The Mermaid (2016)

Director Stephen Chow needs no introduction. He has captured our imagination with his style of comedy and action movies like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. Coming to this movie, the director tries to show us how we humans have fraught ourselves with the dogma that we own all the things created by the GOD. We have wrung the life out of everything only to hoard ourselves with riches and wealth and have obstinately vilified the rights of other beings to live on Earth.

The titular character Mermaid seeks revenge to save her species from the cusps of extinction. She goes out on a mission to establish this by killing the owner of a reality tycoon who himself is lost in wretches of wealth and seeks to convert an island into a theme park.

The movie is defined by the line " what is the use of all the wealth when there is not a drop to drink and fresh air to breathe". It shows how the tycoon changes his heart and saves the lives of Mermaids. Our heart goes out for the Mermaids when they are mercilessly hunted down and we then come to realize that is what we do in our daily lives- kill other species for our greed and meaningless satisfaction. But at the end of the day all we need is a soul which will love us with all our pitfalls and share with us this ugly world.

A must watch for all those who love a cocktail of love, action, fantasy and morals.

Fmovies: In this environmental activist comedy from Stephen Chow, mermaids whose environment is being destroyed by an evil developer plot to kill him, using a pretty mermaid as bait. The complications are unsurprising.

While lacking any comical martial arts, the movie still has Chow's usual slapstick humor and weirdness. This includes a very funny scene of a series of hapless assassination attempts, a goofy singing duet, and a cool special-effects driven scene involving splashing water into objects. Some scenes are a bit too dumb, but overall this is a reasonably amusing movie, although nowhere near as funny as Chow's masterpiece, Shaolin Soccer.

The plotting doesn't make much sense. The developer unconvincingly shifts from fairly cartoony awfulness to general sincerity, and the mermaids are, weirdly, more concerned with vengeance than with fixing their problems. But within it's silly, slapsticky world, this isn't a huge problem.

What is a huge problem is the shift into violence towards the end. It's both upsetting and nonsensical; a classic example of a movie that makes its villains evil to the point where they do terrible things that not only don't benefit them, but that would seemingly work against their interests. This whole part of the movie is pretty terrible, and to some extent ruined it for me.

One last note. I had a dual audio version of this, and started off watching the English dub. I'm not someone who automatically rejects dubbed movies, but I strongly suggest that you do not, under any circumstances, watch the English dub of this, because it is horrendously bad. I think it's a shame that a successful director's biggest hit of all time doesn't rate competent English actors. If I were rating this based on the dub, I would take another star off. It's an embarrassment.

I laughed probably once every hour which is not very much given this film is only around two hours long. I don't understand how they managed to pull all that money from Chinese film goers. Did they give them all free bottle of beer before they watched the show.I think you probably had to be drunk to really enjoy this film.

I understand the Chinese cultural slapstick comic nature of the film however I though they tried way too hard to be funny. Chinese comedies do not do subtle humour.

The characters in the film are totally ridiculous(but really that's just Chinese comedy in general). The relationships that form between the cast are nonsense. Its just a craptastic adventure.

The Mermaid fmovies. This is from one of the renowned filmmaker from China, Stephen Chow. The film holds the numerous records, including the highest grossing Chinese film of all time. So anybody would be curious enough to check it out. This is highly inspired by the western fairytale 'The Little Mermaid', but totally a Chinese. It carries a strong message about the marine life and pollution, especially that coming from China is obviously not usual. A great theme for a Mandarin film to get exposed to the International stage. An appreciable effort with the decent graphics, but it's filled with lots of negatives than leaving a good impression on the viewers.

The story is very important for a film and this is a very simple and short, but the remaining is packed with the comedies and stunt sequences. The film opens with the introduction of a multi- billionaire Xuan, who unveils his new sonar project on the coast Green Gulf where marine creatures consider it as a paradise. On the other side the shrunken to a very few, the merpeople plot to kill him. So they send their finest young mermaid, Shan to seduce him, but instead it creates a chaos when she falls in love with him. The final standoff between the man and merfolks set to reveal who will be the victorious at the end and the fate of Green Gulf.

If you are a die-hard fan of Stephen Chow, be prepared for a big disappointment. He's out of his comfort zone here. Thankfully, he did not star in this crap. His strength are comedy and martial arts, but this film was none of them. I mean it is categorised as a comedy, but those parts were too sensitive to call them jokes. You won't be laughing much because of the killing, hurting, tortures, kind of upsetting events draws us away from enjoying it. So if you think it is a cute mermaid love story aimed for children just like CJ7 and if you allow them to watch it, you might regret it later.

"Love has no law. It is beyond any rules and boundaries."

I don't know what is the rating for the domestic release, but this is definitely an R. It is certainly for adults and not everybody going like it. Looks like a film made for the local market only despite the influence of the western fairytale. It might have done well in Chinese box office, but the rest of the world does not consider it Mr. Chow's one of the best works. I think he should stay away from such project in the future, instead make a sequel for CJ7 or for the 'Kung Fu Hustle' where his fans are very eager for the official announcement.

If you had seen all his film, especially the directed ones, then you might enjoy some of the jokes from this which is his trademark. The romance was underdeveloped and then the event followed by it that brings the grand finale was too violence. That is when this fantasy-comedy turns an action-thriller without a forewarning. I was shocked for such kind of transformation in the story. I wanted to like it, but could not because I expected something like a Disney film, but it was more like a semi Tarantino film.

