# A Fish Out of Water
**A Fish Out of Water** (上岸的鱼) is a 2017 Taiwanese drama feature directed and written by Lai Kuo-An (赖国安), his debut feature film, about a kindergartner who asks his parents to help him find his parents from a past life while his own family is coming apart.[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2017/sections_and_films/7/654234/in) • [2](https://www.x-y.co/asset/uploads/2023/02/Pingyao-International-Film-Festival-Catalogue-2017.pdf) It premiered at the 2017 [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) in the Discovery section and competed for the New Director award at the 65th San Sebastian International Film Festival.[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 上岸的鱼 (Shang an de yu); also known in Chinese as 后花园[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26791378//) |
| Director and writer | Lai Kuo-An (赖国安), a former music-video and commercial director; his first feature[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2017/sections_and_films/7/654234/in) • [2](https://www.x-y.co/asset/uploads/2023/02/Pingyao-International-Film-Festival-Catalogue-2017.pdf) |
| Production | Swallow Wings Films (Taiwan); producers include Hsu Chao-Jen, Gene Yao, and Albert Yao[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2017/sections_and_films/7/654234/in) • [3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023) |
| Runtime | 91 minutes per Taiwan Cinema and San Sebastian; 90 minutes per the Toronto program and Pingyao catalog[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023) • [5](https://downloads.ctfassets.net/22n7d68fswlw/3Bk5TqTMmsSoOcmc2MKEK8/c5e8d1d53e3be7f44b6280f177f44862/2017_Festival_Programme_Book.pdf) |
| Languages | Mandarin and Taiwanese (Taigi)[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023) |
| Taiwan release | March 16, 2018[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7297958/) |
| Principal cast | Run-yin Bai (Zhang Yi-An), Peggy Tseng (Wu Ya-Ji), Jen-Shuo Cheng (Zhang Hao-Teng), Akio Chen (Zhang Fu)[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7297958/) |
| Festivals | Toronto 2017 (Discovery), San Sebastian 2017 (New Directors competition), San Diego Asian Film Festival, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Filmfest Hamburg, Pingyao, Bologna Asian Film Festival[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023) • [7](https://www.asianfilmfestival.info/15-asian-film-festival-2018-english/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Yi-An, a boy just starting kindergarten, repeatedly asks his parents to take him to find the parents of his past life. He describes specific events, places, and people, including a former home by the sea in Toyama, and distinguishes clearly between past-life and present-life memories. Doctors and his parents conclude he may be suffering from psychosis.[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023) • [8](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/cabe51e29dda5bffab7d6400506ab208)
The parents' marriage is strained at the same time. His father Haoteng has inherited the family's water-fried bun shop, and his mother Yaji works as a real-estate agent; the couple lives with Yi-An and Haoteng's father. The two disagree over how to handle the boy: Haoteng wants medical treatment so the child will forget as he grows, while Yaji refuses to let him become a research subject and wants to visit the past-life home herself. When Haoteng's father suffers a stroke, Haoteng takes on his long-term care alone after Yaji moves out with Yi-An, and the boy's past-life memories grow more frequent as his parents' relationship deteriorates.[8](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/cabe51e29dda5bffab7d6400506ab208)
After Yi-An runs away and the family reunites at a police station, and after the grandfather's death, the couple attempts to reconcile and sets out together to help Yi-An find his past-life parents. The film's title refers to its opening image: the three find a fish dead on the shore, an impossible presence from which the story unfolds.[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023) • [8](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/cabe51e29dda5bffab7d6400506ab208)
## Production and director
Lai Kuo-An worked in music videos and commercials before turning to screenwriting; the Pingyao International Film Festival catalog notes that he won Taiwan's Culture Ministry screenplay award twice, and that A Fish Out of Water is his first feature film.[2](https://www.x-y.co/asset/uploads/2023/02/Pingyao-International-Film-Festival-Catalogue-2017.pdf) The Toronto festival program credits Hsu Chih-Chun as cinematographer, Lin Zih-Sian among the editors, and Ke Jhih-Hao as composer,[5](https://downloads.ctfassets.net/22n7d68fswlw/3Bk5TqTMmsSoOcmc2MKEK8/c5e8d1d53e3be7f44b6280f177f44862/2017_Festival_Programme_Book.pdf) while the San Sebastian page credits Blaire Ko for music; the two sources disagree on the composer credit. International sales were handled by Charades of Paris according to San Sebastian,[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2017/sections_and_films/7/654234/in) and by Swallow Wings Films according to Taiwan Cinema.[3](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023)
