Shenxiu travels together with her father, her little brother and her stepmother across the big sea. The ship makes a rather adventurous impression, everything seems gray and Shenxiu looks anything but really happy. She only has a brief smile for her brother, otherwise she prefers to hide in an oversized red sweater with a hood.
While her parents are being entertained by one of the ship’s entertainers and fooling around in front of a camera, her gaze wanders over the wide sea and in her thoughts she prefers to stay with her mother, whom she would like to see again.
Afterwards we see the family sitting at the table of a board restaurant and they are celebrating a special occasion, because their little son will soon start kindergarten. And while the two parents live out this moment of happiness with full attention to the little bundle of joy, Shenxiu secretly reads a message from her cell phone under the dining table, in which her cell phone provider wishes her a happy birthday. Back in her “room,” she watches an old video on her cell phone where she was filmed by her parents as a toddler on her birthday. When the film is over, she looks outside through the small ship window, where a strong storm is raging in the meantime. She nevertheless goes outside in the miserable weather and promptly discovers a fish lying on the deck. She courageously grabs the animal and moves towards the railing, which for a short moment is covered by a large spray… Then there is no trace of the girl.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Als sie ihre Augen wieder öffnet hört sie eine Stimme die sie ruft, sie selbst hängt dabei auf einer übergroße Gummiente und treibt durch ein absolut farbenfrohes Meer so das sie aus dem Staunen kaum herauskommt, bis sie erneut eine Stimme wahrnimmt. Im Wasser bemerkt sie ein Fabelwesen das ständig seine wollknäulartige Form verändert und sie mit vielen wandernden und sich ständig in der From veränderbaren Augen anblickt. Dann gibt dieses Wesen, welches Hyjinx genannt wird, die Worte “Mama” von sich. Shenxiu schöpft Hoffnung das dieses Wesen ihr den Weg zu ihrer Mutter zeigen wird und folgt ihm. Das Ziel des kleinen Wesens ist ein äußerst sonderbarer Ort, eine art U-Boot mit einem großem Turm drauf und alles ist mit bunten Korallen übersäht. Am Eingang des Turmes steht “Restaurant” und nachdem Shenxiu sich in der großen Eingangshalle befindet, beobachtet sie einige sonderbare Gestalten die sich herablassend über das dortige essen unterhalten und das prompt negativ in sozialen Netzwerken bewerten. Als Shenxiu den Wesen näher kommt und sie somit genauer erkennen kann, entpuppen sie sich als ziemlich große Fische oder Walrosse die opulent gedeckten Tischen sitzen. Als sie Shenxiu bemerken sind sie sichtlich angewidert von ihr und wollen sie umgehend verjagen, doch sie bekommt schnell Unterstützung von ihrem kleinen neuen schwarzen Freund der auf einmal zu einem gigantischen Monster heranwächst und das ganze Boot ordentlich durcheinander wirbelt. Es strömen schließlich gigantische Massen an Wasser durch die Gänge die auch letztlich das Mädchen mitreißen.
The rather neurotic owner of the ship, who is the only person in the entire crew, is also in those corridors. While he is loudly complaining about the bad ratings and thinking about what his next perfect meal could be, the thundering wave, including Shenxiu, comes rushing towards him and sweeps him away. At this moment, Shenxiu and Nanhe meet for the first time. Nanhe is able to capture the angry “woolball creature” through special abilities and is visibly excited about his find, because the resourceful chef senses an extremely exclusive recipe that will bring him a lot of money to be able to pay his debts. He wants to cook his famous knot soup, which will really develop its taste through the addition of the “wool ball”, a plan Shenxiu is not quite enthusiastic about.
Between Nanhe and Shenxiu a certain bond or rather dependency develops in the course of the now rather fast-paced story and very many visual impressions. Even if Nanhe would rather get rid of the girl, because the child constantly disturbs the hectic operation and the guests, he provides parallel again and again for moments where he protects her or motivates her to do something. Especially when the rather powerful red phantom appears, a liquid mass that drifts through the otherwise colorful world and always appears exactly when Shenxiu becomes unhappy or sad, which is not infrequently the case. Nanhe finally decides that he will start the journey to the Eye of the Deep Sea together with Shenxiu, because there not only the girl will find her mother again, but he senses there again the big profit in that magical place, whose journey there, however, will not be easy, because the red phantom is getting bigger and bigger, is constantly on their heels and tries with all means to stop this project.
When they finally reach the destination with their last forces, an extremely intense, powerful and emotional struggle for survival begins, especially for Shenxiu.
Conclusion:
Shen Hai has really become a very colorful visual work of art, whose enjoyment, however, can be somewhat marred by extremely hectic and confusing parts at times. A circumstance for which even the director apologized a bit in the Q&A. That’s a bit of a shame, because the film certainly wouldn’t have been worse if it had been a bit calmer. And of course it is quite familiar to me that anime films like to come up with hectic parts, but here it just did not quite fit into the overall picture. Fortunately, there are always the islands of a certain calm, where you can collect yourself as a viewer again something to follow the plot further. Towards the end, the film really picks up speed again, especially emotionally, and scores with a really impressive finale, which ends with e
Actors:
Wang Tingwen (Shenxiu)
Su Xin (Nanhe)
Teng Kuixing (Chief Mate)
Yang Ting (Stiefmutter)
Ji Jing (Mutter)
Fang Taochen (Sweet Bean)
Director:
Tian Xiaopeng
More about the movie:
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programm/202307350.html
Trailer:
