Mei ren yu

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.

This may not be a Stephen Chow masterpiece.

It is not because this is a bad movie, it is simply because Stephen Chow has set a very high standard in classic like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin soccer.

Comparing to what is available in the cinemas since beginning of the year, this movie fares well. Complicated movie like Hateful 8 may be critic's favorite, but this movie does what a movie fundamentally should do, that is to entertain its audience.

Stephen Chow prove yet again a good director needs just to able to tell his story well, to make a good movie.

His visual sense is driven, not by a need to appear artistic and confusing, but to resonate with audiences.

The result, a well made movie that is entertaining and a simple story told well by a gifted film maker.

Chow has a gift for spotting talent and using them well.

Not only he is brave in casting a newcomer to lead role.

He is able to spot the that Deng Chao (better know as the Running Man) will be perfect as a comic male lead.

He is likable, even when he is acting like a greedy spoil rich brat. He certainly oozes charisma.

Under Chow's direction, he is able to master the act of comic timing and delivery. Best scene has to be the "failed assassination scene" where the interplay between Jelly (mermaid) and Deng Chao result in a stomach ripping experience for the audience.

I used to think his wife (Sun Li) is the only credible actress in his family, after watching Deng's performance here, I am convinced he is more than a Running Man.

I started to like Stephen Chow's movies since Shaolin Soccer. In order to maximise my enjoyment, I go for this movie without reading any reviews, especially from those who are always quick to write a review like a book. Anyway, I can trust that a Stephen Chow movie needs no reviews and quality is guaranteed. So being impressed with the poster, I set my hopes high. In order not to spoil anyone's fun, I will not describe the story or details. Generally, one can see that Stephen Chow's aim in this movie is to smash all China's box office and he did it successfully, with some good messages as usual; about love, humanity and environmentally friendly here, filled with romance, comedy, action and even a good old song. What else do you need for a movie to sell well ? Nothing else. For China audience who have not seen too much of Stephen Chow and where people do not have too high demand on artistic values, they are sure to enjoy it very much. For me, I don't like this style of "mo-lei-tao" comedy and I find them too much here. Much of the jokes are also old and predictable, although done in a good way. The male and 2 female leads are good. Most of the other supporting casts are poor. The 2nd male lead just cannot act and his face just don't match the role. Using that great classic HK song from the 80s is obviously to please the Chinese but made the movie less creative. This movie don't deserve any awards unless they give it for the same reasons like Titanic. Overall, I find this movie not as good as his last 4 because it doesn't give me much surprises.

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.

Stephen Chow is one of my favorite directors in China, I have seen many wonderful films directed by him like KongFu Hustle, ShaoLin soccer.

An outstanding characteristic of Chow's film is tricking of comedy ( I don't know how to describe that style accurately).

However, this film, The Mermaid, is very different compared to the other two mentioned above. To conclude it in a sentence, that is a wonderful mixture of comedy, love, science fiction and environment.

Environmental protection is heavy point of this film, but unlike many other directors, Stephen Chow shows it in another way, which is love and comedy.

This film inherit many characteristics in Chow's old films, like 'XiaoQiang' and 'WangCai' and so on. Though Language comedy has intrinsically regional difference, many tricks can be conveyed from the simple actuation.

Stunts seem to be an fatal drawback of Chinese films, may be investment is the major problem. But stunts in this film is very nice, e.g. the tail of octopus and arresting of the mermaid under water.

Overall, this is a wonderful movie which will catch heart of a very general range of audience. I strongly recommend it.