Bao, an eight-minute film, is the winner of the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film(奥斯卡最佳动画短片).
The story starts when a lovely baozi comes to life in an old Chinese woman's house. The woman is a lonely mother. Because of the lovely baozi, she gets to revisit the joy of being a parent. As the cute baozi boy grows into a teenager and finally an adult, the mother realizes that her child will not stay cute, and by her side forever.
The director of the short film is Domee Shi, a Chinese-Canadian woman. She got the idea for the film from her own life. "I'm an only child with Chinese parents, so I was very protected. I'd always been my mom's 'little dumpling'," Shi said. "It was a challenge to put myself in my mom's shoes and try to understand things from her point of view (视角). "Through making the film, she understood her mom better.
Many Asians were touched by the film. They are so familiar(熟悉的) with the mother's way of showing her love.
"Bao is very similar to me because lam a daughter of a Korean mom and I grew up like this, " someone said online.
"I cried watching Bao. It's so beautiful," another said.
Even though something is small, it can be used to do big things. Clearly, Domee Shi knows it. She wanted to tell a great parent-child story with the food of baozi. She made it.
