Wednesday, April 4, 2007

 

Year of the Fish

Year of the Fish I was really looking forward to seeing "Year of the Fish," only I am very disappointed.

This film is a rotoscoped animation. But that is not really something new: I have seen "Waking Life" many years ago. Therefore, I want to see some contents in the story and characters.

But besides the lovely animation, the script is very weak and the movie goes no where.

Seventeen years old Ye Xing freshly arrived Chinatown in New York City from China hoping to make some money to send back home. Only she finds out that she needs to pay back the human trafficker by working in a massage parlor as a sex worker. She got a fish on the street from a mysterious lady and I don't even remember how that fish is supposed to help her situation. Eventually she meets a musician (played by Ken Leung) and he will be her savor and help her to complete this Cinderella fairy tale.

Yes, the plot sounds ridiculous, it is actually absurd. I don't believe a thing in the film. Ye Xing seems can speak better English than most of the people in Chinatown, never mind she just arrived from China. In Chinatown, even I speak English to shop keepers, most likely they will speak back to me in Cantonese (which I don't understand). But in the film, all the girls in the massage parlor, including Ye Xing, always communicate in pretty darn good English. Maybe I am wrong on this observation, because I have never been to a massage parlor.

I don't know what the point this film is trying to make. If the film just wants to tell a story or to show off the impressive animation technique, it would have been better off if it left the massage parlor and Chinatown out of the film altogether.

I don't know what to do with the fish though. Steam it?

My rating: 5 out of 10 for the animation and Ken Leung.

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Comments:
Great comment about the fish!
 
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