ChaO (in-person & online)

Ouji Suzuka, Anna Yamada, Yūichirō Umehara, Ryota Yamasato (voices)

Mermaids and humans populate a divided world in Yasuhiro Aoki’s feature debut, a delightfully offbeat animated fantasy from Studio 4°C (Memories, Mind Game, Tekkonkinkreet) and winner of the Jury Award at Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

In a far-future Shanghai, humans and merpeople coexist in a peaceful utopia. How did they achieve this bliss? Meet Stephan, a mild-mannered office worker at a shipbuilding company whose life is upended when he is proposed to by Chao, a mermaid princess, and an unusual and touching romance unfolds. It’s good for the city, good for business. There’s only one problem – his wife is a fish.

Recalling other human-and-sea-creature-bond animes like Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo and Masaaki Yuasa’s Lu Over the Wall and Ride Your Wave, Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO is a joyously imaginative, spectacularly realised tale of overcoming division through love.