The addition of a cecaelian character was good from the comedy perspective. But just one from its kind makes him the last survivor and have sympathy than as he's the centre of the comedy in the narration. The overall story as well as all the main characters were never established to its full potential. I'm disappointed with the writing, the director is known for genuine screenplay, but he terribly failed to please his international fans. Of all, I only hope there won't be

Stephen Chow is known for his consummate ability to pay homage AND lampoon his cinematic influences to a degree which exploitation film "auteurs" like Quentin Tarantino can only dream of.

And since moving his movie productions to mainland China in the 22nd century-- beginning with Shaolin Soccer(2001) --Stephen Chow has been earning new fans and losing old ones as he increased his presence behind the camera and broadened the range of his film subjects, all the while showing up all the lame Chinese directors and scriptwriters still using mainland Chinese censorship as an excuse for their inability to tell a coherent story with a meaningful message for more mature audiences.

But now, after Stephen Chow has paid homage to and parodied the horrors of "The Shining(1980)" with "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons(2013)", he has even gone so far as to pay homage and parody the ecological documentary "The Cove(2009)" in a mainstream romantic-comedy and urban fantasy using a modern Chinese setting.

Structurally speaking, "The Mermaid(2016)" is basically "Lust, Caution(2007)" + "The Cove(2009)" (fans of Disney or Han Kristian Andersen, please see yourselves out)-- but tonally it remains a Stephen Chow slapstick-comedy and social farce, complete with a no-surprise "tacked-on" ending.

So this is one of Stephen Chow's more "indie" projects, like "CJ7(2008)", where the "big moments" are few and far between-- but therein lies his genius: the movie sails by so smoothly that Chinese audiences did not even realize that the last Chinese legends about folks who were half-human and half-fish were recorded in the "Mountains And Seas Classic" over 2000 years ago... cos the scene-stealing Grandmistress Mermaid (appearing to strains of traditional Chinese music) could not have appeared anywhere else but in a Stephen Chow movie (made/set in mainland China).

The only real criticisms that can be made about this movie are the ones that were also leveled at "Monkey King: Hero is Back(2015)" last year: it's too short, too simple, and it's production values too mediocre (for a "blockbuster" movie)-- but why do you think audiences left theaters wanting more (story/character)? Stephen Chow "gets it" that movies are not really about how much effects work/ world-building or how many twists/ ideas you can stuff in them, but just how much you need to do so that the audiences "get it".

Personally, I am glad that Stephen Chow gave up on the Hong Kong/ International market and is just making movies that he has a genuine interest in-- cos when a mermaid/ merman asks in genuine confusion/ frustration: "what's the point if there's not a drop of clean water left?" or "who gave you the right to destroy our homes?"... I realized I've just been preached to in the most "natural" way possible.

Recommended for those who have heard of, but are too "cool", too "chicken", or too "clever" to watch "The Cove(2009)"

"Mermaid," a science fiction comedy directed by Stephen Chow, tells a modern fairy tale with adult jokes and restricted blood scenes while never losing the genius comedian's charm.

It is the story of a playboy businessman (Deng Chao) who falls in love with a mermaid (Lin Yun) who had been sent to assassinate him. The plot line seems to be a mix of "Lust, Caution," an erotic espionage thriller directed by Ang Lee and "The Cove," a 2009 documentary film directed by Louie Psihoyos.

It also has an environmental protection theme, as Chow gets the mermaid to declare, "if there's no clean water to drink and no clean air to breathe, what can you do with all this useless money?" It reflects Chow's ambition and vision to tackle an issue of global concern. Actually, he used the same words when he attended the annual local session of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Guangdong.

Deng Chao, notorious for his previous low-rated and flatulent comedy performance, benefits well from Chow's direction. This should remind people of his great acting skills and even earned him a Best Actor Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2015.

Lin Yun, as a new actress, also flourishes under Chow's guidance. However, as she proclaimed in a dialogue line at one point in the film, "I'm not a professional actress, I can't do it," she still has a long way to go.

The comedy partly comes from the weird, ugly and distinct supporting actors cast by Chow, as he has done before. Taiwan singer Show Lo, who plays an "octopus mermaid", is some kind of incarnation of Chow, evoking most laughter from the audiences.

Though the director does not take part in any of the acting, it's obvious he has clearly taught every cast member, no matter whether they are leading actors or supporting ones, to act like him and follow his vision. In many behind-the-scenes clips, Chow actually acts until cast members can mimic him.

"Mermaid" also has some dark and cruel scenes that are not appropriate for children to watch, and the special effects are far from stunning and satisfying. Chow even used many classic Chinese music compositions that have appeared in his classic movies before, such as "Daring General" to put the seal on the film with his own characteristics.

It is no wonder some critics called the film a mere repetition of old and clichéd tricks and offering no groundbreaking progress in his artistic evolvement. However, this is still the Chow many have loved.

The film has a simple and strong message to deliver: Love can transcend race and other barriers. You could hardly expect to see such a pure fairy tale and such a clean theme in blockbusters for a long time, but Chow has done it with a pure and childlike heart. He seeks to the complicated into the simple, trying hard to make it beautiful and understandable.

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* My review is also selected and published on China.org.cn.