Grafted

I went into this movie completely blind and I'm so glad I did! As someone who doesn't particularly loveeee body horror, this movie did a good job of not making every scene completely grotesque. I really loved Wei's character. I think it's because I really connected with her. Like her, I am of Asian ethnicity (I'm bipoc) and a science major who often feels misunderstood. I think this movie is symbolic in a way that she is literally trying other skins and seeing what life is like to be those people. I also picked up that she was an only child (just like me haha) which sort of explains the whole guessing at how to act in social situations sometimes. I feel like with a sibling, they can at least tell you "Hey, maybeeee don't do that" or you get made fun of. There are some scenes where she is literally watching how to act and speak like a white girl. I watched a review on this movie, and I liked the way they said that this movie sort of had a punk twist to it. I would put it as very clean hi-brow punk but this movie def had some moments of pure artistic rebellion. The ending of this movie was super good, and it was not what I expected to happen. I liked the relationship that Wei and the homeless man had since they both felt out of place in their local society and had skin deformations. I think Wei related to him even more than the one girl out of the bitchy friend group who turned out to be sort of sweet. They did a pretty good job of making the mash of Wei and the man to be pretty creepy. There are a lot of elements in this movie, but I do feel like the underlying theme was race. Also, the mom is like never there and I wonder if that is also a symbolic racial element of her having to embrace her Chinese culture alone. I could be reading way into the racial aspect of the movie, but this is a very relevant social construct! 

Shudder rating: 4 out of 5 skulls 

My rating 4 out of 5 skulls. Pretty enjoyable!