Course:ASIA325/2025/The Mermaid

Environmental Protection Hidden beneath Comedy

Group Members' Contributions

Name	Contribution
S M	Introduction, Conclusion, Stories Behind Film Production, two scholarly Literature Review articles and the first half of an alternative interpretation.
J F	Scholarly Literature Review article, comparative analysis, citations.
Q C	Scholarly Literature Review, Reception histories and the second half of an Alternative interpretation.

Introduction

The Mermaid (2016)

In our Wiki Page, our Chinese film, The Mermaid (2016) by Stephen Chow, is about stopping Liu Xuan's project, which puts the entire mermaid race in danger. Mermaid Shan is sent to assassinate him. They fall in love with one another, though, which makes them the target of a dangerous and covert organization. Overall, this film was hilarious and perfectly illustrated the point about climate change as an overall message and how big corporations are destroying the environment for their greed. Throughout our research, the overall point that Stephen Chow wanted to convey to the audience was how no amount of money is worth the destruction of our planet. This Wiki Page will discuss the following: Stories Behind Film Production, Histories of reception, scholarly literature review, comparative analysis and an alternative interpretation. We hope to provide an in-depth analysis of this film.

Stories Behind the Film

Stephen Chow Directing, one of the leads.

This film has many stories behind the scenes, but the ones provided were the most interesting. Firstly, the idea for this film came from The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, in which a mermaid falls in love with a human. However, Chow wanted to give the story a more current twist and explore themes that affect humanity, such as the environment and corporate greed. "I saw great creative space and development potential from the story" . In another interview, Chow said: "I'm a big fairy-tale fan. All my previous titles can be understood as fairy tales. In the world of fairy tales, the evil are punished, and the good see a happy ending. I buy that idea".

Film Festival with Lin Yun.

Filming for The Mermaid started in October 2014, with locations including Beijing, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen. The production of the movie was kept a secret. According to reports, to satisfy his high standards, most of the scenes in his most recent picture were filmed more than fifty times. Lin frequently had to wear a safety belt while filming her underwater scenes as a mermaid. She often sustained injuries all over her body because she was unaccustomed to it, and once Yun almost lost her appearance. After filming concluded in Beijing on February 2, 2015, post-production began, incorporating visual effects by South Korean company MACROGRAPH Ltd. and Ken Law's Different Digital Design Ltd., both of which had contributed to Chow's last film, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.

Histories of the Film’s Reception

“Stephen Chow's “The Mermaid” grossed 276 million yuan on its opening day, setting new records for the first day and single-day box office receipts for Chinese-language films. After 92 hours in theatres, the film surpassed 1 billion yuan in box office receipts. After 19 days in theatres, it surpassed 3 billion yuan in box office receipts, setting a new historical record.”(p. 68)However, behind such astonishing box office earnings, the film's reviews are polarizing. Some viewers believe the film is good enough as a comedy New Year's Eve film, but others find it disappointing that the film's narrative is mediocre and does not live up to the standard of Stephen Chow's films(p. 68)

“Since 2014, IP has become a hotly debated and contested concept in China's film industry, with mainstream film and television companies launching IP-oriented venture capital projects.”. So what factors enabled 《The Mermaid》 to stand out among other films released simultaneously that also had classic IPs? It all comes down to the fact that Stephen Chow directed this movie (pp. 68-69), and many people are still willing to pay to see Stephen Chow's movies. (p. 69) Even though the movie itself isn't that great, the fact that it is associated with Stephen Chow's name makes the public more tolerant. (p. 69) Additionally, 《The Mermaid》, has Stephen Chow's distinctive comedic style, which sets his humour apart from other comedies and raises the film's quality, making its core more profound. (p. 69)

