Year of the Fish

Year of the Fish
Year of the Fish
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Kaplan
Written by	David Kaplan
Produced by	Rocco Caruso; David Kaplan
Starring	Tsai Chin; Ken Leung; Randall Duk Kim
Cinematography	Adam Silver
Edited by	François Keraudren
Music by	Paul Cantelon
Release date	October 14, 2007 (Austin Film Festival);
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Year of the Fish is a 2007 American animated film based on Ye Xian, 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 and produced by Rocco Caruso.^{[citation needed]} Kaplan's screenplay was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs and was the recipient of a 2005 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship.^[2] 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] 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 Sundance Film Festival 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.