One morning, when Meilin Lee woke from troubled dreams, she found herself transformed in her bed into a horrible vermin.
Thankfully, Meilin (Rosalie Chiang) doesn’t turn into an insect like Gregor Samsa, the protagonist of Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” but rather, takes the form of an oversized fluffy red panda. Meilin is as shocked and horrified as Samsa himself, but thankfully, “Turning Red” is so fun and exuberant that one couldn’t possibly refer to it as “Kafkaesque.”
The utterly charming and insightful “Turning Red,” directed by Domee Shi, written by Shi and Julia Cho is a story that is highly, and unapologetically specific, but universal in its themes. Mei is a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl trying to navigate the turbulent waters of eighth grade in the early 2000s. At school, she's buoyed by her trio of best friends, and their shared passion for the boy band 4*Town, but at home, working at her family’s temple, trying to please her discerning mother Ming (Sanda Oh), Mei is not the sassy, self-possessed girl whose friends love her unconditionally.
