Xiran Jay Zhao

Apparently nothing of interest.

Okay so the reviews they bring up, reacting to the movie is comedy gold.

My body, my panda is propaganda now.

Basically, in Mr. Enter's mind, since Turning Red was set in 2002, shortly after the events of 9/11, he thinks it should have been mentioned in the movie. Even though it would be a Mood Whiplash to the nth degree and pointless since I doubt Canadian teenagers would care about US politics.

Edited by Weirdguy149 on Apr 22nd 2022 at 9:32:50 AM

WTF? Was he serious?

I only some like 3 of his videos back in 2016 but he seems to have been a reasonable fellow.

Like as a New Yorker, (currently on vacation.) I didn't even think all that much about 9/11. Maybe it's because I'm too young but generally we cared about fun stuff back in school.

And the best ways to cheat in exams without getting caught.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 22nd 2022 at 9:57:27 AM

Considering what people discussed over in the Mr Enter thread, "reasonable" doesn't really sound like a word I'd use to describe the guy.

Not much mentioned, but according to him should have had an impact on the setting based on his very narrow view of what life was like after the Twin towers fell. Stuff like increased police presence, rampant xenophobia and paranoia, a supposedly pervasive dread of terrorists potentially around the corner, cultural trends in entertainment that were supposed to reflect this supposed Western environment.

Which is silly, because the impact of the event is not universal, depending on time, location, age, and demographic. How a 13 year old Chinese Canadian girl in Toronto will feel about the event or even the city as a whole, will be different than if you're an American and even what demographic of American you are.

Edited by HeyMikey on Apr 22nd 2022 at 6:57:33 AM

Oh dear, did he go the way of the Spoony one and become increasingly deranged?

I might as well check his thread.

I have a Canadian friend, and let me tell you, he was awfully fond of telling us MURICANS that Canadians don't give a shit about us or what our government thinks. I doubt Canada of all places would care about 9/11.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 22nd 2022 at 10:01:22 AM

Toronto kind of did? But not in an existential horror kind of way, more in a "we caught a copycat targeting the CN tower" kind of way.

I remember reading about that yeah.

But not in the cultural impact way that Mr. Enter wanted.

I mean it might be more thematically appropriate for those of Arabic descent living in a western country to feel the impact of 9/11 but this is a Chinese Canadian girl.

EDIT: Back on the bizarre reviews, I haven't seen this movie, but it's interesting how alien it seems to these reviewers because it focuses on a teenage girl.

Reminds one of why hating on things loved by teenage girls is such a lucrative market.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 22nd 2022 at 10:13:18 AM

Any nonsensical nitpicky "criticism" of Turning Red by male "reviewers" is always just a dog whistle for "I don't like it because how dare they make a movie about a teenage girl and it talks about periods and things that teenage girls like."

What a bunch of fucking pricks.

Edited by Nightwire on Apr 22nd 2022 at 7:17:57 AM

Honestly aside from the 9/11 bit, did Mr Enter even talk about the movie in a meaningful way?

Not watching his video just for that idiotic jingoistic take, and his petty defense on twitter.

More deranged, arguably. Enter is a right-wing lunatic who doesn't know how to review things. I'm baffled he was ever taken seriously in the past.

He went after stuff people generally disliked to begin with and even then got a bunch of people side-eyeing him over weird takes and really uncharitable readings of things.

IIRC, he got some flak really early on for severely misunderstanding...something, I'm not sure what, but it was a take that was really hard to understand as anything but bad faith.

But yeah, because a lot of his early targets were shows or episodes that were widely hated to begin with...he got a lot of leeway. and the standards for web content were way lower at the time

Oh the thing with these types of youtubers is that what they target is usually pretty bad so they look good by comparison. I remember nodding along for his Painbow review back in 2016. He seems to be from the same ilk as Doug Walker and Spoony where they can be terrible people and are able to hide it because their videos are a specific act, then they do something that makes them loose character. Mr. Enter revealed that he was an anti masker and spread fake COVID information.

It's no surprise that video essayists like Zhao generally have their head on straight and I generally prefer Zhao's chill atmosphere and tone they took with this movie compared to that one clip I heard of Mr. Enter talking about this movie.

