Indisputably the standout of the Asian selection at the 2025 Annecy Animated Film Festival, “ChaO” won the second-highest award there and proved to be a crowd-pleaser. The film is a wacky mix of zany comedy and heartfelt drama, set against the backdrop of a timely ecological parable.
Although the story takes place in a vaguely futuristic Shanghai where humans co-exist with mermaids (called that way even though they look rather like giant fish), the picture spends little time on worldbuilding. Instead, it focuses on its main character, Stephan, a rather average low-level office employee working for a megalomaniac shipbuilding tycoon. Stephan has dreams of designing a flying machine, but what good could that be for a company specialising in seafaring? One day, the mermaid king’s daughter, Chao, publicly announces her love for Stephan – even though they have never even met. This plunges our hapless hero into a highly publicised whirlwind...
Directed by: Yasuhiro Aoki
Music: Takatsugu Muramatsu
Production: Eiko Tanaka, STUDIO4°C CO., LTD.
Country: Japan
Year: 2025
Running time: 89 min.
Age category: 16+
Was born in 1968 in Japan. A veteran animator currently at Tokyo-based Studio4°C, he previously co-directed Batman: Gotham Knight and The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim (2024), Steamboy (2004) contributed animation to Psycho-Pass: The Movie — atmospheric and moody features that worked with shadows and darkness. Aoki has swum against that tide for his latest feature ChaO, which ushers in bright colors and kinetic visuals. “When I embark on a new project, I like to do something that is the complete opposite of what I did previously.
Zapisz się do newslettera wypełniając pola poniżej. Postaramy się Cię uszczęśliwić.
Subscribe to the newsletter by filling in the fields below. We will try to make you happy.
