Asian parents' love language, magical puberty, and the 'chorus of women' behind Oscar-nominated ‘Turning red’: an interview with Pixar director Domee Shi
Interview by Isabelle Pan
As we approach the peak of awards ceremony season 2023, we spoke with Pixar director Domee Shi, of 'Turning Red' which has been nominated for Best Animated (Feature) Film for both the Oscars and the BAFTAs. Since its release in March 2022, Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red”, a coming-of-age story, has moved fans and critics alike for its honest and endearing depiction of mother-daughter relationships, female friendships, and puberty in all its magical wonder.
From teenage fans writing letters to her about the way the film validated them; to how the film's representation of specific experiences like menstruation or the Taishanese community can still be relatable to all viewers; to how food is an Asian parent's love language: Domee shares her favourite audience reactions to the film, anecdotes about the all-female leadership behind the camera, and more insights that reminded us of all the reasons why Turning Red warmed the hearts of so many around the globe.
Watch our video interview or read the transcript below!
Isabelle: Hi, my name is Isabelle. I'm from besea.n, Britain's East and South East Asian Network. It's really nice to meet you.
Domee: It's good to meet you, too.
Isabelle: So I want to start off by congratulating you for how well the film has done. It's been almost a year since the film came out, and it must have been a whirlwind for the whole cast and crew, what with the film having the most streams ever for a Disney+ original title on its opening weekend. And as of a few months ago, amongst a list of well-deserved nominations, it’s been nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA here in the UK as well. So congratulations.
Domee: Thank you, thank you so much.
Isabelle: So how have you found promoting the film over the past year?
Domee: It's been amazing, because you are working with this film so, so closely for four or five years, half of which we made from home. So to be able to travel and to share this film with with with the world and to actually interact with audience members and fans and to hear and feel their reaction in the theatre has been amazing. And the reaction from like, you know, the Asian community, from like women and girls, and you know, men, boys, everyone of all ages who have who's gone through the messiness of puberty resonate with with me and her story. It's just great. This is like the victory lap.
Domee Shi at the Turning Red premiere
Isabelle: So very much deserved. And as you touched upon this film came out in 2022. And the last couple of years have seen a visible growth in Asian-created and Asian-led films that have thrived in mainstream Western media. You've obviously been working on this film for four or five years, as you mentioned, since before the pandemic, but with the film having been released around the time when there's been a rise in COVID related racism towards East and South East Asians, I can imagine that this film has an even more special significance to East and South East Asian viewers. You talked about the impact and reactions that you've seen from many different viewers. What sort of positive impacts or reactions have you seen from them?
Domee: So many, and from all ages. I especially really love the handwritten letters that I've been receiving in the mail from young fans, young like Asian girls who would like write to me and say how much, you know, this story has resonated with them, how they're going through a similar thing with their moms and dads as well about like, struggling to be perfect. But also, yeah, there was just one particular letter from this girl that was talking about how like, the film helped her deal with just like being like a B and a C student and disappointing her mom. And it was like, reading it, I was like crying. And it was just so amazing. And so, so powerful, just to see how our film is able to help so many, like kids, and people in our community process their emotions and process, the messiness of growing up. I also get a lot of parents thanking us too, and adults thanking us for the film for starting these important conversations with their kids about not just puberty, but like also, you know, within the Asian community, like this idea, like Oh, the burdens and trauma that was put on to me from my parents - am I passing it on to my children as well?” You know, starting important conversations like that and then just, hearing that from audience members has been just incredible.
Meilin’s mum, Ming, in the school yard, watching over Mei in class
Isabelle: Yeah, I can totally relate to the letter that you talked about. And I think I watched the film maybe two or three times. And each time I cried. It was so relatable. For me something that I really appreciated was the strong female friendships between Meilin and her friends, and also the important relationships between the female members of Meilin’s family. And at the same time, I know that you were an all-female leadership behind the camera. So what sort of dynamics did that bring out on set and behind the camera?
Domee: I think the fact that most of the leadership on the crew were female, really helped us take even more risks and encourage us to be even bolder. Because you know, if there was a moment where one of us was like, ah, is this kind of is this too embarrassing? Is this too weird to put in the movie? We had a chorus of women behind this guy like put it in? You remember what it was like? It was so much more embarrassing. Yeah, but I think, when you watch the movie, it does really feel like a celebration of women of girls, but like all kinds of them too, like I’m really proud of just how much female diversity there is not just visibly, but like personality wise too. I just wanted to use this film as an opportunity to share with the world just how weird and cool and messy and cringy and horny girls can be. Because not a lot of like, I feel like not a lot of men know that about. Like, I wanted to use this film as like a window for them to kind of see. If you ever wanted to understand women in your life and girls in your life, watch this movie. Like I remember, there was one co-worker when he saw an early version of the movie. He was like, fascinated by the drawing the mermaids, in her sketchbook and he's like, is that a thing? Or mermaids? I was like, Yes, it is very much a thing for a lot of adolescent girls.
Hands up if your parent(s) ever found your book full of sketsches of your crush when you were younger?