Yeah basically. You can tell the quality of a reviewer when they talk about something that isn't just easy pickings. I'm still very impressed with how Zhao handled Raya.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 22nd 2022 at 10:37:24 AM

Didn't Mr. Enter also state how he despises when cartoons reference real world events/politics?

This sounds very hypocritical...

Edited by DoubleOG on Apr 22nd 2022 at 7:41:23 AM

Typically, when someone says they don't want "politics" in their entertainment, they mean to say politics that they disagree with.

In this context, Mr. Enter is a fervent science denier in regards to COVID, so there's a reason why he doesn't want cartoons to explore the impact it had on society while simultaneously demanding that a cartoon starring a Chinese-Canadian girl explore the impact that 9/11 had on her, growing up.

Not exactly sure what he's expecting the movie to do to show the impact of 9/11 that wouldn't be greatly detrimental to the flow and tone of the movie. Have Mei's mother being tackled twice over when she was spying on the school? Constant background harassment of every Arabic, Islamic, Sikh, or overall brown person in any scene? A TSA style checkpoint at the concert? Jingoistic country music on the radio? Her entire family in Guantanamo because of the destruction to the stadium?

But I'm getting Twilight vibes where all the widespread critiques of the movies basically boils down to "eww teenage girls", rather than any more worthwhile critiques on how to better convey its themes or the flow of the plot or if the themes themselves are worthwhile of being told (I emphatically believe so). I kinda found the mother daughter panda fight at the climax at odd's with the rest, because it felt like something in a superhero movie or a Kaiju film, rather than a magical coming of age movie, sort of like in Onward, where to show how he's grown as a person, Ian fights off a dragon. That would be a more worthwhile critique than Chinese Canadian girl is not afraid of 9/11 like I believe she should be or periods and girl puberty is icky.

Edited by HeyMikey on Apr 22nd 2022 at 8:07:29 AM

I'm reminded of that South Park episode about queefing, and how the dude population viewed it as disgusting and gross despite liking a show about farting, while the ladies thought it was funny AF.

There's a reason why hating on teenage girl's interests on social media are lucrative after all.

Even TFS viewed their Twilight joke in Hellsing as an Old Shame.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 22nd 2022 at 11:13:35 AM

From what i get being popular reviewer, despite all your reviews being kinda shit and bad, is not that notable on Youtube. A lot of Alt-Right Youtubers are infamous for being dumb, like The Quartering and Nerdrotic, who despite being caught lying and in general having uninformed unresearched takes (often bigoted), are still popular, with a lot of people fully ready to give them money and defend them from critics (often "it's just a joke").

Lindsay made two good videos about the whole 9/11 hysteria. Explains the whole deal that swept America. It's very interesting and explains the whole obsession and fascination Americans seem to have about it. And kinda jarring honestly with the whole nationalistic sentiment.

Like maybe we had a couple of discussions about 9/11 when it was that date, during class, but overall most of us back in school generally didn't care about it compared to fun shit like the new Pokemon X or PS 4.

I just generally hate it when other Americans see foreign countries/cultures and wonder " WHY AREN"T THEY AFFECTED BY/CATERING TO US?!!!" Look at how many of the absurd reviews complain about Chinese pandering or indoctrination.

Like my school had a lot of classmates who were from abroad, I appreciated their perspectives. Certain Americans need to stop acting like this country is the center of the world and the rest of the planet is just migrant workers.

And of the subject of the word 'pandering', why does this word get associated with negative connotations?

"Oh no, this gay character is portrayed like how normal gay people act? Clearly, it's pandering towards the LGBT?"

"What? These women don't need a man and can actually fight their own battles? This show is clearly pandering towards those ugly, fat, blue-haired feminists!"

Okay, buddy. Like, what kind of pandering do you really want, then? A power fantasy that's meant to feel good about yourself? A criticism towards remotely leftist ideals? A textbook example of 'equal rights, equal fights' where a guy slaps some little girl's asscheeks?

Okay, I think I might be off-track here, but only a few have questioned why some people think pandering to demographics outside of them is worse than legalising gay marriage.

This movie is not pandering to China at all because the plot organically brings in the Chinese elements. Actual Chinese pandering is usually stuff like "Let's go to China or randomly include someone representing China because money from China is good."

Yeah, that’s the difference between the Mulan remake and something like Turning Red who’s based on genuine experiences.

Mind you I think the movie is mediocre but the popular criticisms on it are really weird.