The Mermaid (2016)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

The Worst Film Ever

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

Firstly, why do all Chinese movie romances have the guy yelling angrily, "I love you!" like it's a bad thing? They make me think that Chinese culture promotes the man being stoic and then loses his mind every once in a while while the girl is usually non-serious and goofy. I've never found the chemistry between Chinese leads to indicate a simmering romantic heat and I can't help but conclude that Chinese are a bit prudish. They try to make romance too innocent and childish and when they have a kissing scene it seemed awkward. Not hot.In addition to a lame romance, Stephen Chow tries to use his slap stick physical comedy but most gags were not even remotely funny. Major physical elements didn't work at all. e.g., the rich dude trying to explain to the two cops his encounter with the mermaids. Also, the tentacled dude getting his tentacles cooked at the chef's stand didn't work either. The girl playing the mermaid love interest had a few chuckle worthy parts where she was singing. What is up with all the insults she has to deal with from everyone though? She just laughs and agrees? Weird.I liked Kung Fu Hustle a lot but this was not even close to that film which to me is like the Chinese Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I give "The Mermaid" 5/10... +1 for the environmental message... 6/10.

The Mermaid is something completely unexpected; incredibly funny for moments with some very violent scenes and a clear message about damage being caused to nature and the world; to satisfy the greed of a few.The story is simple; a clumsy mermaid disguised as a normal woman; tries to seduce a greedy tycoon who is killing marine life where she and her community lived. She falls in love with the guy (and he with her) and tries to protect it. However thinks get more complicated (and violent) when people find out about the mermaids community.As usually happens; foreign movies; particularly the successful ones; are punished by the MPAA with a ridiculous "R" rating that basically kills younger viewers and of course the movie itself.The movie has some violent scenes; particularly ones showing people killing whales, dolphins and some mermaids. There are some depicting of mermaids burnt by the powerful sonar systems using to "study" marine life but those scenes are meant to show the human cruelty.There are other goofy violent scenes; but are playing basically for fun.This is an Stephen Chow movie (the guy that created Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer among others. This is in my opinion his best movie. Very fast paced; funny and cruel when it has to be.In brief; see it and recommend it. It is time to star seeing good movies instead of crap like Avengers (or the last X-MEN) that basically take over all USA cinemas.

The Mermaid, or Mei Ren Yu in Chinese, is not just any romance and fantasy film, it's a film that blends together it's elements into a mixture of smart writing, strange moments and brilliant performances from the cast. All to deliver its timely environmental messages as well as entertaining the audiences simultaneously. Although I have not seen many Chinese movies, this one is truly no ordinary Chinese film. I had a very good time with the film, not only did it cheer me up with its irresistible humor, but I learned so much from the film while I was enjoying myself and having a good laugh while watching the film.The film weaves together a funny, brilliant, sometimes violent, powerful, and timely story about protecting the environment. Rather than using just drama or seriousness to express its important themes, it also uses comedy to do so while entertaining us. I have to say that I am a person who never laughs at explicit and black humor, and therefore there were moments that I wouldn't laugh at when a piece of media or a line of words spoken by a person in reality (there is not much of pitch black rude humor in the film, but maybe just a little bit.). But, man, for a person who doesn't like comedy, this film's humor really let this boy have a great time while injecting an important lesson of environmental preservation and the significance of protecting marine life.Does anyone believe that there are Mermaids out there? I'm not sure of my answer to that question that I have just mentioned myself, but I was definitely a fan of the story of "The Little Mermaid" by Danish Author Hans Christian Anderson, as well as Disney's 1989 Musical Film Adaption of it. This 2016 film also features a story about mermaids, and it, like the original story by Hans Christian Anderson and Disney's 1989 film adaptation, has the key element of romance within. But this film used the romance element in its story as a catalyst to strengthen the timely messages that it wants to tell it's audiences.The story (which I shall not spoil at all and leave it to the new audiences to discover the film's "Treasures" themselves instead) is about a beautiful mermaid lady named Shan (brilliantly played by actress Lin Yun), who is sent by her kind to seduce a rich businessman, but falls in love with him instead. Love is a powerful thing, it can bypass many barricades. And I while I am aware of the dangers of it, I am even more aware of the even deeper dangers and consequences of violence, and this doesn't exclude violence against other animals besides us humans. As a vegetarian, I deeply appreciated and applauded the environmental messages that this strange but funny fantasy live action film wished to impart to me and the rest of its audiences.How much I laughed at the film's comedic moments, most of which was, pretty much, harmless. Except perhaps for the moments of animal bodies present I wouldn't appreciate it much. As I have told you, a vegetarian I am. Where did I tell you? In the paragraph above this one. Anyway, for Chinese audiences (I am one of them) I am certain that it would appeal very well to. No matter which kind of audience you are, you will definitely laugh at the film's irresistible humor and enjoy yourselves in the process. I had a lot of fun, and learned a lot of important lessons from the "Fun" that I had.I smiled a lot, and I think you would, too. Even if you're reading the subtitles written in English(The film's spoken language is Chinese). I watched it on DVD, and after completing my first viewing of the film I had the wish of visiting the film again in the future to view its important messages alongside of its entertainment qualities once again.