Bao (2018)

Ok, so I saw this short with zero information beforehand, and I wish I had been a little more prepared. The cartoon style is beautiful, the story is sweet and real, and everything was fine (relatively, it is pixar after all) until THE BIT. If you've seen it, you know the part exactly. Yes yes, I know its a metaphor. Yes I know it was just a device to aid the storytelling, but it is SO unexpected and it WILL make you feel things. Just trying to warn you so you don't choke sob in a cinema full of people like I did.

This was extremely awkward and with having no information until the end where it explains what the metaphor was, it still didn't leave you understanding 'what literally even'

I laughed out loud when the mom ate the muffin. Everyone else in the theater was dead silent. I was pretty embarrassed but felt set up by the plot. Overall this was a really odd film.

I am Chinese so I understand how food is very important in my culture. Almost way too important, more so than communication. This short film really emphasises this and yes I know all Pixar shorts have no script. Whenever the mother in Bao is with her dumpling she is feeding him or offering him food in every scene. I am aware food is seen as love that bonds family and friends. But raising children takes more than constantly feeding them. Parents have to teach, advise and impart wisdom through actual words. It's rather predictable then that the bond between mother and child is broken when there is nothing else but food holding it together as he reaches adolescence and cherishes his friends instead.It's great that Bao is directed by the first female Asian director. One definitely for all the feminism empowerment and cultural diversity going around. Ironically though, Bao shows stereotypical male chauvinism - the husband watches TV while the wife prepares the meal and he wolfs it down and leaves without any gesture of gratitude. The husband has no part in child-rearing nor provide her with any comfort with her empty nest feelings. In trying to share her own childhood experience, Shi has revealed the not so positive behaviours of Chinese people such as the mum eating her dumpling son in desperation - this created a stunned silence in the cinema I was at - which seem to confirm that Chinese people will consume anything.The animation is great with close attention to detail. But the plot, aside from being bizarre, also borrowed from Ponyo and coincidentally from Fruit Chan's 2004 movie called Dumplings - a satire about vanity and cannibalism. Shi has expressed her wish for big studios to support diverse story tellers. In order for that to continue, she and the other small minority story tellers need to develop new material, not just stick to same cliche formula. And lastly, it shouldn't be about their cultural experience or gender that open doors, it should be about pure talent, creativity and honest hard work.