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Fish Wang’s previous animated projects Gold Fish and Red Tail proved to be festival favorites in years past. The director is back on the award trail with his new project Ghost of the Dark Path, which won the Best Animated Short Film Prize at the Sitges Catalonian Intl. Film Festival in 2023 and was a nominee at the Clermont-Ferrand Intl. Short Film Festival. We caught up with the talented director to find out more about his new short, which has qualified for Oscar consideration (in the Best Animated Short category) this year:
Animation Magazine: Congratulations on the global success of Ghost of the Dark Path. Can you tell please tell us bit about the history and background of this short?
Fish Wang: When the main lead in the short Te Gan Seven (who is a secret agent of a surveillance department) sneaks into an underground political rally, he falls in love with Shi Shuifang who works for the underground organization. After the organization cracked, Shi Shuifang is sexually assaulted and is in critical condition while being detained. Te Gan Seven discovers this when it is already too late to save her life, so he can only watch her bleed and follow her into a dark path with ghosts along the way.
Please tell us about the inspiration for your short?
Wang: The short film is adapted from my picture book Landscape of the Dark Path. Part of it records my dreams, and the other part combines with my fantasies. The story is about a journey I experienced when I was lost. In Taiwan, we have a religious ritual called “Guan luo yin,” Which means we can make contacts with deceased loved ones through the guidance of a psychic — those who can enter the afterlife and even visit their family. I once wanted to try it but I didn’t, but my dreams gave me a very similar experience in the end. A few years after I finished the picture book, I started to reflect on my previous works like I always do when I am about to start a new project. Since I am also very concerned about politics and the history of Taiwan, I tried to incorporate the events during White Terror Era in Taiwan into my story, describing how blurry and confused this era was and also expressing how everyone gets lost during this period of time, as well as the whole era as well.
Where was the animation done and how long did it take to produce?
Wang: The making of the short film took me about two years, but our team was also working on other short films. In these two years we also finished an animated short film and a VR short film, and they both got good reviews. The VR short film (Red Tail) was shortlisted for Venice Film Festival and won the Crystal Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Which animation tools were used to create your short?
Wang: I used Photoshop, Moho, TVPaint, and AE, mostly for keeping the original brushworks I had created for the picture book.
What would you say were your biggest challenges during the production?
Wang: Because I wanted to keep the painting style of the original work, I chose a software that is relatively less used in Taiwan which I was unfamiliar with. Therefore, I had to make some compromises in my work. Plus, it was difficult to find someone who could work with the software, so we had to extend the work schedule and go beyond our budget. Eventually, we decided to use the classic animation methods to enhance some angles which we couldn’t achieve with the software.
What would you like your audiences to take away from the short?
Wang: I hope to remind everyone to pay attention to our history. In Taiwan, people have different opinions on the White Terror and the authoritarian political period. In the past, the government deliberately deleted and tried to reset the history, leaving a certain generation of people ignorant of the true history of Taiwan with a big confusion, even chaos.
As a Taiwanese creator, I am very concerned about this lack of knowledge, so I feel that I have a responsibility to contribute some clarity to this confusion from our history and political identity, with no stands of whichever political party. Of course, the audience has the right to make their own choices of what they want to believe. After all, we are against the idea of living with an authoritarian government .So we simply want to put forward our ideas through our works, to make our audience from various stands think and discuss openly and create a free space of conversation on this topic.
Who are some of your biggest animation influences?
Wang: I have to single out Spirited Away and Porco Rosso by Hayao Miyazaki. But the biggest influence in my career comes from comics. Reiji Matsumoto’s The Galaxy Express 999 and Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitarō have had great influences on me and my work.
Do you have any advice/tips for animated shorts filmmakers?
Wang: Make your art and write your own story. Learn from your failures!
Find out more at pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/ghost-of-the-dark-path
Watch the trailer below:
