i am recognising that this is another film meant for tweens but i really enjoyed it!!! i felt genuine second hand embarrassment from how overbearing meilin’s mother was, and the girls’ friendship literally made me cry. them singing to her to calm her down and give her strength was soooo adorable. i miss my stupid friends!!! i’m gonna take this film as a metaphor for coming into one’s own, not just periods or puberty. and the breaking of generational trauma of immigrant Asian families having to fit the model minority narrative etc also this probably isn’t relevant to the film because i’m from a different country but chinese diaspora here refer to white people as “ang moh” aka “red heads” so i had this additional reading of the film being about a fear of assimilation/losing one’s connection to the past/accepting a mix in a multicultural society. but this is too much i know lmao!!! either way very cute