We Need To Talk About "Turning Red" Hate | Fung Bros

Pixar's Turning Red is the highest budget animated Asian film ever. It's centered around a traditional Chinese teenage girl. And if you don't like the movie, are you being ignorant? Welcome, everybody, to the Hot Pop Boys. David and Andrew here. We just watched Turning Red last night. It's very entertaining. I did enjoy it, but it's also kind of weird and confusing. It's throwing a lot of different cultural elements from the east and the west, mashing it together. And a lot of other people find it very polarizing and controversial as well. It has been generating so many comments on the Internet. I'm talking about like thousands and thousands of debates. Literally, like it became a woke versus like non woke crowd thing. It became a Christian versus Taoist, like ancestor worship thing. It became a Western versus Eastern thing. It became like a Chinese versus Chinese American thing. I don't know. It's got a lot going on. Let's talk about it right off the bat. Who would really, really like this movie? I would say that anybody who had a sister growing up or is a female, obviously all women went through puberty. Obviously, a lot of like Asian-Americans who have a particularly unique relationship with their parents and filial piety, specifically Chinese people relate to this movie heavily. Yeah, I mean, obviously, if you related to Over the Moon or Shang-Chi or Tiger Tail or any of these movies that deal with this strict like I want to rebel against my parents were in the movie, almost a spoiler alert, the villain is the parent. Then it's almost like, how could you not relate to it? And if that's something you saw growing up, you're going to feel it viscerally, too. Oh, Andrew, when it comes to filial piety and Chinese storylines, don't stop there. Let's go. Mulan, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Joy Luck Club, Crazy Rich Asians. I think every Chinese movie that's come out maybe ever dealt with this thing, and that's really the crux of it. And that's what's very amazing about it in a way is like, holy crap. Like, I guess that's that's Chinese culture, right? Listen, guys, I never thought I would see 160 million dollars dedicated to telling the story of our older sister. There was a lot of cultural touch points that I thought were a ten out of ten. Was the execution of the film at a ten out of ten? No. But, you know, I support Jeremy Lin at a 20 out of ten level from a casual observer who was not Asian. Was his career ten out of ten? No. Was this movie a ten out of ten for representation? Yes. But in terms of like, was a little bit discombobulated, sometimes feeling yes. You high expectation Asian father. All right, let's get into the outrage of one of the reviews, because this is actually a lot of what people are talking about. As much as people like the movie and are breaking down the movie from a cinema standpoint, they're also talking about the controversy. And the controversy was because one of the first reviews on Cinema Blend was written by a older white gentleman. And he basically his tone was a little off, but he was basically saying, hey, it's unrelatable. It's limiting in scope. It feels like it's just for Domi, she and her friends. And while he was criticizing, you know, the execution of the art, he was it felt like he was kind of criticizing the culture of it. Yeah, I mean, he sounded racist. Let's be honest. I'm not saying Cinema Blend is or is not racist. Was it beyond the baseline of racism that they might just normally have or otherness? I don't know. But his tone was off. Well, I'm just saying if he leaves a review like for the next Buzz Lightyear movies like this movie and this hero, Buzz Lightyear is just amazing. And I relate to this character with this square chin so much five out of five. I wish people could leave a honest and critical review and just let it live and not get canceled for it. I think that you should let the older generation that is losing dominance in America express how they feel. But you should honestly have a dialogue with them and let them know that they are being like stuck in the old beach boys like Bob Ram. They stuck in those days. Brings us to our last point, David. This movie was a mishmash of a lot of different elements. There's Mean Girl elements, Kung Fu Panda, Shang-Chi, Over the Moon, Sailor Moon, Wallace and Gromit. There's Studio Ghibli, Hayako Miyazaki, Joy Luck Club, whatever. I don't know. There's just so many different elements in this movie that kind of make it in a way great. But of the mishmash of all these different kind of like animation styles and jokes, it's just like a question for me is like, does Chinese culture always have to be so mystical? And is that what, to be honest, is also going to sell overseas? And that's why these Chinese themed American movies tend to be so, I guess, Chinese. I almost expected to there to be like Oracle Bones and like a turtle shell. And she did crack her jade. And last but not least, one of the more interesting questions that I have as a Chinese American is and I'm a person who's seen a lot of the Chinese themed movies that have come out, whether it's Tiger Tail, Shang-Chi, Farewell. Does Chinese culture always have to lean back on the ancient mysticism and mythology? Because that's like the theme across all these movies is about like these superpowers and ancestral worship. And does it always have to go back to that? China market in general kind of looks to the past. I think that that's the one differentiating factor. When people ask me what makes China different than the other Asian countries around it? Even some that, you know, may have been heavily influenced by the Chinese culture is they tend to look forward and they tend to look Western. China is the only one that looks inward and it looks backwards. So that affects its Wu Xiaopian domestic market for consumption, where all the big Chinese movies are not like modern K-pops or K-dramas. I think the other aspect is just as Chinese people in the West or Chinese people, even modern culture in mainland China right now, they don't really know what is modern Chinese culture. It is still actually coming like to fruition as we speak. Is it? It's not clear that it's not like. So you might as well look back to the Song Dynasty themes. Well, is modern Chinese culture wearing supreme eating hotpot and skewers? Right. We don't know because I think a lot of modern culture is so dictated or influenced by the West. Right. Right. And Japan influenced by the British. They got this like super future thing going on. Koreans got this like preppy hip hop thing going on. And I think a lot of people, movie makers or artists, they look at the ancient Chinese culture. I don't want to take it for granted because there's so much history, so much content, so much mythology, so many colors, so many outfits, so much history stories, every dynasty, so many stories, Mulan, blah, blah, all this folklore that like you can fall back on. And they're just like, well, look at this wealth of content. We might as well use it. It's what's unique and it's what's not Western. It's not Chinese people trying to be white people or it's not Chinese people trying to be black people. It is Chinese people looking back on their history and being mystical. Now, my question is, it's like, does it just feel like Chinese people never want to be modern or they're still figuring out or just from a Western standpoint, they're just like, hey, man, all that Kung Fu philosophy stuff, Sun Tzu stuff is crazy to me. So let's make a movie about it. I just think that we're still in the process. It's like very difficult to say. I mean, like we could pick this movie apart. Like, why does, you know, Mulan only have strong women, weak men? Why does Turning Red only have weak men, strong women? Why does every Chinese movie seem like it's the same? I will say that these American reviewers who are like, oh, I don't relate to this movie or blah, blah, blah, like I'm Christian. So don't have your kids watch this movie because it's too mystical. I'm like, well, what about all those wizard movies? Don't let your kid watch Harry Potter because that's about some ancient weird mythology from that side of the world. All right. Closing it out, Turning Red, Pixar's new movie. It's out right now on Disney Plus. It's very enjoyable. It's very funny. I thought Abby, the friend, is the standout character. And it did. It did. It did hit me in the feels sometimes, even me as a guy. I was like, oh, that's why I feel that way. So you guys should check it out and go watch it. Even if this is not the most successful Pixar movie at the box office, I actually think it's going to be a cult classic. Oh, by the way, the mother in this is hot, beautiful, gorgeous. All right, everybody. That wraps it up. Let us know in the comments down below if you've seen the movie, if you like the movie, if you don't like the movie and what you think about, you know, Chinese culture always being presented very mystically speaking. I mean, I think that's an interesting question. Are we going to see it more and more in movies to come? We're going to be keeping up with it. And, you know, I'll probably watch the movies. So you guys let me know in the comments down below. This is the Hot Pop Boys. Hit that like button. And until next time we out. Peace.