The Mermaid

Mei Ren Yu

The Mermaid is written and directed by Steven Chow. I was unaware that going into this movie. To be honest I knew nothing about this movie other than the English title and that it was a Chinese film. You might recognize Steven Chow's earlier work: Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. I'm beginning to understand why this movie made half a billion US dollars.

The store is about a group of near humans who want the business that is endangering their homeland to go away. Sound familiar? It's the same premise as Avatar and Furn Gully. Once you get past that it's much different, tonally. This is a goofy comedy that hits it's mark sometimes and on others is just bizarre.

Lin Yun plays Shan the young, innocent and beautiful mermaid. She's obviously new to acting and her role seemed to be perfect for her. Unknowing of the outside world and how to handle luxury. She wasn't believable in scenes that didn't involve her innocence.

Chao Deng plays Liu Xuan a wealthy beyond means businessman who endangers the merfolk. He was the best actor in the entire movie and when you look at this track record in China it's not a surprise that he could draw a crowd to see the film.

Show Luo plays the Octopus-man in the film is and is by far the funniest part of the film. Since it's easier for mermaids to hide among the humans it proves funny and near impossible to hide the fact he's a huge octopus on his lower half.

The direction of the film is well done and I had been meaning to look up who had directed it since the start of the film. Good direction can make up for some bad acting by supporting characters. Much of the dialogue seems to be lost in translation. I felt that some of the funny parts must be colloquial or maybe my sense of humor is too strict.

Verdict: Watch if you enjoy foreign films or Steven Chow. The first act is really slow and some of the supporting actors are off. The humor is either really goofy or clever.

The Mermaid, originally released under the title Mei Ren Yu, is a Chinese and Hong Kong fantasy romance that has broken numerous box office records upon release, including biggest opening day and biggest single-day gross in the history of Chinese cinema. A sequel is reported to have completed filming and the usual forgettable American remake is also being planned as of writing this review.

Two questions are of importance now. Is this movie really worth its hype? No, it isn't since Mei Ren Yu is light years away from being the greatest film coming out of Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China. Is it however a bad movie? No, it's a quite entertaining flick offering ninety-four minutes of quirky popcorn cinema.

This movie tells the story of a superficial property tycoon whose industries pollute the world. He is surrounded by capitalistic business partners and shallow acquaintances interested in his flashy lifestyle. One day, a young mermaid disguised as a beautiful woman tries to seduce him in order to kill him for torturing her race and destroying their realm. However, the charming mermaid and the lonely businessman start developing sincere romantic feelings for one another and must now defy the influence of their capitalistic partners and vengeful friends.

There are quite a few positive elements that deserve to be mentioned to describe this film. First of all, the quirky plot comes around as a contemporary fairy tale dealing with real-life challenges such as environmentalism. Up next, this movie also has a strong Chinese identity since it values communistic and socialistic values over ruthless capitalism and extreme economical competition. This film offers a wonderful combination of genres as elements of comedy, fantasy and romance collide. The balance between light-hearted elements such as the love story between the two protagonists and serious issues such as excessive genetic testing is another strength. The extroverted, intense and quirky acting performances blend in wonderfully to portray intriguing characters such as an aggressive and jealous octopus as well as an obsessed and scheming Western scientist.

As you might have figured out already, this successful movie isn't without a few significant flaws. Despite an entertaining script, the overall plot remains shallow and deals with themes that have been used in cinema from home and abroad time and time again. The exaggerated use of visual special effects is overbearing and gives this movie artificial and lifeless vibes. The use of slapstick comedy isn't as cleverly delivered as in many Western productions and instead has silly, predictable and childish tones. These are also the reasons why this movie might rather appeal to children and young teenagers than to older teenagers and adults.

At the end of the day, The Mermaid, initially released as Mei Ren Yu, is a fast-paced romantic fantasy movie with meaningful themes, intriguing characters and decent acting performances. This film however suffers from its overbearing visual special effects, shallow plot and childish jokes. This film is recommended to children and young teenagers in particular. Curious older teenagers or adults might want to watch this commercially successful film once on streaming devices but certainly shouldn't aim at purchasing that overall rather shallow movie. There are actually numerous better films of many genres coming out of Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China.

Over all, I liked this movie.

I rarely watch Chinese movie. I actually watched this one because of its box office.

The movie is definitely a good comedy. You will laugh a lot and sometimes it will be difficult to stop!

Specially the scene in the police station.

But the special effect & visual graphics is very weak what will annoy you.

Not to mention the underwater scene(s).

Story is not that deep but you cant complain because its a comedy movie.

But you will definitely be entertained.

Ruthless land developer Liu Xuan is planning reclamation project for Green Gulf. He's using powerful sonar to drive away dolphins. He takes on Ruolan as his business partner. The playboy Liu Xuan calls up cheap floozy Shan after being ridiculed by Ruolan. Only they don't know that Shan is actually a mermaid. She is part of a community being driven out by Xuan's sonar. Shan is told by Brother Octopus to assassinate Xuan. After many failed attempts, Shan wins over Xuan with rotisserie chicken. Shan is conflicted about killing him but a conflict is inevitable.

This is Stephen Chow's very broad brand of comedy. The museum mermaid is hilarious. There are some funny bits with Shan. There are lots of funny with a good helping of environmentalism. However, there are some uncomfortable violence especially the climatic battle. Chow is obviously heavily influenced by documentaries such as The Cove. It's awkward to have such vicious violence trying to coexist with the broad cartoon comedy. There is a difference between cartoon violence and brutal horror violence. He needs to cut down on the horrifying.

This year's Chinese New Year is packed with Festive Films, from Monkey King 2, Vegas to Macau 3 to Mermaid.

After watching all 3 of them, I have decided to only write a review for Mermaid because it is the only one worth the effort and time.

The great thing about Mermaid is that while it is a comedy that brings the whole family together, it manages to bring in an underlying plot that teaches us important values about ecosystem and a life lesson about money and materialism.

While not on par with Chow's masterpiece like Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer, Mermaid is better than Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. The slapstick style of comedy of Chow is evident throughout the movie, and the laughter by the audiences can be heard echoing throughout the cinema halls.

A number memorable scenes provide some of the biggest laughs – such as when Shan made numerous botched attempts to assassinate Liu Xuan with various means and weapons from the sea.

Newcomer Jelly Lin is the latest in a long line of "Stephen's Girls". Chow has the knack of discovering an illustrious list of talented actresses that include Karen Mok, Cecilia Cheung, and Vicky Zhao. Lin is the latest muse to channel Chow's range of rubber-faced physical comedy and deadpan delivery of killer lines. Jelly Lin is reportedly cast from auditions with over 10,000 hopefuls.

While this film will not play extremely well with critics, it undoubtedly will have a good word-of-mouth as it is an entertaining movie with the right balance of humour, touching moments and good acting.

After watching so many movies is this Chinese New Year, I can say that Mermaid is easily the best movie of them all.

I look forward to Stephen Chow's next movie, and the opportunity for him to step in-front of the camera once more.