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Frankenfish by The River | 2024
90min | Romance · Animation · Fantasy | China
An "urban nautical fable" about three young people fresh from
graduation.
Liu Jiajia, a struggling actress, returns to her hometown after her boyfriend's infidelity, reuniting with old friends Han Ling and You Wei. Meanwhile, the Fish Guardian Legion launches its mission: "capturing humans who fail to feed the fish"... A hometown as still as a pond, where unspeakable confessions linger in the air.
Liu Jiajia, a struggling actress, returns to her hometown after her boyfriend's infidelity, reuniting with old friends Han Ling and You Wei. Meanwhile, the Fish Guardian Legion launches its mission: "capturing humans who fail to feed the fish"... A hometown as still as a pond, where unspeakable confessions linger in the air.
Led the full creative lifecycle including concept development, screenwriting ,and post-production. Pre-production and principal photography were managed by a dedicated line producer. Independently oversaw festival submission operations and preliminary international distribution liaison.
Conceptual Framework
The film merges multiple media—experimental language and hand- drawn animation—to expand narrative possibilities. Through local dialect and gender-neutral casting, it deliberately de-urbanizes its aesthetic.
This choice stems from an observation: as internet culture distributes information uniformly across young populations, regional boundaries are dissolving. Rather than asserting local specificity, the film embraces this condition, attempting to convey authentic emotion that transcends geographic origin.
The film merges multiple media—experimental language and hand- drawn animation—to expand narrative possibilities. Through local dialect and gender-neutral casting, it deliberately de-urbanizes its aesthetic.
This choice stems from an observation: as internet culture distributes information uniformly across young populations, regional boundaries are dissolving. Rather than asserting local specificity, the film embraces this condition, attempting to convey authentic emotion that transcends geographic origin.
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