1: oh god, this is ite um to this. I was
44:25
Speaker 1: freaking out. I was like, I gotta text everyone. I know,
44:27
Speaker 1: I need some distraction. Um. But it was like, I
44:33
Speaker 1: think we're so uncomfortable with young girls sexuality and fan
44:40
Speaker 1: girls of of bands, specifically in this case. You know,
44:47
Speaker 1: we don't give them a chance to express these things,
44:49
Speaker 1: and this is one of the few places that a
44:53
Speaker 1: lot of young girls feel safe to express this sexuality,
44:56
Speaker 1: of these emotions they're feeling in a way like again,
44:59
Speaker 1: this band is singing you know, you don't know you're beautiful,
45:02
Speaker 1: You're the best thing ever, whatever, and in your mind,
45:06
Speaker 1: like I love that that imagination sequence may have where
45:10
Speaker 1: she's imagining like marrying Robert, going to his concert, meeting
45:13
Speaker 1: him and marrying him, and like that's never gonna happen, right,
45:16
Speaker 1: But it's like a nice it allows you to kind
45:20
Speaker 1: of experience it in a safe way. Right. Oh. I
45:23
Speaker 1: definitely thought Lance Bass was gonna tell me he loved me,
45:25
Speaker 1: and then I'm like, oh wait, he definitely not. Definitely not.
45:30
Speaker 1: Multiple reasons, many reasons why. But that was like I
45:39
Speaker 1: loved I loved the boy band aspect of this movie
45:43
Speaker 1: because I felt like the creators clearly went through it
45:46
Speaker 1: and experienced it. I related to it so hard. So
45:51
Speaker 1: many of us do, I mean, come on again, as
45:55
Speaker 1: I said and saying growing up, it was definitely nucas
45:58
Speaker 1: on the block. Uh, there were some of my favorites.
46:01
Speaker 1: There are so many bands that are like yeah, give
46:04
Speaker 1: me that. But my niece loved One Direction. She was
46:07
Speaker 1: a huge, huge fan of One Direction. BTS is like
46:11
Speaker 1: a huge name and has a giant fandom, like giant fandom,
46:15
Speaker 1: and maybe she is kind of using them as well
46:18
Speaker 1: because we know that that has gone on to be
46:21
Speaker 1: like a big love. But boy bands have been around
46:24
Speaker 1: since the Partridge Family, the Monkeys, the Beatles, all of them.
46:29
Speaker 1: It has been a thing way back when, Like we know,
46:34
Speaker 1: there's a love for boys who crew at us about
46:38
Speaker 1: how much he could love us and how amazing we
46:41
Speaker 1: are as women, as I'm sure young boys as well
46:44
Speaker 1: those who are queer communities. Like yeah, that was for
46:47
Speaker 1: me too. Absolutely, I think that's what we needed. New
46:50
Speaker 1: is like again, this is why I think this movie
46:54
Speaker 1: scared so many conservatives. It was too real. They want
46:57
Speaker 1: to keep it the fantasy where they hope that they
47:00
Speaker 1: is no, they can't ever reach it, but pretend to
47:02
Speaker 1: be perfect. This doesn't tell them they have to be perfect.
47:05
Speaker 1: Mm hmm yeah, oh gosh, I love it. Um. I
47:09
Speaker 1: also love that Billie Eilish was a part in writing
47:12
Speaker 1: this song since she was a huge fan of boy
47:14
Speaker 1: bands growing up and she loved some justin Bieber. She
47:17
Speaker 1: understood the assignment. It is clear. Um. I love that
47:21
Speaker 1: there is the parallel of you know, the period thing
47:25
Speaker 1: of like becoming a woman, which we have talked about
47:28
Speaker 1: in his problematic in his own way, but of for them,
47:31
Speaker 1: for these like four friends. They keep saying like we're
47:33
Speaker 1: going to go into this concert girls and we're gonna
47:36
Speaker 1: leave women. I love that. I love like all this
47:40
Speaker 1: commentary around like having to hide your burgeoning sexuality as
47:45
Speaker 1: a girl, of like you don't say you like gyrating
47:48
Speaker 1: stripper music, as Abby's guardians call it. Hiding stuff under
47:53
Speaker 1: the bed I felt was very like kind of reminiscent
47:55
Speaker 1: of boys hiding porn under the bed. Did you have
48:01
Speaker 1: a stash of things that you had? I did have
48:03
Speaker 1: a stat of things. Again, it was like highly innocent champiction,
48:06
Speaker 1: but yes, I did have, and actually some boy pant
48:10
Speaker 1: CD said I was embarrassed to have I had, and
48:15
Speaker 1: I did want to say I did have. This exact
48:18
Speaker 1: same thing of trying to convince that the parents, the
48:21
Speaker 1: guardians to let me and five friends go see Green Day.
