Year of the Fish

Why write an original story when you can take an old one, rewrite the beats in another setting, and avoid the hard work of being original? Unfortunately, Hollywood story executives think this is the answer to any movie, redo an old... Full review

Why write an original story when you can take an old one, rewrite the beats in another setting, and avoid the hard work of being original? Unfortunately, Hollywood story executives think this is the answer to any movie, redo an old... Full review

This is a retelling of the Cinderella story, updated to modern day China Town in New York. The narrator is the eponymous fish. The film begins when Yi Xian arrives in New York, an illegal immigrant, perhaps, imported to work... Full review

its old story but good. sad, funny, romance. i expect look of 'scanner darkly' but year of the fish is different, in my opinion prettier and the more interesting. not a perfect film but i like a lot. its fun... Full review

This was the best film I saw at the Haifa Film Festival.It is a "rotoscoped" movie, which means that it looks roughly like a moving painting. However this was accomplished, it is stunning to look at. Apparently it is based... Full review

It's hard to find where to start with this. I suppose the camera work is as good a place as any - And although uninspired, there aren't any major enough blunders to justify ripping into the film's photography. Although a... Full review

Too dark and seamy in content for children too young to grasp the concept of massage parlors, Year of the Fish is also too undeveloped and predictable a story to appeal to adults. Without the animation layered on top of the action, the film would be thoroughly lacking in dramatic interest, which leaves only the visual palette of any interest to viewers. ... Full Review

A magical goldfish narrates independent filmmaker David Kaplan's "Year of the Fish," a modern take on "Cinderella. Rotoscope animation, which gives the blurry effect of viewing the story from a fishbowl, and a touch of Chinese mysticism combine for a fresh take on a familiar fairy tale. ... Full Review

Writer-director David Kaplan has taken a venerable Chinese version of the Cinderella story....Too raw for kids and too simplistic for adults, the animated fairy tale "Year of the Fish" will surely struggle to find an audience.....The problem is the dialogue lacks finesse and strays into melodrama.... ... Full Review

Kaplans debut feature is narrated by a fish and, rarer still, captures both meanings of the expression happy ending: the manually assisted conclusion to a massage and, more traditionally, a satisfying story that turns out well for deserving characters of either gender. ... Full Review

Year of the Fish" wants to inject a major dose of realism to the Cinderella magic. But his decision, in "Year of the Fish," to rotoscope the entire story, pouring digital paint over even the most mundane of sequences, is inescapably jarring. ... Full Review

When Chinese immigrant Ye Xian (An Nguyen) refuses to give a massage parlor customer a happy ending, proprietor Mrs. Su (Tsai Chin) puts her to work scrubbing floors and preparing meals. ... Full Article

Year of the Fish is the kind of really bad movie it takes a lot of misplaced conviction to make. A modern-day fairy tale unwisely told from the perspective of an omniscient, magical fish, David Kaplan's first feature follows Ye... ... Full Article

An optimistic young girl travels alone to New York City where she hopes to earn money to send home to her ailing father. Expecting work in a beauty salon, the girl is instead delivered into the hands of her fathers... ... Full Article

THE age-old fairy tale of Cinderella is updated to New York's modern-day Chinatown in "Year of the Fish." It was shot on inexpensive live-action video, which was digitally painted in post-production. ... Full Article

SCREENED AT THE 2007 INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL OF BOSTON: You can cover a fair amount of limitations with animation. Take "Year of the Fish", for instance - its extensive rotoscoping not only lets it stand out from the crowd, but... ... Full Article

David Kaplan's first feature film, Year of the Fish , may be a retelling of Cinderella. But with the title character toiling away in a Chinatown massage parlor while her "stepsisters" engage in sex work, it's a far cry from... ... Full Article