How is Your Fish Today Movie Review

The Chinese produced Docu-drama How is Your Fish Today? is an introspective journey film that explores the stark contrasts and correlations between imagination, perception, and reality and the profound effects they have on our journey of Life on this Earth.

The film chronicles real-world Chinese author Lin Tao as he sets out to pen a screenplay about Mohe, a distant Chinese town that rests on the border of China and Russia. After his script is harshly rejected he begins to question the meaning of existence. He continues writing and re-writing the script as he begins to take stock of his life and his incessant happiness. Dejected, demented, and discouraged he has an epiphany and decides to take a symbolic and life-altering journey to the town of Mohe on a whim; in order to discover the real-world essence of this enigmatic place known to him only in School books. What he learns along the way teaches him valuable life lessons and gives him invaluable perspective on the difference between the things that we perceive and the realities in this life.

How is Your Fish Today? is genuinely a one-of-a-kind film that tells a story of vindication in life and purposely blurs the line between imagination and reality through an interesting mix of Documentary and Dramatization. The film is rife with symbolism and filled with disassociated images that stick to the theme of imagination versus reality, while mirroring the plot and structure. Although the cinematography is lackluster and reeks of low-budget it is forgivable because the pay off comes through a clever and progressive editing style that capitalizes on the emotions and ambience of each scene through a precise application of both continuity and complexity editing. The film also capitalizes on the soundtrack; using a unique mixture of location sound, effects, and music to build tension and create ambiance and mood along-side the editing.

Every element of How is Your Fish Today? combines to form a profound film that reaches the core of both imagination and reality to interweave a tale of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual journeys in our lives and how they shape us into the person that we are.