Director: Yu Li
Starring: Yi Pan, Tou Shi, Jilian Zhang, Qiangian Zhang

- Reviewed by Linda

More notable for the effort than for the final product, Fish and Elephant is touted to be the first lesbian film from mainland China. Made as an underground film (i.e. it was not submitted to the Film Bureau for approval), the movie is cast entirely with non-professional actors, and managed to sneak under the radar of the government (luckily, I would suppose, considering the subject matter).

Xiao Qun (Yi Pan) is a 30-ish single woman constantly harangued by her mother over the phone to get married, and quick. She takes solace in her job as an elephant keeper at the zoo, and has her own flat in the big city, far away from mom. While shopping one day, Xiao Qun flirts with Xiao Ling (Tou Shi), a clothing designer she meets at a mall selling her wares. Of course, just when things seem to be going well, and the two women establish a relationship and move in together, mom shows up from the country intent on finding a nice man for Xiao Qun to marry.

There is a series of funny, voyeuristic, and uncomfortable blind dates that the viewer gets to endure with Xiao Qun (where often mom is a third party on the date, serving as her own one-woman marketing campaign). Apparently these men, also not actors, were set up on these dates for real, not knowing what they were getting into. These scenes ring funny and true, especially one where Xiao Qun is alone on a date with a man, and tells him after pleasant enough conversation that she likes women. His complete bafflement, replaced by surprising acceptance (as in "call me if you change your mind") is refreshing and amusing.

It is during scenes like these where Fish and Elephant works best. It turns out that the non-professional cast is not in any way a detriment to the film—it is actually the story and the direction that slowly start to bring it down. For instance, there is a side plot thrown in for no apparent reason that is first merely distracting, then unfortunately laughable at the end (this would involve an ex-girlfriend of Xiao Qun's showing up on the lam from the law, causing tension in Xiao Qun and Xiao Ling's new relationship, and facing off with the police in an unfortunately camp-o-rific showdown... at the zoo!).

The film would have been stronger if it has just focused on the complicated relationship between the Xiao Qun and her mother. There is a nice touch where both women basically "come out" to each other, and learn to accept each other's choices for happiness in life. Unlike the plot tangent of an ex-girlfriend running around with a gun, the mother/daughter dynamic of the story proved to be the most universal and interesting part the story. A narrower focus would have tightened up this worthy but otherwise disjointed effort.

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