Toon of the month: Horse

Despite China’s rich animation history (notably courtesy of the Shanghai Animation studio), the country’s output was all but invisible internationally (thanks in large part to censorship) before the digital era. In truth, it’s only been in the last five or six years that some truly inspired and eclectic short films have emerged from the country. Led by, among others, newcomers like Lei Lei (This Is Love, 2010; Recycled, 2015), Xi Chen and Xu An (The Sparrow, 2014) and Xue Geng (Mr. Sea, 2014), the Chinese animation scene is coming alive again with works that are beautiful, haunting, graphically innovative and conceptually complex. Another of these new voices is Shen Jie, thanks to her mesmerising Horse.

With dashes of Rashomon, Tarantino, Muybridge and the work of German animator Gil Alkabetz (Yankale), this befuddling, hilarious, rapid-fire, amphetamine-inspired brainteaser serves up the story of a horse in five cut-up chapters.

Jen, who works for an advertising company, used a finger-paint tool in Photoshop (“Because sometimes I make films secretly during my work time”) to create about 400 individual drawings. Each image was put in sequence before being cut apart and re-edited.

The soundtrack, by Takanari Sakuma, seamlessly mirrors the fragmented imagery while adding an aura of suspense and overall loopiness.

I’ve seen this film at least a half dozen times but I’m still not entirely sure exactly what is going on, other than that there’s a horse, gun, a horse referee (or a man with a horse mask) and a couple of boxers, who at one time might have shared a horse costume. Guess what: it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes it’s best to just enjoy life without always trying to decipher it.

That said, this refreshing piece of minimalism, with its varying speeds and cut-up imagery, toys with your sensory perceptions, insists that you engage with the screen. Whatever meaning you might find in Horse, it’ll leave you buzzing.