Quote:
"When it comes down to the movie's conflict, the antagonists are the women in Mei's family. Or, more accurately, the suffocating cultural traditions and familial expectations that are embodied by the women. The fact that Mei's grandmother gets the kind of shady introductory scene that you'd expect of the head honcho in a mobster flick, and that these women share the red panda affliction, means they fall into a formula of cold, emotionless Asian women. Is the film tackling the stereotype or fulfilling it? The line is too blurry to tell. By the end, a bit of understanding, empathy and a pandapocalypse reassures us that the stoic Asian dames aren't the source of the problem but also victims, like Mei. Though I wonder what the movie [Turning Red] would look like if the conflict wasn't enacted solely in the form of these women."
-- Maya Phillips

Source:
Phillips, Maya. "'Turning Red' review: beware the red-furred monster." Review of Turning Red. New York Times, March 10, 2022.