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Turning Red is not just a film, it is a metaphor for reaching adolescence, growing up, and coming to terms with the struggles of life. Directed by Domee Shi, the film is now available to watch on Disney+.
The animation follows the tale of a 13-year-old Canadian-Chinese, Mei, who goes on a whirlwind ride of adolescence, taking us along with her. Through the nuanced portrayal of puberty, the film charts Mei's journey as she transforms as a person while growing up.
Turning Red is a euphemism for reaching puberty
The absurd stigmatization of a very natural bodily process, menstruation, has led to the emergence of various euphemisms to substitute the taboo word with. While Turning Red is not directly perceived as a euphemism for the word, it is very well a metaphor for all the mental and physical transformations that take place once puberty is reached.
13-year-old Mei locked herself in the bathroom when one day upon waking up, she found that she had turned red. This red has nothing to do directly with menstruation, although Mei says yes when her mother asks if 'the red peony has blossomed.' What she faces is a more complex problem.
She finds herself turned into a red panda. It turns out that Mei transforms into a red panda every time she experiences emotional highs, and this is apparently a characteristic trait that every female of her lineage bears.
The rebel child of adolescence
Till then, Mei had been the perfect daughter. She brought home straight As from school and then helped her mother run their temple business. But there is more to Mei that she kept hidden from her stern, overbearing mother, who was disapproving of every sign of modernity.
This side of herself, the one that swoons over boys, draws compromising pictures in the corner of her notebook, and fangirls over a band slowly comes to the forefront. It reaches a point where the obedient Mei now defies her mother's words, lies and sneaks out at night, as she struggles to become her own self by wriggling out of the strict impositions of her mother.
What is this if not puberty striking and a result of a young girl hitting her adolescent years?
Turning Red is thus, more than a film. It is a metaphor for growing up and breaking away. It stands for everything that adolescence brings, both good and bad, and beautifully portrays the struggles of a young person clawing her way out to become her own individual.
Catch Turning Red now on Disney+.