48:25
Speaker 1: They all said no. We came up with a plan.
48:30
Speaker 1: We told that we were going to go tour Vanderbilt College.
48:35
Speaker 1: We tricked one of the other parents. We raised money
48:39
Speaker 1: so they drove us to see the college. We kind
48:42
Speaker 1: of lured him away with a football game Tennessee Titans.
48:45
Speaker 1: He wanted to see. We stuck off the secret. Oh damn,
48:50
Speaker 1: So your plan worked. It worked nice. See. The one
48:56
Speaker 1: show that I can think of was when I was
48:57
Speaker 1: in college, and so I would have had to pay
48:59
Speaker 1: for myself. Well, I was about being caught up in
49:01
Speaker 1: high school. Was the in Sync Jennet Jackson tour that
49:05
Speaker 1: brought on in Sync for Velvet Rope Tour. But yeah,
49:10
Speaker 1: we did not make it. That's amazing, It's yeah. So
49:19
Speaker 1: I my mom I asked her what she thought about
49:22
Speaker 1: this because this movie, because she'd watched it, and she
49:24
Speaker 1: that was one of the first thing she brought up.
49:26
Speaker 1: As she said it reminded me of you when you
49:28
Speaker 1: were a kid. She loved it also side note, uh,
49:34
Speaker 1: not really relevant, but I loved it so early two
49:37
Speaker 1: thousand's like so many there's butterfly clips. There were those GigaPets.
49:41
Speaker 1: The cell phones were like from that era that you know,
49:44
Speaker 1: handheld video camera. Nice touch, nice touch, those butterfly clips.
49:49
Speaker 1: I wore those two prom Oh oh wow nice. I
49:56
Speaker 1: still have fine. I don't know why. I also want
50:14
Speaker 1: to mention we talked about this recently in our book
50:17
Speaker 1: Club of Women and salt Um. There are because we've
50:22
Speaker 1: kind of been talking about this as like a you know,
50:24
Speaker 1: adolescent period metaphor, which it is, but it's also been
50:28
Speaker 1: seen as like kind of inner generation trauma, which we
50:31
Speaker 1: also saw differently but similarly in Incanto, which is another
50:36
Speaker 1: issue where people kept comparing it conto and turning red
50:38
Speaker 1: and other people were like, let them both be like,
50:41
Speaker 1: we don't have to pit them up against each other.
50:43
Speaker 1: But I saw that for some people the red panda
50:48
Speaker 1: representing kind of like more traditional culture and then may
50:52
Speaker 1: being more like you know, third generation. Well we don't
50:55
Speaker 1: even know, but like an immigrant in America Canada, I
50:59
Speaker 1: keep doing that immigrant in Canada kind of molding melding
51:03
Speaker 1: with you know, boy bands are American culture, Western culture
51:06
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, and that's kind of the beauty
51:08
Speaker 1: of when their songs match at the end of the
51:10
Speaker 1: chance at the boy band. That whole thing of being
51:12
Speaker 1: like the perfect immigrant representing your culture or race, which
51:17
Speaker 1: we had the host of ethnically ambiguous um while back,
51:21
Speaker 1: come on and talk about that. So if you want
51:23
Speaker 1: to listen to that episode, it's really good. But yeah,
51:26
Speaker 1: I like the Panza being sort of this cultural trauma,
51:29
Speaker 1: something hidden from So from the articles I read, the
51:34
Speaker 1: idea is like it's hidden from people who are immigrants
51:38
Speaker 1: until you get older and then it's like all this
51:42
Speaker 1: historian trauma. Though, I mean, there's definitely a long conversation
51:48
Speaker 1: of assimilation when it comes to specifically UH immigration refugees
51:53
Speaker 1: who this is specific to Asian culture. We're supposed to
51:56
Speaker 1: be model minorities for any Western id so that means
52:01
Speaker 1: we assimilate to whatever Western cultural ideas there are. And
52:05
Speaker 1: I will say I really did love that they were like,
52:07
Speaker 1: we are proud to be part of this, but not
52:09
Speaker 1: the whole of this, because that makes us so different.
