|
 A
young Chinese girl, Ye Xian (An Nguyen, in her first major role) comes
to New York to earn money for her family in China. She goes to work in
a massage parlor in Chinatown to pay off the debt incurred for her
travel. Innocent, she has no idea that the massage parlor is also a
brothel run by a tough, stern, no nonsense woman, Mrs. Su (Tsai Chin)
and her weak brother. To Mrs. Su’s surprise, Ye Xian refuses to work
as a prostitute. To pay off the debt, Mrs. Su makes Ye Xian toil as a
maid, scrubbing floors, cleaning bathrooms, running errands. Naďve,
and very unhappy, she learns to endure. The other girls who work in
the massage parlor are nasty to her and, worse, she must fend off the
sexual advances of the Madame’s brother, Vinnie (Lee Wong). One day
while running an errand she sees Johnny Pan (Ken Leung), a handsome,
young musician playing in the street, and, as expected, she falls in
love with him. Of course,
 the
musician has no idea someone is watching him as he plays his sad song.
Ye Xian then meets a mysterious fortuneteller, Auntie Yaga (Randall
Duk Kim) who gives her a tiny goldfish in a plastic bag. She takes it
home, feeds and cares for the fish and she watches it grow bigger and
bigger until Mrs. Su tells her to get rid of it. Against her will, Ye
Xian brings the now huge goldfish to a water fountain where she
deposits the fish, and returns to the massage parlor where the ugly
treatment from everyone persists, including from men who are seeking
sex. Infused with everyday reality, magic realism and ancient
storytelling, there follows a series of events, including the death of
the fish, the fish as a meal, an extreme makeover for the girl, an
encounter with street thugs and Johnny, who suddenly appears to help
her out, a Chinese New Year’s ball and, finally, happiness for the
young couple.
 This,
then, is the story by first time feature filmmaker David Kaplan. He
bases the screenplay for “Year of the Fish” on a 9th century Chinese
fable, a precursor to the all-too familiar Western story of
Cinderella. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors
Labs, the film was an official selection at Sundance, and appeared in
other festivals – all heady stuff for a young director. It is clear
that Kaplan is a filmmaker with promise, especially because of the way
he used the animation style called “Rotoscoping, ” a technique by
which animators trace live actors frame by frame to create an animated
film. Rotoscoping is not new, but Kaplan went about it in a unique way
that may be a lesson to aspiring filmmakers everywhere. He shot his
movie in miniDV. Once he edited his film as live action, David Kaplan
and his crew of animators went to work on four Macintosh G5 computers
and two Wacom tablets. His team then converted each “frame to a high
definition painted frame.” Eventually, Kaplan and his team refined the
images “frame by frame, added particle effects and hand painted
details.” According to the press release, Kaplan and three people did
in 6 months what would normally take 40 full-time animators. The
result is often charming and moving. Much of the film has a lovely
painted look, as if a washed watercolor, and the all-too familiar
gritty streets of New York’s Chinatown never looked better, more
tasteful, and more enticing to the eye.
 Filmmaking,
however, is more than clever technique. As smart as the film is, the
story is simplistic and overly long. At times the narrative lags. The
movie feels as if it is in search of itself as we wander with its
characters through the rough streets of Chinatown. It is close to
being overly sentimental. It is easy to sympathize with the young girl
and the musician who loves her. It is difficult to have any empathy
for the Madame and the girl’s who work for her. These characters are
one-dimensional and they act that way. The actors in deep costume fare
better because the makeup they use allows them to play the role they
have without any impediment of reality.
I wonder who is the audience David Kaplan is trying to reach? With
everything that takes place in the film, and the way he renders each
shot the total impact of its attractive painted palette is effective.
Though the movie seems mostly for adults, there is enough in the story
to appeal to sophisticated teens. In the end, true love wins in the
face of what seems to be impossible difficulties. I am not sure if it
is better to have the audience leave the theater pleased and happy
than to have it feel sad and angry, but “Year of the Fish” is a fairy
tale. Many fairy tales turn out well and this is no exception.
........................................................................................................................
At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002. |