Why is Stephen Chow's IP so successful? The reason is related to people's nostalgia. As we discussed in class, nostalgia manifests anxiety about the present. People want to find security from things in the past. (p. 69)“The intangible nostalgia brings tangible commercial benefits, meaning that anxious modern people buy into an unreliable sense of identity. The Chinese-language film culture is no exception.” (p. 70)《The Mermaid》, we can see the powerful combination of nostalgia and consumerism, which has created a time machine for people to return to the past.《The Mermaid》was the most successful product of the combination of the two. (p. 70)The film frequently evokes nostalgia for Stephen Chow's cinematic culture through its soundtrack, the actors' dialogue, and performance styles. (p. 70) Additionally, the fishing boat where the mermaid lives in the film pays tribute to the Kowloon Walled City from《Kung Fu》, which all belong to the shared memories of Stephen Chow’s fans. (p. 70) These nostalgic memories mark the era when Stephen Chow was at the peak of his talent and ambition, with every film being a classic, and mark the golden age of Hong Kong cinema. (p. 70) In this background, people born in the 1970s are the primary audience. (p. 70) They have enough money to support Stephen Chow’s movie, so they no longer care about the story's plot. (p. 70) The fact that they were going to see 《The Mermaid》was more like a nostalgic experience, reliving the good old days at the cinema. (p. 70) The Story of the Mermaid can be said to have been just average and can even be considered a decline in Stephen Chow's films, but for most audiences, “the film employs cinematic language that most Chinese-speaking audiences can understand and find entertaining, yet its underlying texture belongs to the golden age of Hong Kong cinema.” (p. 70)

Scholarly Literature Review

The Mermaid's critique of corporate projects

Chu presents The Mermaid (2016) as an ecological metaphor that reflects the environmental deterioration brought on by Greater Hong Kong's rapid urban expansion in Chapter 11, Human, Mermaids, Dolphins, Endangerment, Eco-empathy, Multispecies, and Coexistence. The predicament of the mermaid serves as a metaphor for actual dangers to marine ecosystems, such as those that affect pink dolphins and other aquatic life. (p. 184)

As Chu emphasizes, the film uses its narrative to critique the environmental harm caused by large-scale corporate projects, urging viewers to reflect on how these actions affect all forms of life; 'The Mermaid opens with a montage sequence of environmental focus of the film consisting of real-life documentary footage of air and river pollution caused by instil wastes, deforestation, birds covered in petroleum, and coastal massacre of dolphins taken from Louie Psihoyo’ award winning documentary The Cove (2009). This latter image appears again in a later scene when Liu realizes his development project is causing massive dilator and destruction to oceans, which take views back to the images we saw in the opening sequence.”(p. 190)

According to this interpretation, the film's deeper message concerns the damage that large corporations are causing to the ecosystem and the consequences that these changes are having on many animals. The movie creates an environment where we can relate to what is happening. Chu observes that the film's opening montage, which includes actual documentary video of marine brutality and pollution, has a somber ecological tone beneath its humorous exterior. According to this perspective, industrialization turns into a villain, endangering both actual and fictional sea life with sonar technologies and corporate greed. Chu contends that by illustrating how vulnerable all species are, the movie encourages eco-empathy and provides a platform for audiences to connect emotionally with environmental collapse.

This Chapter also touches on different messages that were presented throughout this Chapter, such as the myth reimagined in ecoretical context like Chinese folklore, (mermaids falling in love with humans), but mainly focuses on the environmental messaging that this film provides and the anxieties that many of us are facing. (p. 187)

Mermaids as a marginalized group

In the Chapter Precarious Lives through Stephen Chow’s Comic Lens by Enoch Tam, the essay analyzes the film The Mermaid (2016).  Even though the film’s central message concerns climate change, human greed affects the species. This film also has another message: that the merfolk symbolize a marginalized group (p. 221) and speak to Hong Kong’s real struggles. By encouraging Hong Kong spectators to recognize their own endangered position in the merpeople, The Mermaid becomes a site of minority identification and eco-political critique.

