Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: DEEP SEA [Fantasia Film Festival 2023 - Montreal, Canada - Remote]
The concept of "Deep Sea" [Axis] has to formulate within the idea of trauma. Once that is seen, it is an diametric journey but it all comes through in seeing this film from beginning to end. It follows a young girl Shengxiu who has a identity crisis not created by herself but the situation around her. Her mother seemingly has left. Her father has remarried and has a new baby boy with his new wife. They take care of her but she seems to be on the periphery until she may or may not have been washed overboard when they go on a cruise ship. The respective progression from there is both unusual but very vivid. Deep Sea refers to the restaurant that seems to integrate intself to save her by a creature that is both its energy and its terror. A young and manic chef Hanhe (more like an emcee as well) heads and cooks at the restaurant for the seafaring creatures but his antics and the contortions director Tian Xiaopeng adds to him are both engaging, tactile and disconcerting, all at the same time.
The animation style both is fluid and jarring at times but the flow of its ideas (especially when it goes into an almost abstract paint mode) is pretty fantastic. The sections when the guests are dining are lurid like a Chinese version of "Hitchhikers Guide To Galaxy" but within a rage of underwater society. There are hedghogs/beavers serving soup while fish that look more like dynasty mavens or kings sit at the tables as lush amount of fluid delacies are served. It moves very fast so sometimes it is not possible to see all the detail. But there is also a shift in perception especially when they get a whiff of a certain soup.
Beyond that the presence of Shengxiu seems to propel something called The Red Phantom as the ship dives and comes into port propelled by the sadness or anger that she is feeling. There are inklings of Moby Dick and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea to Western audiences but this is not likely at all where Tian Xiaopeng is drawing from. As the movie reaches its pinnacle, it does become more symbolic almost to the essence of pushing through a wall between realities literally. As the final moments move in, the parallels come to bear though it doesn't really explain the reasoning or the actual action (beyond certain flashes of connection) whether they be real or imagined. But that is actually what makes it work in many ways. The girl is traumatized but the audience can put their own spin on it to interpret it as they might, either within China or worldwide. A-
By Tim Wassberg
