Directed by Yasuhiro Aoki
With stunning art and energy, energy, energy, Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO is a feast for your eyes and ears if not quite for your brain, as visual craftsmanship takes precedence in a predictable story bogged down with some clichés you’d rather do without.
Stefan (Oji Suzuka) is a regular guy who works for a shipbuilder caught in controversy. In the near future, people will discover they’re co-habitating with merpeople, and the frequent damage wrought by their massive ship propellers is cause for diplomatic tension.
Somehow, some way, Stefan lands at the centre of it when the daughter of the king of the merpeople throws her love on him and he’s strong-armed into a forced marriage he’s rather set against for a number of reasons: one, ChaO, voiced by Anna Yamada, appears for the most part as a fish, and two, he’s not keen on suddenly being world-famous. Can Stefan overcome his reservations and usher in a peaceful future where people and merpeople coexist, love, and prosper together?
Director Aoki doesn’t give you a lot of reasons to pay close attention to the who and what of his movie, because this is a predictable and cliché reworking of The Little Mermaid (Disney edition) with thin male characters and female characters who won’t inspire feminist manifestos as they’re either reduced to objects of lust or meant to only provide value by virtue of their domestic prowess.
In that sense, ChaO might take its cue from The Little Mermaid, mean-spirited H.C. Andersen edition, and even though the source material can be debated in regards to its feminist virtues, Aoki lumps himself in as part of the problem with this rather limiting perspective on gender roles. He even recalls the gormless boy/manic pixie girl dynamic, which you’d think we’d have moved on from at this point.
Yet, it’s not too difficult to look past all this because ChaO is visually out there, impressive and almost overwhelming at times. The futuristic Shanghai wherein ChaO is set, is a dense, intricately detailed cosmopolis, beautiful at all times. It’s a movie you want to pause so you can take it all in and appreciate all the fine work, because watching it just once is definitely not enough time to do so.
More than just what’s going on in the background, Aoki’s direction is playful, with running gags, slapstick comedy, and general comedic timing aplenty, with the first act a complete riot as you’re bowled over by the artistic style, the hijinks, and the unrelenting energy with which it comes at you.
At time of writing, no one is credited as the writer of ChaO and its dedicated webpage emphasizes the animators and art directors that have produced this eye-catching sci-fi romcom. That’s emblematic of the movie at its worst and at its best: A striking piece of craftsmanship with only a thin dramatic support beam to carry it all.
Mikkel Frederiksen 