Tiger Stripes follows the story of a 11 year old girl who starts experiencing major transformations to her body while being on the cusp of puberty. This while her body transformations slowly take the form of a Tiger. The story here unfolds like an allegory representing a girl experiencing menstruation for the first time while also tackling relevant issues related to the discrimination that girls are exposed to, often while menstruating. The screenplay standing at a shade above 90 minutes is taut and wild in many ways with the writers going full throttle with the underlying message, something that unleashes the inner ‘beast’ in the character of the protagonist. This is almost like a physical representation of all the mood swings and discrimination that girls are exposed to while being ostracized from the community often while menstruating. The idea of being ostracized has continued for over ages wherein there is a restriction on certain activities carried out by them which is rather unfortunate. And the screenplay here highlights exactly that in a drama packaged as a folklore. This section will contain spoilers. 

The drama opens with the introduction of the 11 year old protagonist who lives a carefree life along with her friends. So you witness them sharing in banter in washrooms while being playful with a bralet, or not shying away splashing and getting soaked in water while continuing to make TikTok videos, much to the dismay of the protagonist’s mother who doesn’t wish her daughter to expose herself to certain kinds of clothes. Here the setting plays an important part given that the drama is staged in a small rural community of Malaysia with undercurrents of religion. This until the protagonist gets her first period before her friends, an event that transforms her life forever. 

The proceedings are engaging and engrossing but also wild and zany in many ways with what it wishes to convey. So once the protagonist gets her periods, she begins to get ostracized with respect to certain activities in her school like not allowed to attend the religious prayers. This, while even her friends take a disliking to her, often talking on how she ‘smells’ and how disgusting it is for everyone witnessing her ‘pee’ in class. In between, there is a hint of a folklore introduced of a demon captivating girls who aren’t ‘clean’, something that acts as a basis for the drama to follow. 

The protagonist is witness to physical transformations in her body, most of which are out of her control even as she starts developing stripes and claws on her body which she hides it from the world through her attire. This is an allegory in itself of girls who are suppressed by the society or even body shamed about their changing appearance while being on the cusp of puberty. The ‘beast’ within comes to the fore as a matter of a lot of suppression which is represented here in the form of a ‘tiger’. The lens with which this film needs to be watched is of a human drama, rather than treating it as a body horror which is only a byproduct of the events transpiring around the protagonist. 

The events leading to the final act comprises of a Shaman trying to drive away the ‘demon’ who apparently may have possessed the protagonist. This itself is an allegory of the society(besides being a cultural reference of idiosyncrasy) wishing young girls to behave a certain way, and any deviation from this would result in suppression. And it is only when the protagonist comes to terms with her wild side while accepting her reality, is when she truly ‘cuts through’ the norms of the society while leading a free life, even as her other friends hit puberty for the first time. The last shot of the protagonist dancing is representative of being wild and carefree, just as she was at the start of the film before experiencing menstruation for the first time. The screenplay here is brilliantly penned and makes for a fascinating watch.