Warning: This article contains spoilers for Bao.
I've never cried as hard and as many times during a film as I did watching Bao.
Centring on an Asian Canadian mother with empty-nest syndrome, Pixar's eight-minute short about a dumpling coming to life has been billed as the appetiser to Incredibles 2, but has been receiving widespread plaudits among the Asian community. For this writer, as a Hong Kong British person whose parents are immigrants, Bao hit extremely close to home.
And yet it is upsetting to see a number of people, mostly white, speaking out on social media, dismissing the film as being too difficult to understand. One particular tweet garnering tens of thousands of retweets called it "the most confusing ten minutes of my life". One of the replies described the dumpling as a "ball of crap".
There's no denying that a major factor in what made me an emotional wreck was the cultural specificity of it all. Take the details in the setting, for example. The interior of the family home accurately evokes the feel of a Chinese immigrant home, down to the toilet roll on the coffee table.
It's an environment which I have rarely seen portrayed in any media, and the level of authenticity and care delivered by director Domee Shi is evidence that representation matters behind the screen as much as in front of it.
"The tinfoil on the burners – that's something that my mom did growing up," Shi, who is Asian Canadian, recently told Cosmopolitan. "I love all of the little tchotchkes and decorations that fill the mom character's house. We have this Chinese calendar in the dining room that we've specifically designed to be like those calendars that you'd get if you go to a Chinese supermarket.
"Those little things that I felt like really were staples in every Chinese home that I visited or lived in growing up."
But it's Shi's heartfelt, immigrant-family-inspired story that elevates the film into a must-see experience.
As the dumpling grows older, despite his overprotective mother's influence he shows signs of rejecting his Asian heritage. This is something many second-generation kids can identify with, especially if they went to a predominantly white school – there's a pressure to assimilate and 'become white' in an attempt to fit in better.
In one scene, the mother – realising that she and the dumpling have become distant – goes above and beyond to proudly cook a mouthwatering Chinese feast for dinner, only for the dumpling to shrug at the food in a lackadaisical manner before heading out with his friends.
There's another layer to that scene as well. For many Asian immigrant parents, they rarely if ever say the words 'I love you' to their children. They say 'I love you' by taking care of you, by making sure you're well-fed. Preparing all of this food for the dumpling was the mother's way of saying 'I love you' – and that love was rejected.
I was heartbroken for the mother. I was in tears.
Although the tears were already flowing when the twist happened (to anyone confused, the dumpling sequence was all a metaphor), the moment when the mother's real son returned home and offered her the Chinese treat which he turned down as a child sent me over the edge. It was only after university when I learned to be proud of my Chinese heritage and to embrace it.
But regardless of the Asian perspective, Bao is a story with universal themes which should resonate with most cultures. Motherhood, loneliness, family, love, food bringing people together – these themes are hardly unique to Asian culture, and if somebody's refusal to look beyond their own experience leads them to miss the point of the short, then they're truly missing out.
Fortunately, there have been plenty of non-Asians emotionally affected by Bao, and you can find a boatload of comments on social media singing its praises. In fact, when the credits came up at my screening and I was busy wiping my tears and sniffing repeatedly, one white person to my right clapped in appreciation.
"If they are Asian, I hope they enjoy a bit seeing themselves on screen," Shi told the New York Times. "If not, I hope they learn about Chinese culture and community and are more curious about Chinese food, Chinatown. I hope they call their moms and take them out to lunch."
I left the cinema and treated myself to some dumplings for dinner. It felt only right.
Bao and Incredibles 2 are out now in cinemas.
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Chief Sub-Editor
Jess has more than 10 years of experience writing and editing online, specialising in entertainment.
As Digital Spy's Chief Sub-Editor, they oversee the subs' desk while working with the wider team to ensure news and features content fits the brand's editorial vision.
Jess also helps with gaming coverage, including anything to do with The Sims, and has volunteered as a judge for the Independent Games Festival Awards since 2018.
