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In recent years, we have seen several short films making waves because of their innovative storytelling. One such film is Wendi Tang’s ‘FISHTANK,’ which tells the story of a young woman named Jules (Tiffany Chu) who can’t stop vomiting GOLDFISH for some reason. As the story moves forward, fans get to know what is the reason behind it and how Jules is trying to navigate her life through certain situations. Although the narratives around loneliness and sobriety have been tackled in several projects, it hasn’t been told in this way before.

‘FISHTANK’ is unique and innovative storytelling at its very best and doesn’t shy away from taking a difficult route. Tang, who has attended NYU Tisch School of Arts, has made sure that fans remember the film for a very long time after the end credits roll in. The movie had its premiere at this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival, which is an Oscar-qualifying festival, and earned positive reviews. I got the chance to talk to filmmaker Wendi Tang about her short film and how she managed to create such a unique story surrounding isolation.

Fishtank Movie Poster (@Instagram/fishtan.mov)

Aayush Sharma: Congratulations on the movie ‘Fishtank,’ but before we talk about the film. I would love to know about your journey in the entertainment industry.

Wendi Tang: I was born and raised in China and went to New York for college. I went to NYU Tisch School of Arts, it’s the school where Ang Lee, and Chloe Zhao, a lot of very great Asian filmmakers went to. So I spent more than five years in school because of Covid and everything. And, yeah, during the journey, I was in the dual degree program, so I attended the Tisch School of the Arts, but I also attended the Stern School of Business. So I hold a business degree, just so everyone knows. (laughs) Not that it matters, but, yeah, so that program was really intense, but it made me confident and determined that I want to become a writer-director. Before I started writing my stuff, I tried different sections of the entertainment industry, especially the film and TV industry. I tried publicity, I tried development and just through those processes, I realized I wanted to get myself as close as possible to the actual production process. So I decided to start writing my own stories, and after writing those stories, I’m like, I should just make those because they’re my stories, and I know the details and all the deep secrets about the story, so I should be the one to direct it. Directing has also been another passion for me, because when I was a kid, I was one of those kids that would, like, I will be the leader in the group and be like, let’s act out the scene from yesterday’s TV show. So, I didn’t enjoy the firsthand acting experience, but I enjoyed directing other people to finish the scene. So I feel like that kind of planted a really deep root inside six-year-old me trying to figure out what I want to do in the future. But for filmmaking, it’s always hard, especially if you come from an Asian background. So it took me a long time to really prove to my parents that this is what I want to do for my life. I’m glad I persisted. Because there were a lot of setbacks during the process. Pressure from them (family), from the environment, financial pressure, and other stuff. I think for now, I’m pretty confident to say that I can make a living by being a filmmaker, and I want to keep doing it. I want to keep writing and directing.

Aayush Sharma: What was the first instance when you decided that you wanted to be a director? 

Wendi: That’s a very great question, because, like I said, as a child, I kind of want to. I kind of wanted to be the leader, the conductor of the entire group, but I didn’t quite understand the process of directing yet. So I think it was really after I started my education at NYU, it taught me what it is, being a director, that you have to understand every aspect of the film, from pre-production to post-production, from development to marketing. So I kind of try to expose myself as much as possible to that information, to that knowledge. So it took me a long time to get confident in the fact that I could be a director because I always had a lot of self-doubt in myself, and, like, I always doubted it. Oh, am I good at writing? Am I good at talking to people? Am I good at explaining things on set in a very efficient manner? But I think it was the education at NYU that, because we had to shoot a lot of films throughout the process, from smaller scale ones to, like, bigger scale ones. Through the process, I somehow got to know that I am talented in those areas, that I can do just a little better than I expected and I should keep doing it. I would say it’s like a through line through my childhood, but it landed on the idea that I wanted to become a director when I attended NYU.

Aayush: ‘Fishtank’ is by far the most imaginative and surreal film I’ve seen this year. It is one of those titles, you know, that require you to focus on several little things. So, how did you come up with an idea that’s so unique and has never been tackled before in conventional cinema?

Wendi: I’m so glad you picked up those little ideas. I tried so hard to plant them.  So talking about the origin, like, the original story of the film, I would say they come from two parts. Like, twofold. One is one of the wildest dreams that I had. Like, the very weird, strange dreams that I had. So the direct inspiration came from one of the dreams where I dreamt of myself walking in a deserted place, like, all of a sudden, I wanted to throw up. I kind of know that I was in the dream at that time, but I wasn’t quite sure. But the feeling of wanting to throw up didn’t stop and before I could realize what was happening, I already saw a living goldfish landing on my palm and I woke up. That image woke me up. I was like, what does that mean? What does that mean to me? So I broke down the idea, and it took me a while to dive into the process of self-introspection and see how this image might connect to my past, my feelings, and what it means for me in the future. I always believed dreams, they have some meanings. They are a reflection of your subconscious. So, whenever I got woken up by those weird dreams, I tried to figure out something. So that’s one part of the story. The other part of the story was I was not allowed to have pets as a kid because my parents didn’t like furry animals.

