Bao (A "Short" Review)

Director(s): Domee Shi

Date Released: 2018

Theatrically Released Alongside: The Incredibles 2

Bao is an interesting short story about a lonely woman whose cooked bao dumpling comes to life.  The woman raises the dumpling as it grows from a jolly child to a moody teenager to an ungrateful adult.  It turns out the situation is all an allegory for the woman’s actual son, who returns home to “apologize” and make amends with his mother.

If you haven’t already noticed, I’m not the biggest fan of the son—the guy comes across as a grade-A jerk to his mom—but I believe that has to do with the story’s vague presentation.  It’s unclear how much the scenes between woman and dumpling actually represent the mom and son’s relationship.  For example, there’s a scene where the dumpling brings home a woman wearing an engagement ring—all to the mother’s stunned disbelief.  I’m still uncertain whether the mother’s shock is from him getting engaged, getting engaged without notifying her, and/or getting engaged to a white woman (the family is Canadian-Chinese).  It could be any one or more of these situations, yet coming right off the son’s jerkish behavior, as well as the fiancée never appearing beforehand, the scene comes across as the second, ruder event.

Now four minutes is a different timespan to showcase a mother-child relationship as the latter grows into an adult, but the film could have still done a better job at making the son come across as less unpleasant.  Aside from such Bao is…alright.  The impressive opening shot of the mother making bao realistically captures the art of making food while additionally making it look mighty tasty.  The outside visuals are colorful and outflowing with details, yet they go by so quickly I hardly have time to appreciate them without pausing.  The mother is a sympathetic, well-written character, but the secondary cast all rub me the wrong way—from the aforementioned son to his brazenly rude fiancée to the husband who is either watching TV, swiftly leaving the scene (and his lonely wife), or both.

Bao is significant for being the first Pixar short in the studio's thirty-five years of existence to be directed by a female.  While that doesn’t change the short’s overall quality, it is worth checking off in the history books.  Hopefully, Domee Shi will have more opportunities to direct—whether it be shorts, shows, or films—as well as improve upon her characterization in future stories.