There’s no greater fear for a child than abandonment, but that’s exactly what’s happened to Shenxiu, the child hero of gorgeous Chinese fable Deep Sea. In the latest animated feature from writer/director Tian Xiaopeng (Monkey King: Hero Is Back), poor Shenxiu (voiced by Wang) has been doubly cast aside: first by her mother, who left when she was a toddler and has never looked back, and then by her father, who looks past her to his new wife and baby. So who is there to even notice when she’s thrown overboard from the supposed “family” trip aboard a luxury cruise liner? Only avant-garde chef Nanhe (Su Xin), who stuffs the bellies of wealthy sea bass and corpulent, crapulent koi in the fantastical world of the Deep Sea Restaurant, and who suddenly must contend with a stowaway.
Deep Sea follows in tradition of E. Nesbit and Hayao Miyazaki, where this magical world is a way for a child to process our own complicated world, like the way that Nanhe occasionally, through blurry eyes, looks like Shenxiu’s mother. Metaphors abound, such as in Nanhe’s hunt for the mystical, long-haired, many-eyed Hyjinx to turn into a gourmet dish (a quiet commentary on mainland Chinese cuisine’s obsession with turning unsustainable ingredients into overpriced entrées).
But Deep Sea doesn’t drown the audience in its message. Instead, it’s a bright visual feast. The Deep Sea Restaurant is part Nemo’s Nautilus, part coral reef, crewed by grumpy walrus cooks and adorable sea otter waitstaff. Every frame is enough to satiate even the most gluttonous of animation fans, with the hyperrealistic Shenxiu crossing the hyperstylized seas, awash with their iridescent spectacle.
But in the middle of all this jaw-dropping extravaganza is a traditional but touching tale of two lost souls who become kindred spirits: bonded by, not in spite of, their shared loneliness. Much as Sophie breaks through Howl’s defensive moroseness in Howl’s Moving Castle (a kindred film in many ways), Shenxiu’s delicate warmth erodes Nanhe’s ego and greed – in their own way, his defenses against a world that abandoned him and set him on his “prove ’em all wrong” quest to run the world’s greatest restaurant. The immature adult and the kid forced to grow up too fast are each other’s rafts in this tempestuous maelstrom. The final destination is a truly touching and very modern story of being an overlooked child, and you’ll cross an ocean of wonder and amazement to get there.
This article appears in November 24 • 2023.
