Turning Red Movie Analysis Essay Example

Recently, I have watched Disney Pixar’s Turning Red, a coming-of-age film. It talks about the physical, emotional, and mental changes and struggles that the main character, Meilin “Mei” Lee, experiences together with her family and friends. Mei is a 13-year old student who is excellent not only in academics and extracurricular activities, but as well as with her roles and responsibilities — managing the ancestral temple, as the only daughter of the Lee family.  Mei has always lived up to her parents’ expectations. She’s the perfect daughter with a perfect image; however, Mei’s parents didn’t know the real her, that she likes stuff that her parents dislike and/or disagree with. For instance, said that ”I like boys. I like loud music. I like gyrating!”, which made her mother mad. Anyway, I don’t want to spoil the details since it’s a really good movie! But overall, Turning Red has made me realize two things through Mei’s life: how hard it is to fulfill the responsibilities as a student and daughter, and how it is okay to feel emotions.

According to Collins (n.d.), Turning Red discusses the immense confusion and changes that a teenager experiences during their puberty. As a girl in her teenage years, I can definitely relate to Mei. I experienced and still have the same changes, struggles, and confusions that she went through. Firstly, like Mei, I am a student and a daughter (as well as a sister) who needs to fulfill different roles and duties at the same time. Mei often wants to please her mother, sometimes, she even sacrifices her own happiness. Even though she wants to have fun and relax with her friends, she chose to do her duties in the temple. Although there was a change of track, I have also experienced sacrificing my own happiness and health just to make sure that I will be a good student and daughter. Secondly, it is evident in the film that Mei struggles with expressing her emotions, especially with her family, since some things have changed and are unfamiliar to her. Due to expectations, she can’t express herself before but as she transforms, she also learns and grows as a person and was able to find her identity. Similarly, I also struggle in terms of showing my emotions because I don’t want to be weak in front of my family. I just wish I'm as strong as Mei, who allows herself to feel different emotions, whether it is positive or negative. To sum it up, I can identify with Meilin as we have the same situation and experiences when it comes to challenges in family and self as a teenager.