"Stephen Chow’s use of ecological threats in The Mermaid is rooted in a belief in the social marginalization of minorities. …. Specifically, Hong Kong spectators can more closely identify with the merfolk community through the semiotic icons in Green Gulf, such as the sailing boat (similar to the logo of the Hong Kong Tourism Board), the Hong Kong-style neon lights, and the vinyl records of Hong Kong veteran singer and actor Adam Cheng. In this context, this group of eco-precariats plays a vital role by providing a means for minorities, specifically Hong Kong people, to express their frustrations, be they ecological, economic, or political, with the rapid development of contemporary China"(p. 221).

The elements that are discussed in the text are the boat which suggestive to the the Hong Kong Tourism Board logo, and the other elements that Hong Kong folks can identify with are the vinyl albums of local legend Adam Cheng the on signage serve as nostalgic and regional symbols that bind the merfolk community to a uniquely Hong Kong identity. All of these have a symbolic purpose: by allowing Hong Kong residents to identify with these fictional characters, they are able to express their own frustrations, whether they be political (tensions with Mainland China), economic (precarity and inequality), or environmental (pollution and land loss).

Throughout this chapter the literature talks about Stephen Chow’s films often comedies which is risk-taking and speculative precarity provide an essential lens through which to view the experienced instability of China and Hong Kong in the 1990s onward (pp. 209-210). He uses comedy in films as a tool to communicate to the outside world the issues and that he comes across, and what Hong Kong citizens really feel. As Hong Kong citizens navigate the shifting social, political, and economic landscapes of their city, they are always concerned about the constriction of political freedom.

Analyzing Stephen Chow's ecological sentiments through The Mermaid

In Wang Zhongdong's article, he mainly analyzes how Stephen Chow's nonsensical style in The Mermaid is linked to the themes of ecology and environmental protection, as well as the film's redefinition of love. (p. 33)

Wang Zhongdong first mentioned that ordinary ecological films often become too dry and fall into the category of documentaries, which seems too “political”. However, Stephen Chow builds the story on a fairy tale theme and adds his signature nonsensical humor. He conveys the idea of protecting the environment to the audience in a straightforward way, presenting harsh realities in a humorous way. Let people learn the idea of protecting the environment through laughter and tears. (p. 33)

Wang Zhongdong also pointed out that this film not only does it focus on environmental destruction, but it also reveals issues such as human greed, selfishness, and the misuse of technology. Amid rapid technological development, people have neglected environmental protection while continuing to exploit natural resources. The article mentioned the theme song “Invincible” from the movie. “Humans have become invincible, evolving into an invincible species, but invincibility is so lonely, invincibility is so empty.” (p. 34) If progress comes at the expense of other species, then how lonely humanity must be. In the latter part of the film, through many scenes of killing, it satirizes the hypocrisy of humans, showing that even environmental scientists will hunt down mermaids for profit. Emphasizing environmental protection is not only a matter of action, but also a matter of morality and awareness. (p. 34)

At the end of the article, Wang Zhongdong explains the concept of love in the film. He points out that in today's fast-paced society, people are gradually losing sight of themselves. However, the female lead, “Shan Shan,” uses her innocence and kindness to awaken Liu Xuan's” inner self. The love between Liu Xuan and Shanshan is no different from the love between humans and nature. As Wang Zhongdong said in his article, “His ecological sentiment is ‘love,’ love for life, and from this, he praises the greatness of the creator of life—the natural world—and revere's life.” (p. 35) Love is not limited to individuals, but also includes respect for nature. In the fairy tale created by Stephen Chow for his audience, the prince and princess save the world with love and achieve true self-redemption.(pp. 34 - 35)

Stephen Chow and Hong Kong Identity Under CEPA Co-Productions

This article investigates how the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), launched in 2004, restructured Hong Kong cinema by incentivizing co-productions with mainland China. It argues that the widespread assumption; CEPA films are simply ”sellouts” that facilitate the “mainlandization” of Hong Kong identity is false(p. 188). Specifically, it focuses on two CEPA blockbusters, one being The Mermaid (2016) by Stephen Chow, and how they demonstrate filmmakers strategically preserve Hong Kong’s creative voice regardless of censorial constraints (p. 184).

