2025
ChaO
Australian Premiere.
Playful anime chaos in a dazzling, near-future Shanghai. A mermaid princess proposes on sight, dragging a shy engineer into civic uproar, sweet misfires and whiplash gags. STUDIO4°C layers intricate streetscapes with a bright, warm romance.
Director
Yasuhiro Aoki
Runtime
90 Minutes
Country
Japan
Classification
Unclassified 15+
In ChaO, humans and merfolk share the shifting canals, towering shipyards, and neon-wrapped skyline of a near-future Shanghai.
Stephan, a mild-mannered office drone at a shipbuilding company, leads a quiet life until Chao, a mermaid princess, disrupts his world with a sudden marriage proposal. His ordered existence unravels as her impulsive energy turns routines into slapstick calamities – bureaucrats flip out, diplomacy spirals, and public spectacle engulfs the city. Their mismatched coupling sparks absurd chases through water-slicked alleys, physical gags in transit corridors, and tender moments in the reflection-lit depths of the harbor. When their romance accidentally triggers an interspecies crisis, Stephan must summon resilience and compromise in a metropolis teetering between order and chaos.
Directed by Yasuhiro Aoki in his feature debut and crafted by STUDIO4°C, ChaO brims with kinetic hand-drawn animation, brisk visual jokes, and a sly tenderness at its core. After premiering at Annecy 2025 and winning the Jury Award, the film stands out as a delightfully off-kilter rom-com, buoyed by meticulous design, slapstick timing and heartfelt absurdity.
Stephan, a mild-mannered office drone at a shipbuilding company, leads a quiet life until Chao, a mermaid princess, disrupts his world with a sudden marriage proposal. His ordered existence unravels as her impulsive energy turns routines into slapstick calamities – bureaucrats flip out, diplomacy spirals, and public spectacle engulfs the city. Their mismatched coupling sparks absurd chases through water-slicked alleys, physical gags in transit corridors, and tender moments in the reflection-lit depths of the harbor. When their romance accidentally triggers an interspecies crisis, Stephan must summon resilience and compromise in a metropolis teetering between order and chaos.
Directed by Yasuhiro Aoki in his feature debut and crafted by STUDIO4°C, ChaO brims with kinetic hand-drawn animation, brisk visual jokes, and a sly tenderness at its core. After premiering at Annecy 2025 and winning the Jury Award, the film stands out as a delightfully off-kilter rom-com, buoyed by meticulous design, slapstick timing and heartfelt absurdity.
Annecy
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Film Credits
Director
Yasuhiro Aoki
Year
2025
Country
Japan
Language
Japanese
Subtitles
English
Type
Animation & Feature
Program Strand
Animation
Producer
Eiko Tanaka
Cast
Kenta Miyake, Taro Nikuguso & Kavka Shishido
Music
Takatsugu Muramatsu
Film Source
STUDIO4°C
Genre
Animation, Comedy & Romance
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