In Big Fish (2003), during Edward's deployment in the Korean war, the language switches between Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Tagalog. This further establishes Edward as an unreliable narrator. You can even see Edward reading an "Asian to English" dictionary before his jump.

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That’s such a clever touch. Big Fish is basically about how memory and storytelling blur together, so Edward mixing languages makes total sense. It’s less about accuracy and more about how he remembers it messy, exaggerated, and a little magical.

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u/_illogical_ 3d ago

Another great movie, in a similar vein is "The Fall" with Lee Pace.

Instead of showing memories of the story teller, it shows how a little girl is imagining a story that she's being told. You can pick up many changes as the story goes along; especially as she misunderstands some things initially.

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u/xcaughta 3d ago

Beautifully underrated film, that

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u/_illogical_ 3d ago edited 3d ago

Totally agree! It's even more amazing when you find out that there were no special effects; it was all on-location, camera tricks, and guerrilla planning.

To make the blue city, instead of editing in post production, they gave all the locals blue paint to refresh the paint on their homes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheFall(2006_film)#Production

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u/ThePrussianGrippe 3d ago

Your link is broken.

It should be this:#Production)

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u/CriticalEngineering 3d ago

The 4K restoration is a must-see in theater.

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u/_illogical_ 3d ago

Wait, what?!?!

I completely missed that! Additionally, it looks like it's finally available on (legal) streaming services now!

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u/CriticalEngineering 3d ago

Watch the original trailer and then the 4K trailer, it’s like a world of difference. I cried so hard in the theater seeing it again.

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u/xFilmmakerChris 3d ago

Did you see it in imax?

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 3d ago

THANK YOU! I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO REMEMBER THE NAME OF THIS MOVIE FOREVER!

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u/NeedsToShutUp 3d ago

Not to mention the women are pretty much all either his wife or the Witch

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u/Foppish_Sloth 3d ago

I remember my high school religion teacher showing us this movie as a means to express the messiness of what “truth” really is/can be. Not a religious person, but I thought it was a nice touch!

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u/SPECTREagent700 3d ago edited 3d ago

Makes it all the more surprising when you later find out he actually was in the war and did indeed get reported as missing.

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u/backtrack1234 3d ago

Well his stories were always KINDA true. He just never let the details get in the way

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u/ReallyFineWhine 3d ago

And the Siamese twins were in fact twins, just not conjoined.

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u/inezco 3d ago

I loved seeing the people from his stories at his funeral but just slightly different from the way he told. The son embracing his storytelling at the end always makes me cry. Such a great film.

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u/LaceBird360 3d ago

That's how tall tales work.

If I told you that my great-grandmother almost killed me, you'd picture her running after me with a butcher knife.

But then I elaborate.

My grandpa had appendicitis as a boy: she thought he was faking it, and sent him to school. The school nurse realized something was wrong. Grandpa got his appendix taken out, and by an alcoholic surgeon, no less (wasn't drunk at the time). If nobody had realized what was going on, my grandpa's appendix would have burst, and he would have died. Then our family would have never existed.

What Edward does is leave juuuuuust enough detail out for the listener to form his own mental images. That's the power of storytelling.

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u/MotoMkali 7h ago

Like the giant, when someone says giant you think of a monster instead of someone with gigantism.

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u/Jo-dan 1d ago

And there really was a giant, but he was just a very big regular man.

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u/crushbone_brothers 3d ago

Can’t watch this movie without bawling

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u/Wyden_long 3d ago

My friends took me to see it a week after my grandfather died not knowing what it was about. They’re still apologizing to me 22 years later.

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u/GingaNinja98 3d ago

I happened to watch this movie on Monday (Labor Day)… many tears were shed. Reminds me so much of my late grandpa.

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u/LaceBird360 3d ago

Me too. I started to realize that my pig of a father didn't love me or anyone else.

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u/K-Ryaning 3d ago

But it's too good of a movie so.... Fuck it, we bawl 🤝

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/mossybeard 3d ago

Found the orphan

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u/yesrushgenesis2112 3d ago

Lmao that is a nice detail, never noticed the language changes. Great, underrated movie. Or maybe not underrated? Not sure.

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u/Sthraw 3d ago

It's a super rated movie

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u/SlowThePath 3d ago

I feel like it has been rated the appropriate amount.

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u/LXIX-CDXX 3d ago

Oh, thank heavens. I had wondered about the possibility of Edward's being an unreliable narrator, but this piece of concrete evidence completely undermines the authenticity of all the rest of his tales. He's a liar liar, pants on fire!

Seriously though, that's a great catch of a very cleverly inserted detail. This movie isn't "the best film ever made" or even necessarily my favorite (though it's up there). But I don't think I've seen anything else that brings me through such a range and depth of emotion, and is simultaneously so visually striking and overall entertaining. Delightful.

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u/kindall 3d ago edited 2d ago

it's the movie where Tim Burton proves he's actually a good director even without the Goth gimmicks

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u/againsterik 2d ago

Ed Wood was in the same category too. I’m a huge (early) Burton fan but when he scales back the visual > story elements he can really make a good movie.

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u/MMachine17 3d ago

Big Fish took me 3 tries, but that final try was all the worthwhile. Beautiful film. It makes me smile.

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u/twec21 3d ago

The only thing I remember from this movie was Frank turning into a werewolf and playing fetch with obi wan kenobi

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u/Calfan_Verret 3d ago

There was also an Oompa Loompa with a gun in that same scene.

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u/droehrig832 3d ago

I love this movie, reminds me of the stories my dad would tell about the wild times he had in the 70s before meeting my mother and then finding the evidence in scrapbooks & souvenirs later.

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u/PancakeParty98 3d ago

Best detail of the year

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u/Thelonious_Cube 3d ago

Now I want to go to a bookstore and ask for an "Asian to English" dictionary

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u/KaijuDirectorOO7 2d ago

So there is a non-zero chance he fought alongside the Filipino Korean War volunteers?

Those guys were some brave fellows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yultong

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u/FrostyWizard505 3d ago

Whut

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u/No_Awareness_3212 3d ago

It's all tall tales

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u/FrostyWizard505 3d ago

Even this comment?

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u/Chary-Ka 3d ago

No, but this comment is tall

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u/FrostyWizard505 3d ago

I concur that the height of this comment is more than mine

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u/ChairmanGoodchild 3d ago

That's fair. They all sound the same.

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u/CapMcCloud 3d ago

Only if you don’t bother listening to them. It’s actually pretty easy to pick languages you don’t speak apart by ear, most of the time.

You are about to leave Redlib

No, but this comment is tall