So as a kid, the only pet I got to have was a Goldfish. It was like a little fish ball with two or three goldfish in it. Like,  I was the only kid in the family, like, I didn’t have siblings, and I didn’t have cousins of my age, so I spent a lot of time just with my goldfish as a kid. But instead of, like, when I looked into them, instead of those feelings where, you know, in Asian cultures, they usually associate goldfish with really good meanings, like luck, prosperity. But instead of that, when I looked at the fish, I suddenly felt like when I looked into their eyes, I felt sad. When I was looking into them, I was like, why? I mean, the fish, only have 7 seconds of memories or something. They don’t remember anything. But when I looked into them, they looked sad, especially when people feed them the fish food, like, they won’t remember they’ve had it before. They’ve had it like, 2 seconds ago, I threw it to them. They had one, and then they swam around for a bit, and I threw another to them. They don’t remember they had it, and they would do it again. And eventually, like, if I know that if I keep throwing food to them, they’ll keep eating till they die, I think that’s the sad part of it. There were moments when I thought back to those moments when I looked into the fish, I somehow felt like I relate to them. I know what they’re feeling at that time. So that’s another part of the story that made me want to visualize the story, to let people hear my voice.

Tiffany Chu in Fishtank (Photo Credit: Fishtank)

Aayush: Correct me if I’m wrong. While watching the movie, I realized that, Jules vomiting goldfish is a reminder that something is not right in her world. We see her first time vomiting while meeting a pervert guy. Then we see her doing the same when she goes to the AA meeting, which she doesn’t look interested in. However, the last two are pretty significant. So, was that also an idea behind showing Jules and her struggles?

Wendi: The visualization of her internal struggles and the time when she gets uncomfortable or gets triggered by the outside world, not just men. I wanted to make it clear because I always believe that a woman’s life is not always about men. We have our own lives. We have things that we care about. We have things that we want, we desire. So it’s all her feelings entangled together with her internal struggles, with her desire for connections, for genuine connections with her own. She wants to keep her life in control. Yeah, it’s like all those things that kind of make her vomit the fish. When she gets triggered, you know.

Aayush: You have shown very different visual styles for showcasing Jules’ world. When we meet her for the first time, it’s very dark and, makes us realize about her world. But things suddenly change when the fish enthusiast enters her life, the lighting becomes more vibrant Why did you choose such contrasting colors and lighting to show Jules’s world?

Wendi: Yeah, that was completely intentional with me and my cinematographer, Jay, and we discussed the visual language a while before the production, that we don’t want the audience to feel too comfortable walking away from the film. I want them to remember, or at least some of the images and the feelings that those images give them. So Jules herself in the outside world, like, I always wanted to give a feeling of isolation. Like, even though she’s standing very close to other people, standing in a very small space with a full house of people dancing, the feeling that she gets herself is lonely, that she’s isolated from the world. She’s not connecting with the rest of the world. So that’s why I chose a darker palette for the outside world. But once she gets home, even though it’s a really small apartment for herself, it’s filled with her fish, something that comes out of her body, and so it becomes a little paradise for her in this very chaotic outside world to create. So I wanted to create a contrast so people feel what Jules feels when she enters her world. That’s her world.

Aayush: You’re working with such a phenomenal actor, Tiffany Chu. So, what was the casting process like for the film? Also, was Tiffany Chu always the first choice for playing the role of Jules?

Wendi:  It was a very interesting story because when I was looking for the right actress for this role, I wanted someone who not only understands Jules, but has a very rich understanding of women’s position in the industry. They have their own opinion about it and Tiffany fits perfectly for the role. I got introduced to Tiffany through my casting director, and immediately after we got connected, we did a two-hour Zoom session. That was our first meeting. Yeah, we talked about a script for a little bit, but for the rest of the time, we were mostly talking about our own experiences, about our feelings, about what we feel like, and what we think. I think it was that very in-depth conversation between me and Tiffany that made me confident that she was the right one. She’s the perfect choice for this role. Also, I watched Tiffany’s previous work, and I feel like I always believe she has a really powerful core in her performance, and that didn’t get explored fully in some of the previous work. So  I want to see her use that core to a greater extent. So, that became our collaboration. I’m very glad to have her.

Aayush: The story of ‘Fishtank’ can be divided into two parts. Number one is the surreal part, which is like the vomiting of the goldfish, AND we haven’t seen anything like this before. then the second part talks about real-life issues, whether it is related to loneliness or sobriety. SO, how do you draw the line between that you don’t overdo both of these elements and you stay on the path that you wanted to show?

Wendi: I love the question because that was one of my concerns in my writing process. I always knew I wanted to expand on this weird, awkward, bizarre concept. But it’s also very important to land the concept on actual plots, to engage with people because it’s not a purely experimental film. It’s a narrative film. It’s an experimental narrative that I want people to still get things out of it after they watch the film. I think a lot of the process was to dive deeper into my feelings and the incidents I’ve personally experienced before. Like, I throw myself into a world where I believe if I get uncomfortable, I will throw up a goldfish. I think it takes a lot of faith and belief in the world that you’re building so you can seamlessly sew together the concept and the story. Yeah, that was my process. I think once I figured that out, writing them together wasn’t as hard as I thought. It became a very natural, organic process to believe in what I’m writing and to. I believe I have to believe in myself. I have to believe in the story to make other people believe.

Aayush: Now that the movie is going to HollyShorts. How do you think that audience will relate or, you know, interpret Jules’s struggles and her journey?

Wendi: That’s a great question, because when we had our world premiere at the deadCenter Film Festival, which is also an Oscar-qualifying festival in Oklahoma. I attended the festival because I wanted to hear and feel what the audience felt about the film. I was really glad that most of them knew what I was trying to say. Even if they don’t pick up all the details completely, they’re able to pick up most of those and, string it together, which I am really glad because I was really worried that people will be like, what is this? This is so weird. I don’t get it. I mean, I’m sure some people don’t get it, but I’m really glad to, connect with those audiences who understand what I’m trying to say. Yeah, and I hope I’ll have better reactions from the audience and HollyShorts as well.