Year of the Fish

In this modern-day adaptation of Cinderella, award-winning filmmaker David Kaplan transposes the fairytale's archetypical characters to a vibrant urban setting: a massage parlor in New York's Chinatown specializing in happy endings. 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. The girl surrenders her passport as collateral for her debt and is informed of her duties. 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. Sprinkled with fantasy, romance and suspense, Year of the Fish is presented in a delicately layered animation style that evokes a painting come to life. The film's first-rate ensemble cast includes Ken Leung (LOST, X-Men 3, Rush Hour), Tsai Chin (The Joy Luck Club), acclaimed Broadway veteran Randall Duk Kim (The Matrix Reloaded, the upcoming Dragonball), and introduces An Nguyen.