For example, “in the case of Peter Chan, Wong Kar-wai and Stephen Chow, all the films they made between 2004 and 2016 were strictly CEPA co-productions” (p. 188). This migration to CEPA co-productions is likely linked to the sheer economic prowess the Chinese market possesses; “Film revenue in the China market jumped from RMB1.5 billion in 2004(Chung and Yi 2016, 219) to RMB45 billion in 2016 (hkfilmart.com 2017),... [causing] the China market [to] outgrown its Hong Kong counterpart by 27 times” (p. 189).

The article continues its argument by stating how domestically, Hong Kong cinema’s influence has even shrunk, the local market share of films dropping to 16% in 2016, previously 30-40% in the early 2000s (p. 189). On the other hand, China’s domestic film market share reached almost 58%, due to a large part of the protectionist policy, which reserves two-thirds of annual screen time for Chinese productions, while Hong Kong, in contrast, takes a laissez-faire approach (p. 189). The box office data reflects that, in table 3 of the article which shows Stephen Chow’s CEPA films Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons and The Mermaid earned over 98% of their revenue from the mainland market; “98.29% vs 1.81%” for Journey and “98.68% vs 1.32%” for The Mermaid (p. 190).

The article argues that Stephen Chow negotiated for the increased presence of Hong Kong identity within the CEPA and mainlandization (pp. 189-90). He accomplishes this through his distinct filmmaking style, incorporating mo-lei-tau (nonsense) humour while gradually sidestepping linguistic norms and plays to appeal his films to a broader audience, reducing word play and emphasizing the visual effects. (p. 192). The Mermaid follows this sophisticated hybrid between the local and the transnational. The film has numerous markers of Hong Kong culture, for example, the article describes “Hong Kong audiences may easily relate to the setting of a private gambling den (dudang)... and, in particular, the setup of the street vendor (dapaidang)” (p. 193).

The article delves into this idea that The Mermaid can be read as an allegory of the merpeople representing marginalized Hong Kongers, while the mainland characters like Xuan, who are initially threatening, end up sympathizing with them, essentially standing in as a symbol for Chow himself; a Hong Kong filmmaker “tr[ying] to negotiate through the marginal merpeople and the powerful Chinsese Businessmen” (p. 195). Ultimately, the merpeople’s reluctance mirrors the filmmaker’s vast negotiations and struggles to keep local identity under CEPA’s pressures. Despite the many constraints, the film had major commercial success across Asia, showing that Stephen Chow “found a way through and around the game” (p. 195).

Comparative Analysis

The film Avatar: The Way of Water (Avatar 2) follows a Na'vi (indigenous humanlike species) family seeking refuge with an oceanic tribe as they fight to protect their land from human invaders. Both films are astoundingly similar, yet there are contrasts in tone and style.

1.Similarities in Narratives and Themes

The Mermaid primarily focuses on the conflict of environmental destruction caused by capitalistic greed, attributed explicitly to Liu Xuan's sonar project, which endangers the native mermaid population in the ocean. Avatar 2 follows a conflict between a mega-corporation called the RDA and the Na'vi over exploiting their ocean for resources, threatening the Na'vi and their bond with nature. Similarly, the sonar project by Liu Xuan threatens the entire mermaid race. Both films critique capitalistic greed and its impact on nature. The movie's vivid details and depictions of native wildlife amplify this critique, proving the living world is worth protecting.

2. Character Arcs

Another similarity between the two films is the transformative journey the central characters go through, specifically with themes of redemption and acceptance. In The Mermaid, Liu Xuan is initially seen negatively as a symbol of greed and is despised by the mermaids as they believe he is responsible for the endangerment of their species. However, through his love with Shan and risking his life to ensure her and her people's safety, he completes his character's arc and is finally redeemed by the mermaids. Similarly, the Na'vi family we follow in Avatar 2 is initially seen as outcasts and treated poorly by the oceanic tribe. However, when the family puts itself in danger and triumphs over the protagonists, the RDA, they finally earn their place in the community and achieve coexistence. The Mermaid and Avatar 2 use this character arc of alienation to redemption, highlighting a more profound message of transformation and coexistence in differing worlds.