52:12
Speaker 1: We don't want that to be a hindrance for us
52:15
Speaker 1: to thrive and be what is successful here? Uh. And
52:19
Speaker 1: when I say here, I'm talking about North America in general, Canada,
52:22
Speaker 1: the US. UM. There's that level of conversation of fitting in, UM.
52:27
Speaker 1: But for a lot of first generation second generation children,
52:31
Speaker 1: it is that fine line of how do we fit
52:35
Speaker 1: in and being ashamed of our own culture to being
52:39
Speaker 1: still proud of making people proud in the family. Those
52:43
Speaker 1: are that huge conversation. I do not know that the
52:45
Speaker 1: personal experience completely. I just know the assimilation part and
52:48
Speaker 1: now trying to find and backtrack and find it. But
52:51
Speaker 1: I can understand that level of wanting to fit in
52:55
Speaker 1: and what does that look like and then also carrying
52:58
Speaker 1: the weight of whatever has happened in your family UM,
53:01
Speaker 1: and knowing that it can be passed out and and
53:04
Speaker 1: not that it aligns. But like the Appalachia family, which
53:07
Speaker 1: is a newer category in the past saving fifteen years,
53:10
Speaker 1: kind of holds that same ideas of keeping your tradition,
53:14
Speaker 1: fitting in, but at the same time bringing dishonor and
53:19
Speaker 1: harming your family name by doing something that does not
53:22
Speaker 1: align with their traditions. Yeah, yeah, UM for sure. And
53:29
Speaker 1: I think that that's a good segue into what something
53:31
Speaker 1: else we wanted to talk about, which is the mother
53:34
Speaker 1: daughter relationship. In this movie. You have like Ming's relationship
53:38
Speaker 1: with her mother, but at the heart of it, besides
53:41
Speaker 1: like the friendship, is Ming's relationship with me Ma's relationship
53:45
Speaker 1: with Meing. And I found a really interesting quote from
53:47
Speaker 1: she the director who she did Bow the short movie,
53:52
Speaker 1: the short Pisar film. Um, she did that, and somebody
53:56
Speaker 1: asked her why didn't she do that one about like
53:58
Speaker 1: a mother daughter and she said she needed a whole
54:01
Speaker 1: movie to unpack mother daughter relationship. Okay, And I like
54:08
Speaker 1: that like dynamic between when all of the all of
54:11
Speaker 1: May's aunts show up and they're all like, she's lost weight,
54:15
Speaker 1: she's getting weight. Like, I feel like that that chatter
54:18
Speaker 1: and all of this judgment, but it framed in a
54:22
Speaker 1: way that's supposed to be nice. I feel like a
54:24
Speaker 1: lot of us can relate to that. And then something
54:27
Speaker 1: else I want to mention because I know, like you
54:30
Speaker 1: said something about it, a lot of people have said
54:31
Speaker 1: something about it's sort of this tiger mom thing. And
54:34
Speaker 1: also the strategic incompetent dad, which is just something I
54:38
Speaker 1: picked up on because we had recently talked about it.
54:41
Speaker 1: But here's a quote from she You'll talk to any
54:44
Speaker 1: first generation Asian kids, they do have the experience with it,
54:47
Speaker 1: but stories about tiger moms that never explore why parents
54:49
Speaker 1: are that way, and a lot of the time it's
54:51
Speaker 1: from the creator's own past experiences, so that I do
54:55
Speaker 1: really like that. You watch it and you're mad the
55:00
Speaker 1: mom and they're like, you don't get it. You're so
55:02
Speaker 1: touch like you're you're all right, and the and it
55:05
Speaker 1: gives her that sort of beautiful you see her as
55:08
Speaker 1: a kid, and you see her influences, and you see
55:10
Speaker 1: her with her mom and how her her mom's relationship is,
55:14
Speaker 1: so they kind of like it was definitely I got
55:16
Speaker 1: that vibe to you. But then I like that at
55:19
Speaker 1: least they gave her she was a well rounded character,
55:21
Speaker 1: and they gave her like the backstory of why she
55:25
Speaker 1: was this way, and a lot of this also has
55:28
Speaker 1: like I had a lot of questions because I'm like, Okay,
55:30
Speaker 1: we know this is a stereotype, we know this is
55:32
Speaker 1: something that we want to address because is it a
55:34
Speaker 1: stereotype or is it again a personal experience that she
55:36
Speaker 1: just really wanted to convey A redemption arts which which
55:39
Speaker 1: we talked about if in this way of learning to
55:43
Speaker 1: allow a child to grow, but in it all, it's
55:46
Speaker 1: all out of love, and it's literally how much she
55:49
Speaker 1: loves her daughter and how much she wants for her daughter.
