Review of THE MERMAID: Aquatic Absurdities

May 11, 2016

It is a bit surprising but we have not only one, but two Chinese films in local cinemas opening this week. One of them is the current record holder for the highest-grossing Chinese language film OF ALL TIME. This impressive distinction alone of the latest Stephen Chow film "The Mermaid" convinced me to catch it first.

A rich businessman Liu Xuan (刘轩, played by Deng Chao) buys Green Gulf for a major sea reclamation project. Sea life in those waters had to be driven away by means of sonic waves. However, merpeople who lived in Green Gulf were adversely affected by Liu's sonar, forcing them to leave the sea and hide in an abandoned shipwreck to survive. 

In order to exact revenge, the merpeople under the leadership of Octopus (八哥, played by Show Luo) plot to assassinate Xuan for his deeds. They send Shan (珊, played by Lin Yun), a beautiful mermaid who can walk on her tail fins, to kill Liu. What they did not count on was that the assassin and target would fall in love with each other, to the jealous disdain of Liu's sexy business partner Ruolan (若兰, played by Zhang Yuqi).

Those unfamiliar with Stephen Chow's signature brand of outlandish comedy may scratch their heads how an absurd movie with crude CGI like this could wind up to be such a box-office winner. Chow broke big time into the international scene via  "Shaolin Soccer" in 2001 and "Kung Fu Hustle" in 2004 with their wild characters and stories. Both films won him accolades for Best Director and Best Actor in Hong Kong and overseas. His latest work "Journey to the West" in 2013 also became the highest-grossing Chinese-language film at that time. That would show the devotion the Chinese audience have for this director.

The actors act as expected for a typical Chinese comedy film -- over-the-top and silly. This truly requires a certain acquired taste for a warped sense of humor. Deng Chao played the millionaire playboy Liu as a proud buffoon, the complete antithesis of Bruce Wayne. Lin Yun supposedly won this title role Shan after a nationwide search and her greenhorn status was quite obvious in several scenes. She was so cute that I really felt sorry for her with the indignities she had to do here, especially in that scene with the sea urchins. Show Luo had to act with his CGI-Octopus body yet was able to project his authoritative character very well. Zhang Yuqi had the only serious role in the whole film as the main antagonist Ruolan.

"The Mermaid" had a message to deliver about the environment and how man was destroying it. For what was supposed to have been a fantasy-romcom, I felt that Chow went overboard when he showed human barbarism in one disturbing scene. An unexpectedly brutal and bloody climactic scene was  too horrible to witness. It gets the serious message across, yes. However, people watched this to see a wacky comedy and have fun. The overly shocking disconnect was too startling to take in. 6/10.