Wendi Tang’s Fishtank is a film that hooks you in with an odd premise but becomes a thoughtful and engaging exploration into a person’s life as they battle their own demons. Fantastic from top to bottom, Tiffany Chu delivers another accomplished performance.
Jules (Tiffany Chu) has been sober for a year, but she can’t stop vomiting goldfish. As she strives to regain control of her life, a fish enthusiast unexpectedly enters her life, adding a new layer of complexity to her journey.
Vomiting goldfish isn’t exactly a typical occurrence, yet this surrealist idea works perfectly in this metaphor-driven film. With the world that Tang has created, you could buy this happening. Thanks to this touch of surrealism, we can go down a merry dance of figuring out the exact meaning of the fish making their way out of Jules.
Is it from the stresses of her sobriety? Is it from other people trying to “help” Jules when really it is doing the opposite? Could it just be general negative forces and thoughts out there in the world that have been weighing on her lately that are causing more and more to appear? Fishtank never explains itself; it doesn’t need to. It can be one or all of those thoughts combined; either way, it works wonderfully.
The unconventional concept of Fishtank may be what hooks you in. Still, it is everything from top to bottom that captivates you. From the tonal shifts as the film enters its final scenes as Jules struggles to rise too close to the surface to the somehow charming and bittersweet balancing act the film goes down, it just all works magnificently. What remains, though, is the never-ending difficulty of sobriety, and Tang makes an important point always to remember that fact.
Tiffany Chu continues her exemplary work from Motherland (where she wrecks you with her performance) right into another stellar performance in Fishtank. Chu compels you as a woman who has the weight of her sobriety weighing on her, but not enough to overwhelm her. In just 17 minutes, Chu and Tang have crafted a full character, equal parts vulnerable and strong. You are pulling for Jules at all times and that is down to how Chu takes firm command of her multifaceted character. Chu is the type of actor who shines no matter the role given to her, and it surely will not be too long before she is dominating features; she is very making herself a talent not to be missed.
There is a great deal of confidence in Wendi Tang’s writing and direction here in Fishtank (it’s hard not to be confident when your premise is as intriguing as this one). She has a clear goal in mind for how she wanted her film to go, and she thoroughly succeeds in it. Even if she leaves moments up for interpretation, she isn’t afraid to leave things like that in the air, and with her short film, it works.
Others try and stumble when trying to allow the audience to discuss and have different theories as to the meaning of specific moments. But with Tang, she revels in it, allowing the more surrealist quirks in her script to take form and become an exploration of an idea instead of a well-mapped-out narrative. Even some of her shot choices are bold and always visually interesting, making her a filmmaker who has you eagerly wanting to look back at her previous work and keep an eye on what she conjures up in the future.
Fishtank is a film that takes advantage of its surrealist nature to present a wealth of ideas that have the audience talking about what they took out of it. Having that ability to have an audience want to talk about the ideas they just saw is a rare talent and one that Tang appears to have in spades. Make sure you catch this one; it’s a cracker.
★★★★
Fishtank will be playing at the HollyShorts Film Festival on August 11th. Tickets and further information is available here.
For more of our coverage of the HollyShorts Film Festival, please check out our reviews below.
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