Year of the Fish
User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 1 out of 4

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  1. JerryM
    Apr 8, 2009
    10
    Awesome. Made me cry.
  2. magnesium
    Mar 27, 2009
    2
    Uggh. While it's nice to have an Asian-centric film in American cinema, this film is so chock-full of stereotypes that it was almost too difficult to finish watching. As a Chinese-American myself, I had the feeling that the movie was made by those who did not make an effort to really get into the emotional underbelly of the immigrant experience. Also, why choose a sex parlor as a backdrop? I'm sorry if I'm unduly offended, but exactly how many Chinese immigrants these days actually do go into the sex trade? Does this play into the some sort of Western fantasy of Asian female eroticism? This movie would have been more effective if the director chose a wittier, lighter, and less heavy-handed approach. I'm sorry, but not all movies about Asian females have to rehash the same (evil) mother - repressed daughter emotional pathos of The Joy Luck Club (which incidentally made for a terrible one-dimensional movie). Although conceptually interesting , the execution was overly superficial and simplistic.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
53 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    40
    That the film is animated gives it an appropriately magical feel, but it can't save the story from being drowned in devices and stereotype.
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  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov
    20
    Year of the Fish is the kind of really bad movie it takes a lot of misplaced conviction to make.
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  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    67
    To some degree, it's trying to find the magic in the everyday, but the attempts to ground it are cringe-inducing and problematic.
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