''Year of the Fish'' is a 2007 American

animated film Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

based on

Ye Xian "Ye Xian" (; ) is a Chinese fairy tale that is similar to the European Cinderella story, the Malay-Indonesian Bawang Putih Bawang Merah tale, the Vietnamese Tấm Cám story, and stories from other ethnic groups including the Tibetans and the ...

, a ninth-century Chinese variant of the fairy tale ''

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

'', starring Tsai Chin,

Randall Duk Kim Randall Duk Kim (born September 24, 1943) is an American stage, film, and television actor. Life Kim was born and raised in Hawaii. He is married to actress and fellow American Players Theatre co-founder, Anne Occhiogrosso. Career Theat ...

Ken Leung Kenneth Leung (; born January 21, 1970) is an American actor. His roles include Sang in '' Rush Hour'', Miles Straume in ''Lost'', Admiral Statura in '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'', and Eric Tao in HBO's ''Industry''. Early life Leung was ...

and An Nguyen. Written and directed by David Kaplan, the film is set in a

massage parlor A massage parlor (American English) or massage parlour (Canadian/British English) is a place where massage services are provided for a fee. In the 19th century, the term began to be used in English as a euphemism for a brothel. Context In 1894 ...

in modern-day New York's

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Aust ...

. The film was executive produced by

Janet Yang Janet Yang (born July 13, 1956) is a Hollywood producer and current President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Yang's award-winning film and TV credits include '' The Joy Luck Club'', '' The People vs. Larry Flynt'', ''Dark ...

and produced by Rocco Caruso. Kaplan's screenplay was developed at the

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pla ...

Screenwriters and Directors Labs and was the recipient of a 2005 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship. ''Year of the Fish'' had its world premiere at the 2007

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

. The film was shot entirely on location in New York City's Chinatown using live actors and then animated in post-production via

rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...

, the process of tracing over live-action footage to create an animation; in this case, a painterly, watercolor effect. Some of the make-up on the strange-looking characters were removed by the rotoscoping.

Reception

''Year of the Fish'' premiered as the Official Selection of the 2007

and was named "Best Film" at the 2007 Avignon Film Festival. It was also named "Best Film" at the 2007 Asheville Film Festival, won the Audience Award at the 2007 Independent Film Festival of Boston, and was nominated for the Piaget Producers Award at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards.

References

External links

* (web archive) *
David Kaplan Films
* 2007 films 2007 animated films 2000s American animated films American fantasy films Chinese-American films 2007 computer-animated films Films based on Cinderella Films based on fairy tales Films based on Chinese myths and legends American independent films Films scored by Paul Cantelon 2007 fantasy films 2000s English-language films {{indie-film-stub