3. Spectacle and production

Both films implemented the use of spectacle and technology, specifically CGI. Both protagonists come from non-human communities and are fictional species: Mermaid and Na'vi. CGI is crucial in bringing these characters and their water-themed habitats to life. To fulfill the director's visions with special effects, The Mermaid had a staggering budget of $60 million, a significant figure in the Chinese film industry. There is no exact amount, but Avatar 2 is estimated to have a budget of $400 million, the third-largest budget for a film. These big budgets are required to push the boundaries of cinematic technology and visual effects, and at the time of their release, they did precisely that.

While the two movies share many similarities, they also have some contrasts, especially in terms of tone, culture, and quality.

1.Tone & Genre

While Avatar 2 and The Mermaid share similar environmental messages, they are entirely different in tone and genre. The Mermaid is a romantic comedy film reminiscent of a mo-lei-tau comedy, a hallmark of Cantonese film popularized by Stephen Chow's filmmaking style. Just from the opening scene, it is clear that this movie is a comedy. In stark contrast,  Avatar 2 is an epic war-centric drama with heavy emotional weight. It has a dark tone of familial loss and invasion. Overall, Avatar 2 is significantly more serious, aiming for a tone with greater emotional engagement.

2. Culture

The most significant difference is the culture surrounding the films. As I've mentioned, The Mermaid embodies Chinese elements like mo-lei-tau and draws on depictions of mermaids in Chinese mythology. For Avatar 2, the production, influenced by Hollywood, was for the Western ecological discourse and was specifically designed for international markets. Specifically, there was a significant emphasis on the film's IMAX format, demonstrating its ability to attract a mass global audience. Ultimately, these vast cultural differences show how each film can deliver the same message through a different lens—The Mermaid with Cantonese styles and Avatar 2 with Hollywood-influenced production.

3. Quality Difference in Visual Effects

Shan and Lui Xuan swimming underwater. (1:27:58)

CGI plays a crucial role in bringing the fantastical worlds of The Mermaid and Avatar 2 to life; however, the quality and execution of the visual effects differ significantly between the two. While The Mermaid was released six years before Avatar 2, the CGI dip is too significant to ignore. Better CGI allows the audience to feel more immersed in the world the director builds. Avatar 2 pushes the boundaries of special effects.

A scene from 20th Century Studios' Avatar: The Way of Water. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios.© 2022

In The Mermaid, an underwater scene where Shan and Xuan explore the ocean feels visually flat and artificial; they are clearly in front of a green screen, which takes away from the emotional impact. In contrast, the underwater scenes in Avatar 2 feel fluid, vivid, and immersive. Of course, the two films had a significant budget difference, but better CGI offers a more immersive experience for the audience, enhancing emotional impact.

Alternative Interpretation

(SM) Scene 1: 1:22:54 - 1:24:53

This scene echoes what was said during the readings, which was:  As Chu emphasizes, the film uses its narrative to critique the environmental harm caused by large-scale corporate projects, urging viewers to reflect on how these actions affect all forms of life;  “This latter image appears again in a later scene when Liu realizes his development project is causing massive dilator and destruction to oceans, which take views back to the images we saw in the opening sequence.” (p. 190) Liu Xuan’s transformation is shown as he realizes he is an agent of ecological harm. He sacrifices himself to save Shan, representing the species he endangered through his capitalist greed. He frees her by bringing her into the ocean, symbolizing a return to ecological balance and rejecting capitalist exploitation. This film also has another message: the merfolk symbolizes a marginalized group and speaks to Hong Kong’s real struggles. By encouraging Hong Kong spectators to recognize their endangered position in the merpeople, The Mermaid becomes a site of minority identification and eco-political critique. In the Chapter Precarious Lives through Stephen Chow’s Comic Lens by Enoch Tam, the essay is also echoed within this reading because merfolks represent the Hong Kong people throughout the film. During this scene, Liu Xuan protects the merfoks (minority group), specifically Shan, from Ruolan and Henchman, who stand in for militaristic forces of power and profit, symbolizing the relationship between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Scene 1: 1:22:54 - 1:24:53 - Liu Xuan bring Shan to the water.

