Food for Thought

What would happen if people literally turned into the food they eat most? This is the idea Chenglin Xie explores in his short indie film Meal on the Plate. 

In a small village, the locals do more than enjoy their meals. While they remain human, they take on physical characteristics of the animals they’re eating, from fish tails and chicken beaks to pig snouts and sheep horns. Then—in the middle of the night—a stranger arrives, and he has an eating habit the villagers haven’t seen before. Curious, they try this new way. Things don’t go well, giving Xie the opportunity to use black humor to convey serious messages about addiction, desire, and humanity. 

Currently a Story Artist at Netflix, Xie has made a number of short films, and he says the initial process is always extensive. “Writing the story, developing the visual style, designing the characters, finding the tone, thinking about styles of the music and sound, and so on—it is important that I figure out most of those key creative decisions and have a clear overall idea of the film myself before moving forward,” he says. 

For Meal on the Plate, Xie chose 2D hand-drawn animation in a muted color palette. The setting and characters rely heavily on simple lines and shapes, and action and facial expressions, rather than dialogue, are used to build tension—and amplify the dark humor. 

Xie says he experimented with different versions of the film until he gradually found its shape and direction. This included at least four different endings. While some might find this laborious, he says, “It’s satisfying when each time it gets better.” 

While working on Meal on the Plate, Xie had several other projects going. This taught him to move more flexibly between projects during the creation process. It can get tricky since he searches for new combinations of concept, design, theme, and tone for every new film he makes. As for whether every attempt succeeds or not, he says that’s not what is most important: “[They all] become my precious experience and benefit my future filmmaking.”