Foolish Fish Fable 愚鱼寓
Experimental Animation ｜8 mins-10mins｜color｜China; Taiwan; Estonia
结合定格布偶动画，数字偶戏及伪纪录片动画的手工影像短片,讲述一条很有礼貌的大鱼想要吞食童子成仙的故事。
SYNOPSIS
A stop-motion animation with digital puppetry portraying the tale of a foolish fish want to eat a kid in its pursuit of becoming Immortal
Trailer ｜56 secs｜color｜China; Taiwan; Estonia
Credit
导演 Director：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun 雷佳蕙 Lei Chia Hui
制片 Producer：陈雅涓 Ya Chuan Chen
动画 Animation：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun 雷佳蕙 Lei Chia Hui
偶制作 Puppet Making：雷佳蕙 Lei Chia Hui 孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
风筝制作 Kite Making：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
摄影 Photography：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
Rise and Shine CEE animation Pitch – Best Audience Award
Fabric Puppet
Digital Puppet – Motion Capture in blender
Kite Puppetry ｜In Maajamm Estonia
Mask Puppet
Script剧本
Once opon the time, there was a tiny fish,it heard some rumor:
if it could eat a kid than it would become immortal.
So, this fish got super serious about eating, sleeping and growing big enough to swallow a kid whole.
But it was a polite one. It wanted the kid to be sacrificed for it.
So, it went up to these kids and asked
“Can I eat you?”
The boat kids obviously said no way.
But since the fish was so polite, they agreed to help.
Together,they go for the bridge kids.
“You cool with becoming fish food?”
“Nah, but I’ll check with the tree kids for you,In consideration of your politeness…”
They cross the bridge and go towards the tree.
“Would you like to be eaten by me, I would like to become immortal”
“Noway, but you know what,there’s some juicy kids hide in the mountain,you can go there.”
The fish hesitated, “But how do I cross?”
“We’ll carry you,” they offered.
But guess what? While they were lugging the fish up to the mountains
it just… well,
it die
很久很久以前，有一条小鱼，它听说只要吃掉一个小孩就能成仙。
于是它很认真吃饭睡觉，长成了一条大鱼。
但是这条鱼它很有礼貌，它希望童子心甘情愿地被吃掉。
于是它问河里的划船童子：“我可以吃掉你吗？”
童子们拒绝了，但决定帮它。
他们划船带鱼靠岸，问岸上的童子：“你们愿意被吃掉吗？”
他们也拒绝了，但说可以去问树上的小孩。
大家一起过桥，树上的小孩说：“不行，但山里的小孩或许愿意。”
大鱼问：“我怎么过去？”孩子们说：“我们抬你。”于是大家抬着鱼往山里走。可没等到山里，大鱼就死了。
SToryboard 故事版
Consepliazation 概念构想
This story began with an antique embroidered cloth I found in Dunhuang, depicting a hundred children. I searched for its origin but found nothing. Later, while studying puppetry in Estonia’s long dark winters, the cloth began telling me the story of a fish seeking immortality. All is natural—except the fish speaks. Inspired by legends of animals becoming immortal by learning human ways, we ask: what is immortality? Why does the fish want it? Our animation is a ritual—a puppet-based film where each screening is the fish’s rebirth. Three puppet systems bring the fish’s journey to life across media and worlds.
我们有3套偶表演系统：
1.20余个布料童子偶与一条大布鱼作为定格动画的角色。我们将结合刺绣的工艺与扎染的工艺制作，拾得影像结合平面布料进行平面定格动画的拍摄，试图让会呼吸的媒介本身“自动性”地进行故事表达。
2.真人偶与风筝偶戏，进行雪地中大鱼死亡成仙的户外实景偶戏的拍摄。偶戏的灵感来源自越南水偶戏，中国黄山的大鱼灯会及中国闽南地区与台湾的偶戏传统。
3.我们的手工偶被整体数字化后，在blender及unity中开发了动动捕motion capture数字偶戏的运动方式，将结合定格动画进行影像剧场的呈现。
Asking for a title 讨封
Where did the fish hear that eating a child would help it achieve the godhood?