Isabelle: Yeah, I definitely saw that amongst me and my friends when we were younger. And I'm sure that the chorus of women that you described, for example, really contributed to the film's ability to depict the things that you mentioned - so, you know, crushes, teenage sexuality, and menstruation. And as you said, it's not often that these things are depicted [on-screen]. So talk us through how you and your team sort of decided to depict these very common and relatable parts of being a teenager that are not often talked about.
Domee: Yeah, I think it all just came from the initial concept of the story, like the initial idea was pitched as, Chinese Canadian girl wakes up one day and undergoes magical puberty, has transformed into a giant, red hairy monster and has to control her emotions in order to like, keep it at bay and appear normal. But then she learns to kind of embrace her inner beast at the end. And, you know, Pixar has always been the studio that was all about like, like, truthful, universal stories and what I love about Pixar films is that they don't shy away from some of the ugly details about life, you know, they talk about death. They talk about, you know, like, all kinds of very mature topics. And I think we had that same approach with this movie to like, Okay, if we're going to make a movie about magical puberty and coming of age for a girl, like, you know, we have to put this in there, because it's just, it's part of life. And it's something too, that we should normalise that it's, you know, it's at this point, it's kind of, to me, it feels kind of strange that there aren't more coming of age stories or media out there that talk about or even show pads or talk about menstruation. And this is, you know, if this film can help normalise in any way, like I'd love for a world where like, people would just treat it as an outrageous, relatable gag and not like this, oh, my God, this is gonna break the internet, and this is going to break our children's brain kind of reaction.
Isabelle: I think this is the maybe the third film in my whole life that I've seen the pads actually on on the screen.
Domee: Yeah.
The film deals imaginatively and sensitively with the themes of puberty, menstruation, and self-acceptance
Isabelle: So in a previous interview with my colleague, Karlie here at besea.n, you said that the community represented by Meilin and her family was quite specific from a region in China called Taishan. You got the inspiration for this choice from the residents of the Chinatowns in Toronto, San Francisco and Oakland. I actually lived in Berkeley for one year. So some of the scenes are quite relatable for me. And I was going to ask you, why do you think it's important to have representation that's specific and focused? And is it is it possible for people who may not share these identities to relate to what the characters went through?
Domee: Yeah, I mean, I think for me, just as an artist and as a filmmaker, I feel like that just makes your world feel richer, and more believable and more interesting if you're able to find those specificities and like, do your research in that area. Like you can always tell like when you watch like a western film, and they do a haphazard job of like set dressing like they'll have like a Japanese lantern and a vase and they just do a weird mishmash and it looks like a terrible Asian fusion restaurant. And it just, it pulls me out of it and, and why not go into like, I feel like if you're an artist, if you're someone creative, do your research and dive in to the history of those communities because it can really inspire you. Like, we visited a lot of these grassroots family-run temples in San Francisco and Marysville. And just observing all of the cool details of these temples, how like, the community kind of helps fund it, they donate like cleaning supplies, or vegetable oil to light the candles. It just adds a richness to the world that can only benefit your movies, so why not do the research and these people and talk to them? I think that was our attitude kind of going in like we we wanted to like we were so like, passionate and curious about this, this world that like me and Rona we were adjacent to, because both of us are are immigrants from different parts of China, not from the Taishan region. But yeah, it fascinated us. And we really wanted to like, you know, dive in and nerd out and, have the opportunity to bring these details to life.
Meilin strolling through the film’s Chinatown, for which Domee and the creative team found their inspiration in the Chinatowns of San Francisco, Oakland and Toronto, where there was a large community from Taishan, China
Isabelle: Yeah, and that research and the amount of details have really shown in the film. And it's been really beautiful to watch the care that you've put into the film, especially with portraying Chinese food, which I know you did in Bao as well. And it hasn't gone unnoticed that both [of these] films have food beautiful food scenes and also deal with family relationships. And so do you think there is a connection between food and family through what you're portraying on screen?
Domee: Oh, definitely. It's definitely, like a direct reference to how in a lot of Asian families and Chinese families like food is symbolic of love is food is the language of love. Like our parents don't say I love you. They say you haven't eaten yet, you look skinny, or you look fat, like all revolved around food, like conversations hanging out with your family, you know, making dumplings, like all of that, like food and family are so intrinsically tied. And this was just, you know, again, another way to just to make the world feel richer and more authentic, was showing this specific dishes that may in her family made. And also, you know, it's also just something me and Rona are just passionate about, like, we love going into nerdy details about like, oh, which dishes should Mei’s dad make in the opening and like, what what food items should be on the table when her mom is like trying to entice her to like, come hang out with her. And how is that different than the banquet in you know, in Act Three, with the aunties and the relatives all around the table. I like that food should look fancier and it should be fancier, like what is fancy Taishanese food compared to like more homemade food compared to you know, what her dad would make? So yeah, it was just another opportunity, you know, for something to make the world feel richer.
Isabelle: Yeah. Yeah, I really loved it. And I'm looking forward to your next food scene in your next project. And I just want to end by saying thank you so much for your time Domee and congratulations again on this beautiful and heartwarming film.
Domee: Thank you Isabelle. Good talking to you.
Turning Red is available to stream on Disney+. Click here to see our interviews last year with Turning Red cast and crew: Sandra Oh, Rosalie Chiang and Director Domee Shi & Lindsey Collins.