Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker here, and today, after jumping through the various worlds of the various Spider-Man universe, I think it is time that we got from up, to down as rather than swinging around New York City, how about we dive into the depths of a whole new world with perhaps another anticipated animated movie for me, Deep Sea!
Directed by Tian Xiaopeng, who saved the Chinese theatrical animation industry with his magnum opus of 2015’s Monkey King: Hero is Back, Deep Sea features a young girl who while on a cruise trip with her family, was swept into the sea and into a whole new deep underworld world, who might hold the deepest secret she was searching for.
I will be honest, of all the movies slated to come out in 2023, Deep Sea might be one of my most anticipated movies of 2023. The trailer looked gorgeous, and it promised something special. While the reactions from the Berlin International Film Festival had not been all positive, what matters is my reaction. Will this deliver on its hype, or will it get swept into the currents? Let us find out!
Key Information
- Director: Tian Xiaopeng
- Animation Studio: October Media (distributed by Beijing Enlight Pictures)
- Country of Origin: China
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 22 January 2023 (In China)
Trailer
The Review
Story and Characters
One thing I am noticing from the recent Chinese animated movies I covered recently (such as Goodbye Monster and New Gods: Yang Jian) was that they had been falling behind with the quality of the writing. I am still wondering why the writing is not up to the same standards as the animation, but thankfully, the quality was not too bad despite some glaring problems.
For one, the first half of the movie is where Deep Sea falters the most. The first half sets up for the second half, but personally, the writing in the first half is incoherent. Yes, this is a movie that requires you to take leaps of faith, but even so, there were just too many elements to focus on and a lack of story development. The scenes in the Deep Sea hotel has story elements of Studio Ghibli’s magnum opus that is Spirited Away (more about more similarities between these two movies as we get to the animation letter), but not executed well, making it way too much to handle unless you are well-versed in the sensory overload of previous Chinese animated movies. This movie also has cliches seen in other previous animated movies before, so it kind of bogs down the first half too. All I am saying is the first 50 minutes to hour of the movie is a massive let-down.
However, once you get through the first hour of the movie, that would be when the story and pacing picks up. Like a flick of a switch, there were so much emotional depth between the characters and the story elements tie up thanks to more focus on the main characters, that I almost feel all is forgiven for the messy first half. It is most because what the main characters went through in the second half makes the first half feel sensible at times, even with the inconsistency in the writing quality, and when the final ten minutes kick in, I was almost on the verge of tears. Sure, some moments in the second half felt predictable, but the second half still hit me real good.
Talking about the characters, the main duo of Shen Xiu and Nan He, while not having as much chemistry in the first half because of their differences, their conflicts and lack of personality, do have some compelling character development once the movie transitions to the second half. You are mostly with them throughout the journey, and I am relieved the focus was on them in the second half, because honestly, I simply care little about the other anthropomorphic characters living in the Deep Sea Hotel, where most of the story takes place. The voice acting, while having some inconsistent and predictable performances, is still great given such a shoddy script.
Animation
When Tian Xiaopeng’s previous animated movie, 2015’s Monkey King: Hero is Back, was released in theatres, it reshaped the entire Chinese theatrical animation industry. Back then, a majority of Chinese animated movies are poorly made, so to see a good animated movie produced domestically brings promise to the industry. Eight years later, he and his team at October Media outdone themselves when it comes to the animation.
Let me say one thing first: the animation could be a base breaker, and it all depends on whether you had covered previous Chinese animated movies before, and not the westernised ones. If you had not watched some amazing Chinese animated movies, such as Ne Zha 2019, Jiang Ziya and New Gods: Nezha Reborn, chances are you will get overwhelmed by the animation style in Deep Sea. If you had covered a fair share or even a lot of such movies, you might actually appreciate the quality and the creativity in the sensory overload on display in Deep Sea.
Given I previously covered I Am What I Am, Goodbye Monster and New Gods: Yang Jian on my blog, Deep Sea really blow me away with its innovative animations style.
First things first, the animation possess two styles of CG animation that are common in a lot of recent animated movies: the old-school photorealistic CG animation prevalent in a lot of animated movies but is now an endangered trend, and the new-school, more exciting and more expressive stylised CG that combines 2D with 3D animation. While October Media utilise the photorealistic style in a lot of characters in the movie, especially with the animal characters such as the cute otters living in the hotel, the background animation embraces a brand new way with watercolours in the sky, as if the animators painted the background scenes. To use two completely different styles of CG animation is already ambitious, but to see those two styles harmonising to form an animation style never seen is industry defining. In fact, Deep Sea share similarities with a classic that is Spirited Away, as they shared similar fantasy themes.
With each animation moment, the detailing in a lot of the characters, the background and the action in the second half makes it spell-binding. Rather than Deep Sea being a clash of styles, it was a well-combined mix of the abstract, the realism and the contemporary, like a beautiful ancient Chinese ink painting, and this is the movie’s biggest selling point.
Normally, an animated movie is great because the sum of their parts combine to form one amazing showpiece worth seeing in the theatres, but in the case of Deep Sea, it was just one element alone that would convince people to go down and see it in the biggest and sharpest cinema screen possible, and that has to be the animation. In fact, Deep Sea might be contending with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as the most innovative animation of 2023, and that is high praise.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Few people will talk about the soundtrack and score in Deep Sea, so I will say this: the score in this movie is as close to perfection as it could be. Mao Buyi (who previously provided the theme song of my most underrated movie of 2022 that is I Am What I Am “Nameless“) returned to provide another impactful end-credits song for another Chinese animated movie with “Clown”, but the rest of the composters (Tang Hanxiao and MIUMIU) also deserve top praise for carrying a whimsical score that highlights each animation scene so well.
As for how I enjoyed it, while it was a bit of a slog to get through the problematic first half of the movie, I was into this movie by the second half, which makes up for the entire experience. While I got a high-quality copy of Deep Sea, even with Mandarin subtitles only, since it was my second language, I was able to get through the whole movie in a single day on my phone, from my morning commute to work, to lunch and I finished the movie during my evening commute home. Even then, I was trying to hide my emotions from the other passengers on the metro ride home, because the final few minutes of the movie made me emotionally wept.
Conclusion
I honestly am speechless after what I witnessed and boy, just like with Across the Spider-Verse, I was enjoying every single moment of the movie, though it might not be as amazing as that peak.
While a good number of story elements fall flat and the first half might be very flawed, everything else in Deep Sea is magnificent. The second half of the movie hits you hard with some well-realised and likable characters, a twist that ties up any loose ends from the slightly problematic writing and a beautiful-sounding soundtrack. However, the animation might just be on level with Across the Spider-Verse as one of the best animation works of 2023, with flawless execution of the background animation, creative character visuals and a near-perfect usage of colours. Deep Sea might not be as perfect as I would have wanted, but it was damn close to perfection as much as I have to admit. This must be seen to be believed and frankly, after I searched hard for it, I think I had found some buried treasure that is worth priceless.
Thank you so much for reading this review. Now, let us get back to the surface and venture into an exciting world of elements, shall we? I will see you on the next adventure, and until then, k thanks bye!
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