## Reception and release
The film was released in Taiwan on March 16, 2018.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7297958/) The Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute records a theatrical screening period from March 10 to April 8, 2018, with box office of NT$770,902.[8](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/cabe51e29dda5bffab7d6400506ab208) It was also screened at the first Taiwan Film Festival in Bangkok in January 2018, where the program described it as portraying the complexity of domestic relationships.[9](https://file.moc.gov.tw/Download.ashx?n=T3BlbmluZ29mRmlyc3RUYWl3YW5GaWxtRmVzdGl2YWxpbkJhbmdrb2syMDE4LnBkZg%3D%3D&u=LzAwMS9VcGxvYWQvT2xkRmlsZXMvQWRtaW5VcGxvYWRzL2ZpbGVzLzIwMTgwMi8wOWZkNTc3Ny03Y2NkLTQ1MjEtYWMzNC0xODU0YWRkZDQyYWUucGRm)
Audience ratings have been modest: Douban lists 5.6 out of 10 from 330 users,[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26791378//) and IMDb lists 6.5 out of 10 from 78 users.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7297958/) Critics responded more favorably to the film's tone. Guy Lodge of Variety called it a loosely woven brain-teaser with a creepingly intense emotional undertow and a confident first feature,[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_fish_out_of_water_2017) and the Toronto program described it as a film on family and the meaning and value of memories that stays on the border of the familiar and the supernatural.[5](https://downloads.ctfassets.net/22n7d68fswlw/3Bk5TqTMmsSoOcmc2MKEK8/c5e8d1d53e3be7f44b6280f177f44862/2017_Festival_Programme_Book.pdf) At the 65th San Sebastian festival Lai received a Best New Director nomination, and the film was nominated for Most Popular Film in the New Generation China section of the first Pingyao International Film Festival.[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26791378//)
## Other films of the same name
The title has been used by several unrelated works. A 2026 British animated short directed by Matthew Creed, written by Robert Lancey and Andrew Weltch, follows a chronicler of the extraordinary who hears the tales of three sailors in an 1890s seaside town; it is scheduled for release in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2026.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36131951/) A 2019 Italian short documentary about the origins of bacalà, dried codfish, directed by Riccardo Vencato and Stefano Pellizzaro, has also circulated under the title.[12](https://icff.ca/title-item/a-fish-out-of-water/) The phrase itself is a common English idiom for a person who is uncomfortably out of place, and it appears frequently as a descriptor in film criticism.[13](https://apnews.com/article/60a9d3ba3878fc5714a15d1f86481fd1)
## References
1. [A Fish Out of Water, 2017 New Directors, San Sebastian Film Festival](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2017/sections_and_films/7/654234/in)
2. [A Fish Out of Water, Pingyao International Film Festival Catalogue 2017](https://www.x-y.co/asset/uploads/2023/02/Pingyao-International-Film-Festival-Catalogue-2017.pdf)
3. [A Fish Out of Water 上岸的魚, Taiwan Cinema](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/EngFilm/PrintFrameContent?ContentUrl=76023)
4. [上岸的魚 (2017), Douban](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26791378//)
5. [A Fish Out of Water, 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Programme Book](https://downloads.ctfassets.net/22n7d68fswlw/3Bk5TqTMmsSoOcmc2MKEK8/c5e8d1d53e3be7f44b6280f177f44862/2017_Festival_Programme_Book.pdf)
6. [A Fish Out of Water (2017), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7297958/)
7. [15th Asian Film Festival 2018, Bologna](https://www.asianfilmfestival.info/15-asian-film-festival-2018-english/)
8. [電影｜上岸的魚, Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute digital museum](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/cabe51e29dda5bffab7d6400506ab208)
9. [Opening of First Taiwan Film Festival in Bangkok 2018, Ministry of Culture](https://file.moc.gov.tw/Download.ashx?n=T3BlbmluZ29mRmlyc3RUYWl3YW5GaWxtRmVzdGl2YWxpbkJhbmdrb2syMDE4LnBkZg%3D%3D&u=LzAwMS9VcGxvYWQvT2xkRmlsZXMvQWRtaW5VcGxvYWRzL2ZpbGVzLzIwMTgwMi8wOWZkNTc3Ny03Y2NkLTQ1MjEtYWMzNC0xODU0YWRkZDQyYWUucGRm)
10. [A Fish Out of Water (2017), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_fish_out_of_water_2017)
11. [A Fish Out of Water (Short 2026), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36131951/)
12. [A Fish Out of Water, documentary at ICFF](https://icff.ca/title-item/a-fish-out-of-water/)
13. [Movie Review: The Amateur, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/60a9d3ba3878fc5714a15d1f86481fd1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2017 and 2018*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license