‘Deep Sea’ review: One terrifying detail nearly sinks this stunning underwater odyssey

This year has already brought us a crop of stunning, stylistically varied animated films like the anime Suzume and the groundbreaking Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Joining their ranks in highlighting the versatility of animation is Deep Sea, a Chinese feature film with a unique style of its own: a blend of highly realistic CG and a technique reminiscent of Chinese ink painting.

Director Tian Xiaopeng uses this mix of realistic and illustrative animation to tell the story of Shenxiu (Wang Ting Wen), a young girl whose mother abandoned her at a young age. While she continues to grieve this loss, her father has remarried and had another child, and he is far more focused on those two than he is on Shenxiu. As the film opens, the family boards a cruise together on Shenxiu’s birthday, but there is no celebration for her. The only birthday wish she receives is a text from her cell phone company.

Abandoned on the family holiday, Shenxiu turns to a story her mother once told her: If you wish for something on your birthday, a magical beast known as the Hyjinx will help make that wish a reality. One wish later, the Hyjinx makes a stormy entrance into Shenxiu’s life. It brings her to the magical underwater Deep Sea restaurant, which serves a clientele of fish- and walrus-people. It’s here that Deep Sea‘s plot really kicks in, and where the film runs into its biggest problem: a human chef named Nanhe (Su Xin).

Nanhe turns Deep Sea from a dream into a nightmare.

Introducing the man of my nightmares.
Credit: Tribeca Film Festival

Nanhe is the head chef of the Deep Sea, and he is by far the scariest thing in the film. Raging storms, the hairy tendrils of the Hyjinx, a suffocating monster known as the Red Phantom…None of them compare to Nanhe. Or more specifically, to his mouth.

The CG animation of Deep Sea, especially that of non-fantasy elements like humans, remains strikingly realistic. Even if facial features are exaggerated for the sake of animation, you still buy into the world the film presents. Nanhe’s mouth breaks that immersion entirely. His lips stretch too wide for his thin face, and his jaw moves in such a rapid, contorting way that’d you think his jawbone was made of elastic. One word from him is all it takes to transport us from the depths of the ocean to the uncanny valley, where the unexpected horror of a too-wide mouth waits to swallow us whole.

To its credit, Deep Sea does present Nanhe as an antagonistic figure early on. Rather than help Shenxiu on her quest to find her mother, Nanhe wants to turn the Hijinx into the Deep Sea’s signature soup! No wonder she views him in a frightening light. In this more villainous context, Nanhe’s terrifying mouth makes complete sense.

Unfortunately, the uncanniness does not fade away as Nanhe warms to Shenxiu. Even after he saves her from the Red Phantom and welcomes her to the Deep Sea family, that stretchy mouth of his persists. It becomes even more frightening on the occasions when Nanhe wears clown makeup. Yes, the makeup serves the plot, but Nanhe’s overdrawn red lip turns his already-overlarge mouth into nightmare fuel.

Nanhe’s mouth design is especially baffling considering he’s Deep Sea‘s secondary hero. His character development from bumbling selfish rogue to Shenxiu’s steadfast (but still slightly selfish) protector is at the heart of the film, so he (and his mouth) are onscreen a lot. But when I think of him, I don’t immediately think of him as a hero. Instead, I think of the Joker, It‘s Pennywise, or at its most extreme, the Titans from Attack on Titan. None of those are particularly good company for Nanhe to be in given his role in the rest of the film, and the visual association between him and these genuinely scary villains makes for a confusing watch.

Nanhe’s mouth aside, Deep Sea is a captivating animated film like no other.

It’s beautiful. I’ve looked at this for five hours now.
Credit: Tribeca Film Festival

As hung up as I am on Nanhe and his very scary mouth, it doesn’t derail the rest of what is a truly remarkable film.

Deep Sea‘s biggest draw is its visuals, especially the painterly style the film introduces as Shenxiu first delves into the ocean. The opening sequence onboard the cruise ship is grounded, muted, and almost completely devoid of color, a smart choice that makes the transition to under the waves pop even more. There, vibrant swaths of color swirl across the screen, made up of small particles that call to mind dots of ink.

The effect is particularly impressive in 3D. Like other ocean-set films, including Avatar: The Way of Water and The Little Mermaid, Deep Sea knows that 3D films work greatest not when they’re shocking you with in-your-face pop-ups, but when they’re immersing you in the world of the film. As Shenxiu ventures further into the ocean, you’re completely submerged in this fantastical environment with her. Light shows and bursts of color play across the screen, their ever-shifting movement and psychedelic palette calling to mind a cinematic kaleidoscope.

However, Deep Sea isn’t animated this way in its entirety. Tian uses the ink painting style more as a way to enhance the story than to tell it in full. The denizens and interiors of the Deep Sea are animated using CG, resulting in sumptuous shots of food and textures that look real enough to touch.

Deep Sea‘s story is effective, if a little familiar.

Shenxiu is about to go on the journey of a lifetime.
Credit: Tribeca Film Festival

Deep Sea‘s stunning animation brings to life a story that will hit you with the full force of an ocean wave. On a basic plot level, it reminds me somewhat of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, which also sees a young girl transported to a world of strange and magical creatures. Both Chihiro and Shenxiu end up working at a business that serves these creatures, be it a bathhouse or a restaurant. On top of all that, both wish to reunite with their families.

But by no means is Deep Sea a carbon copy of Spirited Away. Beyond being set in the ocean, Deep Sea also takes a different approach to tackling the mental health of its protagonist. Shenxiu’s grief manifests itself as the monstrous Red Phantom, which oozes into existence whenever she starts to cry. It’s a bit of an on-the-nose metaphor for Shenxiu’s own sadness, but a solid one with killer visual payoff.

Deep Sea‘s story does meander a bit in the middle, as well as falter with plot twists you can see coming from a nautical mile away. However, the film executes these twists with heart-breaking precision, as well as an extraordinary amount of world-building detail.

With such an innovative and original style, it’s easy to forgive Deep Sea for a bit of predictability — although I’m not entirely ready to excuse Nanhe’s mouth just yet! Still, Deep Sea remains another example of the range of animation as a medium, and its dazzling visuals deserve to be seen on the big screen.

Deep Sea was reviewed out of its North American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. It has yet to receive an American release date.