55:53
Speaker 1: Not that she's ever disappointed and that never comes out.
55:56
Speaker 1: It's just always I love you so much and you're
55:58
Speaker 1: the most amazing and her daughter fulfilling that as well
56:02
Speaker 1: and finding each other's best friends. We talked about that
56:05
Speaker 1: with our own parents, with my mother own mother who's
56:07
Speaker 1: not Asian but really wanting to put all of that
56:12
Speaker 1: those dreams on her own daughter and hopes that they
56:14
Speaker 1: can grow to that point of finding just as much love,
56:18
Speaker 1: all of that different things, but it is because she
56:21
Speaker 1: loved her so much and everything was in her mind
56:24
Speaker 1: for her daughter. The typical stereotype that we see instead
56:28
Speaker 1: of that is often just like the very distant push away.
56:32
Speaker 1: But that wasn't this case at all, and you see that.
56:34
Speaker 1: Of course the grandmother kind of portrays that, but we
56:37
Speaker 1: don't know the history about what happened and all of that.
56:41
Speaker 1: In trying to control it in disciplining or in discipline
56:44
Speaker 1: in general life, uh, in trying to control yourself and
56:48
Speaker 1: have others control themselves and what that looks like. But yeah,
56:50
Speaker 1: it definitely was a little different. I will say the
56:53
Speaker 1: dad here, Yeah, I felt like it was a little
56:55
Speaker 1: bit more more of a stereotype too. But at the
56:57
Speaker 1: same time, like he's doing the cooking, he's the emotional
56:59
Speaker 1: support said when he's needed, and he will always and
57:02
Speaker 1: he's always watching in the background about what he needed. Yeah,
57:05
Speaker 1: and I like at the end when he has that
57:07
Speaker 1: really powerful insight, I thought that was great. It was
57:11
Speaker 1: just something like because we just talked about it, I
57:12
Speaker 1: was like, is this it? And then at the end
57:14
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't, no, not really anyway. And
57:18
Speaker 1: I also wanted to include this quote from she the
57:20
Speaker 1: red Panda is a metaphor not just for puberty, but
57:23
Speaker 1: also what we inherit from our mom's and how you
57:25
Speaker 1: deal with the things that we inherit from them. So
57:29
Speaker 1: I love that. Um. Also, as we've been talking about
57:31
Speaker 1: this whole time, the real heart of this is the
57:34
Speaker 1: friendships between the four girls, and I think we have
57:36
Speaker 1: just sung the praises of how great it is to
57:39
Speaker 1: have support from women, to have good friends that aren't toxic,
57:43
Speaker 1: which unfortunately all have friendships at this age can be.
57:45
Speaker 1: But to have these like good friends who see you
57:48
Speaker 1: and I love that May is able to control the panda.
57:50
Speaker 1: She thinks of her friends and how they hold her
57:53
Speaker 1: and uh, they'd say, like you're number one in our hearts, girl,
57:56
Speaker 1: like they always are just there for her, and it's
57:59
Speaker 1: so sweet, right, um, And I will say I have
58:04
Speaker 1: been the friend I've thought about this before that the
58:07
Speaker 1: parent disapproved of. But the parent came and realized I
58:11
Speaker 1: was like an anchor for them and and found love
58:15
Speaker 1: for me much like this story. But I do again.
