Filmmaker David Kaplan’s independent animated feature Year of the Fish will have a limited U.S. theatrical engagement starting on Aug. 29. The modern-day, adult adaptation of Cinderella is set in New York City’s Chinatown and is takes place in a massage parlor specializing in ‘happy endings’. The English-language film will open in five cities and platform into 30 cities.
The fantasy, romance and suspense story revolves around 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 father’s distant cousin, an embittered woman who runs a seedy massage parlor. When she refuses to do the requisite sex work, the girl accepts her fate as the operation’s browbeaten servant, her only solace a magical goldfish given to her by a sidewalk fortuneteller.
Year of the Fish was created with a layered animation style designed to evoke a painting come to life. The film’s voice cast includes Ken Leung (Lost, X-Men: The Last Stand, Rush Hour), Tsai Chin (The Joy Luck Club), acclaimed Broadway vet Randall Duk Kim (The Matrix Reloaded, the upcoming Dragonball).