Why does it want to become the legend ?
What exactly is immortality?
In the story of the fish, everything follows the natural laws of reality: a polite fish and a group of polite children,
the fish wants to eat people, the people refuse to let it, they carry the fish up the mountain, the fish dies after leaving the water, and the fish aspires to become immortal.In many legends, there are similar story backgrounds, such as the story of Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen under the Leifeng Pagoda, where the snake has to learn human ways to achieve immortality. We call this practice of adopting human behavior “asking for a title.”
But what’s strange is that when I ask the people around me what they want to be in their next life, their answers are always animals: a fish, a bird, or even a piece of wood.
During the process of creating the fish, I constantly felt that the fish was not content with becoming a puppet. It tried to become a ceramic fish, but each time it resulted in a broken body and failed glaze. Perhaps being a puppet constrained by gravity was not its ultimate desire. So I thought, why couldn’t it be a puppet in the sky?
This led me back to Shandong in northern China, where I found a master in the mountains and learned how to make kites.
However, July in China is windless, so I brought the kite back to Estonia to stir up some wind.
I moved from Shanghai to Tallinn to study and create, partly because living in Estonia during the harsh frozen winter allows me to become like a monk, enjoying the darkness and getting down to work.
这个故事起源于我在敦煌收到的一块百子图的刺绣布古董，我试图通过各种渠道搜寻这块布从哪里来但一无所获，后来我来到了爱沙尼亚读书学习，在漫长的黑夜和近乎修行的制偶学习中，这块布自己开始给我讲述了这个故事。
鱼的故事中所有都是符合现实自然规律的，一条礼貌的鱼，和一群礼貌的小孩，鱼想吃人，人不让鱼吃，人一起抬鱼上山，鱼离开水死了，以及鱼想成仙。
唯一超现实的是，鱼会说话。在许多传说中都有这样的故事背景，比如雷峰塔下的许仙和白娘子，蛇要学人才能成仙。我们称这种学人的修行行为为讨封（Ask for a title）
但奇怪的是当我问身边的人类你下辈子想要成为什么，他们给我的答案都是动物：比如 一条鱼 或者一只鸟，或者一块木头。还有奇怪的一点是，鱼到底从哪里听说吃一个小孩就可以成仙的？ 它究竟为什么想要成仙？仙到底是什么？
并且在制作鱼的过程中我始终觉得鱼不甘心于成为一个布偶。它尝试成为一条陶鱼，但每一次都是破碎的身体和失败的釉色。或许受重力牵制运动的偶并不是它最终想要的归宿。所以我想到，为什么不能是在天上的偶。
整个创作为的就是一场仪式，一场鱼成仙的仪式。什么是成仙：保持性命只身，但不怕死。这条有礼貌的大鱼和其他池塘里的鱼不同，他知道这辈子他的目标，并执着地，直接地付诸行动，从未犹疑。这让我们非常想齐心协力地帮助它，因为鱼坚定的信念已经表达了他对死亡的超脱。而死亡是一件只能想象的事情，我们想召集有心想要返老还童的人们一起，用动画的仪式帮助大鱼成仙。这部动画一定是一部非常有能量且有生命力的短片，电影院的每一次放映，也将是大鱼重生之时，
两位童子站在电影院中间，大声向外呼喊：你愿意被大鱼吃掉吗？
This entire creative process is designed as a ritual, a ritual of a fish’s ascension to immortality. What does ascension mean here?
Maintaining one’s life, remaining whole, yet unafraid of death.
Unlike the other fish in the pond, this polite, large fish knows its life’s purpose and acts upon it with unwavering determination. This inspires us to help it wholeheartedly, for its steadfast belief demonstrates transcendence over death. Death is something that can only be imagined; we want to gather those seeking rejuvenation, using an animated ritual to help this fish achieve immortality.
This animation will be a powerful and vibrant short film; each screening in a cinema will be a rebirth for the fish. We ritualists channel animistic cinema to midwife its metamorphosis.
Now， you see Two kids stand by the cinema, shouting:
“Do you wish to be eaten by the great fish and help it become a legend?”