58:18
Speaker 1: We've talked about how friendships are so important to us
58:24
Speaker 1: and this I loved seeing this being centered around them
58:28
Speaker 1: and um, not having them in a bad light, but
58:31
Speaker 1: the main character in the bad light and trying to
58:33
Speaker 1: see her grow out of it. It wasn't really refreshing,
58:37
Speaker 1: It was really refreshing. And I like that they had
58:39
Speaker 1: their their fight but they were able to overcome it
58:42
Speaker 1: because a lot of times I feel like that lasts longer,
58:44
Speaker 1: but in this they were like, now we're such good friends,
58:47
Speaker 1: we can do this. We have to get past it. Yeah. Um,
58:51
Speaker 1: So we're not going to go into this too much
58:53
Speaker 1: right now, but I did want to mention because it's
58:54
Speaker 1: a big piece of this conversation. When this movie came out,
58:57
Speaker 1: as you said, it did have a traditional theatrical release,
59:02
Speaker 1: even though Disney has for most of the movies in
59:06
Speaker 1: the past few months, given that two movies they've released, um,
59:11
Speaker 1: they barely gave it any publicity, despite the fact that
59:15
Speaker 1: the casted crew really pushed back UM. And I think
59:18
Speaker 1: that's pretty telling. I think that's pretty damning. And then
59:22
Speaker 1: also this was happening around the time of like don't
59:26
Speaker 1: say gay in Florida and Disney, the president of the
59:30
Speaker 1: CEO especially having like really problematic or not great uh
59:34
Speaker 1: statements that he made and a lot of reversals that
59:37
Speaker 1: were even worse somehow, so Pixar employees in response to
59:42
Speaker 1: that said that they've been pushed to act queer stories
59:45
Speaker 1: from movies, and I believe that one was asked from
59:48
Speaker 1: this one because because of this whole thing. So there's
59:54
Speaker 1: that piece of it, and that's something we are gonna
59:57
Speaker 1: we definitely need to come back and talk about because
1:00:00
Speaker 1: there's a lot there. But in the meantime, I did
1:00:03
Speaker 1: want to end this on I really love the message
1:00:08
Speaker 1: of embracing yourself and all the messy sides of yourself.
1:00:11
Speaker 1: And I really love that they captured that part about
1:00:13
Speaker 1: a lessons that's like the sadness of moving on. I
1:00:16
Speaker 1: like at the end how she has that like I'm
1:00:18
Speaker 1: sad things are changing, but I'm excited that it's changing,
1:00:22
Speaker 1: because I think that's so accurate, Like it is sad
1:00:24
Speaker 1: a lot of times when things change, but that's life,
1:00:28
Speaker 1: like things change. Yeah. Yeah, just a part of the
1:00:33
Speaker 1: growing up because I definitely ruminous about times. I'm like, oh,
1:00:36
Speaker 1: this was such a great period of time, and then
1:00:38
Speaker 1: you grow and you're like, wow, you sometimes you did
1:00:42
Speaker 1: you felt that, you felt that change happening and you
1:00:44
Speaker 1: knew what's coming, but you had to embrace it, but
1:00:47
Speaker 1: growing together with better. I also love the ending where
1:00:50
Speaker 1: they all had to like take new talisman's yeah, and
1:00:54
Speaker 1: it wasn't what they all chose. So the mom ming
1:00:57
Speaker 1: got the gig up at or the little digital pet,
1:01:00
Speaker 1: which was quite funny. I was like, why does she have? Oh? Okay,
1:01:04
Speaker 1: And then the grandmother who got the number four from
1:01:07
Speaker 1: the concert because you know, she had nothing else and
1:01:11
Speaker 1: it's unlucky. Uh, and she already talked about that. But
1:01:16
Speaker 1: I love that they all kind of progressed and moved
1:01:18
Speaker 1: on again, that they each had the choice of how
1:01:21
Speaker 1: they wanted to move on, and I think that was
1:01:23
Speaker 1: really important to see as well. Me too. I love
1:01:29
Speaker 1: this movie. I love this girl. Watch it if you
1:01:32
Speaker 1: haven't seen it. It's excellent. It's very very sweet, and
1:01:36
Speaker 1: as always, we do have a lot of movies, as
1:01:38
Speaker 1: we said, lined up, but we're always looking for suggestions,
1:01:42
Speaker 1: so if you'd like to send those to us, you
1:01:44
Speaker 1: can our emails Stuffie and mom Stuff at I heart
1:01:46
Speaker 1: media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
1:01:48
Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and stuff I've Never
1:01:50
Speaker 1: Told to You. Thanks. It's always to our super producer Christina.
1:01:53
Speaker 1: Thank you, Christina, and thanks to you for listening stuff
1:01:56
Speaker 1: When Never Told You protrection of I Heart Radio. For
1:01:58
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the Heart Do
1:02:00
Speaker 1: you app Apple podcast or whever you listen to your
1:02:02
Speaker 1: favorite shows. H