Themes: Immigrant Life, Starting Over, Rags To Riches
Main Cast: An Nguyen, Tsai Chin, Ken Leung, Randall Duk Kim, Lee Wong
Release Year: 2006
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Writer/director David Kaplan offers a new spin on the familiar Cinderella story with this visually inventive tale of a hopeful Chinese immigrant who discovers that life in New York City isn't for the faint of heart after being forced to work in a shady massage partner. Shot on video and subsequently rotoscoped to take on a slightly surreal look, Year of the Fish opens to find wide-eyed Chinese immigrant Ye Xian (An Nguyen) arriving in New York City in hopes of raising some money to send back to her ailing father overseas. Soon falling into the neon-lit lair of "massage parlor" madame Mrs. Su (Tsai Chin), Ye is forced to do all of the cooking and cleaning after refusing to service her clientele as instructed. All the while, Ye's only sense of solace comes thanks to a growing fish bestowed upon her by a mysterious hunchback named Auntie Yaga (Randall Duk Kim). Meanwhile, Ye longs to catch the eye of kindhearted jazz musician Johnny (Ken Leung) while fending off unwanted advances of Mrs. Su's depraved and persistent son. Just when it begins to seem as if Ye's situation cannot get any more grim, a lavish party staged to celebrate the Chinese New Year leads to a most unanticipated turn of events. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Lee Wong - Vinnie; Hettienne Park - Hong Ji; Corrine Wu - Katty
Credit
Telly Wong - Associate Producer, Jason Orans - Co-producer, David Kaplan - Director, David Kaplan - Editor, Janet Yang - Executive Producer, Tevin Adelman - Line Producer, Paul Cantelon - Composer (Music Score), Mylene Santos - Production Designer, Adam Silver - Cinematographer, Rocco Caruso - Producer, David Kaplan - Producer, David Kaplan - Screenwriter
Year of the Fish is an American animated film based on a ninth century Chinese variant of the fairy tale Cinderella, starring Tsai Chin, Randall Duk Kim, Ken Leung and An Nguyen. Written and directed by David Kaplan, the film is set in a massage parlor in modern-day New York's Chinatown.[1]
The film was executive produced by Janet Yang (Joy Luck Club) and produced by Rocco Caruso (Judy Berlin).[citation needed] Kaplan's screenplay was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs and was the recipient of a 2005 Annenberg Fellowship.[citation needed]Year of the Fish had its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.[citation needed]
The film was shot entirely on location in New York City’s Chinatown using live actors and then animated in post-production via rotoscoping, the process of tracing over live-action footage to create an animation; in this case, a painterly, watercolor effect.[1]
