Recently, I went to watch the newest craze in the movie theaters, "Incredibles 2." It definitely surpassed my expectation as a sequel and I think I might have even liked it better than the original. To top it off, what preceded the movie has definitely garnered many conversations as well.
The story is centered around a Chinese immigrant mother trying to accept the fact that her son has moved out and no longer lives with her. As someone born to immigrant parents, I deeply resonated with the story and looked over next to me to see my cousins have the same reaction. I was surprised to find later that week that a lot of people were actually confused by the message the story was trying to portray.
A heartfelt, artistic 10 minutes, "Bao," reminded me of all the emotions felt and expressed from childhood and beyond. From start to finish, there were so many thoughts running through my head and these are just a few that I can remember, and hopefully, you went through a similar experience as well.
Yes! I'm so ready for Asian immigrant representation!
Oh my goodness, look at how cute that dumpling is!
Great, now I'm hungry.
So the bao is her kid now?
Does no one else notice the fact that she's raising a food baby?
Somehow I have never related more to a character than when I saw it's struggle of trying to have fun with friends while also keeping its parents in mind.
Even if the character was an item of food.
Man, he has an attitude!
SHE ATE HIM?!?
Definitely, the most polarizing part of the whole short film, and yet I somehow saw it coming. I mean, sooner or later someone had to eat it! So now, the question was, did she go through the same turn of events with her own son? And if so, what is the status of their relationship?
Aww, her real son comes back!
This part spoke volumes and really showed the love they both had for each other, even if their relationship was a little strained. They tried to overcome their problems the only way they knew how, through cooking traditional food. It was such a sweet moment between them, and once she even taught her daughter-in-law how to do it, that was her way of accepting the changes that had happened.