Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

emblackwell Baomis a beautiful film. It is detailed and pays so much attention to the smallest things. The message of the mother and son is amazing, and shows that while the girlfriend is not accepted at first, when she is given a chance she shows how much she cares and researched and to me it's a really strong message. This message may be overshadowed in some by the fact she eats the dumpling son. To me, it symbolises her wanting to keep him with her forever, so she knew by eating him he would never leave her. It's something that resonated with me as a daughter to an overprotective parent. I understand exactly what the dumpling is going though (weird to say) but I can sympathise with both sides. My favourite part is when they're sharing the bread (I think it's Anpan? Looks like a pan to me) because that's what they did together. That was their thing. It just hit home for me in a big way. Very very sweet, very beautiful and the first by a female animator! Congrats to her, I hope there is more to come.

dcderosadd This was extremely awkward and with having no information until the end where it explains what the metaphor was, it still didn't leave you understanding 'what literally even'

JackCerf The people who say that they didn't get Bao are, in my opinion, either unable to grasp metaphors or have no understanding of generational conflict in immigrant communities. Anyone who comes from an immigrant culture will recognize the tension between the loving but overprotective mother and the son to whom growing up means embracing all of the possibilities of the country he was born in. And I mean embracing literally; the fiancee, with her blond hair, white blouse and tartan skirt, is the image of the classic shiksa.It's a clever retelling of an old story, with a sweet reconciliation after the crisis. I agree with the commenters who say that very young children find it frightening, but then very young children should not be taken to Incredibles II simply because it is a cartoon. The target audience is kids old enough to identify with Dash or older. A seven or eight year old ought to be able to grasp both the mom who won't let you grow up and the idea that it was all a bad dream.

huey2088 I am Chinese so I understand how food is very important in my culture. Almost way too important, more so than communication. This short film really emphasises this and yes I know all Pixar shorts have no script. Whenever the mother in Bao is with her dumpling she is feeding him or offering him food in every scene. I am aware food is seen as love that bonds family and friends. But raising children takes more than constantly feeding them. Parents have to teach, advise and impart wisdom through actual words. It's rather predictable then that the bond between mother and child is broken when there is nothing else but food holding it together as he reaches adolescence and cherishes his friends instead.It's great that Bao is directed by the first female Asian director. One definitely for all the feminism empowerment and cultural diversity going around. Ironically though, Bao shows stereotypical male chauvinism - the husband watches TV while the wife prepares the meal and he wolfs it down and leaves without any gesture of gratitude. The husband has no part in child-rearing nor provide her with any comfort with her empty nest feelings. In trying to share her own childhood experience, Shi has revealed the not so positive behaviours of Chinese people such as the mum eating her dumpling son in desperation - this created a stunned silence in the cinema I was at - which seem to confirm that Chinese people will consume anything.The animation is great with close attention to detail. But the plot, aside from being bizarre, also borrowed from Ponyo and coincidentally from Fruit Chan's 2004 movie called Dumplings - a satire about vanity and cannibalism. Shi has expressed her wish for big studios to support diverse story tellers. In order for that to continue, she and the other small minority story tellers need to develop new material, not just stick to same cliche formula. And lastly, it shouldn't be about their cultural experience or gender that open doors, it should be about pure talent, creativity and honest hard work.