Scene 1: 1:22:54 - 1:24:53 Liu Xuan bring Shan to the water.

During the scene's climax, Liu Xuan protects Shan from Ruolan and her henchmen from trying to capture a mermaid. Just as Ruolan aims, Liu Xuan throws himself on top of Shan, shielding her body with his own. Liu Xuan carries her body even tho the henchmen shoot him with a bow and arrow. He still uses all his strength to take her into the water and then lets her go. This is one of the most powerful scenes in the whole film. Liu Xuan was a businessman who didn't care about the environment; he just cared about corporate greed. He fell in love with a mermaid, and he was prepared to sacrifice himself to set her free.  This is such a powerful scene because it demonstrates the character’s arc. After all, he chooses life over profit and finally learns that money isn’t everything. This scene showcases Liu Xuan's rejection of corporate greed and destruction for one’s gain, as well as caring for the environment and its impact on other species. Even though he was the source of the destruction, putting Shan back into the ocean is making up for his mistakes and finally turning over a new leaf. The music rises emotionally, highlighting the event's seriousness, and symbolizes the dramatics occurring in the scene. It emphasizes loss but also opportunity by balancing grief and optimism. However, the music stops when Liu Xuan tosses her into the sea. The setting is the ocean, which is peaceful and beautiful to the deck but filled with violence. As Liu Xuan takes Shan to the sea, Ruolan and her henchmen disappear and are out of focus since it’s focused on them. Throughout this scene, there is a lack of dialogue to focus more on the emotions between the actors: coney, love, and sorrow, which is way more effective than words.

“Shan Shan” dragged her broken body and lay on the ground.（1:21:35)

Scene 2:

In Wang Zhongdong's article, it is mentioned that “in Zhou Xingchi's view, the true solution to ecological problems also stems from the ‘love’ between humans. Only ‘love’ can save the ecology and achieve humanity's self-redemption.” (p. 35) People, driven by greed for money and interests, continuously destroy nature, giving rise to a false love based on money. (p. 34-35) The key to saving nature lies in the pure love between people and between people and nature. (p. 35) Only through respect for nature and life can achieve self-redemption. (p. 35)

However, I don't think this method is suitable for everyone. Movies create a beautiful fairy tale world for the audience, where the princess and prince live happily ever after, the bad guys are punished, and the crisis is resolved. In the real world, not everything is so easy to solve, and effort does not always bring rewards. For most ordinary people in the world, there is very little they can do to protect the environment and save animals. Many people do not have the ways or methods to help save nature, or they simply do not have the ability to change the situation. Due to the increasing pressure of life, many people can only focus on their own circumstances. They lack the time and resources to pursue changes that could change the world. Not everyone can be like “Liu Xuan” in the film, a billionaire. Ordinary individuals are often preoccupied with daily life, working hard just for life. When they are confronted with the deterioration of the environment, such as polluted oceans, beaches littered with trash, or shrinking habitats for animals, they cannot do anything. They may not even have their own house. Therefore, I believe that the viewpoint presented in this article is overly rationalized. Today, not everything can be resolved through love. Not to mention environmental protection, this global issue. Protecting the environment is indeed the responsibility of every person on Earth, but if the structure and mindset of this world remain unchanged, what can we expect an ordinary person to do?

1:21:16 - 1:21:45

The film begins with a shot of the injured mermaid falling from the sky and landing in front of the middle-aged man, looking at him with pleading eyes. Then, a full shot shows the audience the location of the scene and the middle-aged man's rickety stall. Immediately after, a medium shot shows the audience the middle-aged man's shock. The man's hair was messy, his beard was unkempt, and the skin on his arms was darker than the rest of his body, indicating that he was often exposed to the sun and probably engaged in physical labor. These two shots tell the audience about the man's financial situation and poor living conditions. In such a situation, a man who is seeing it for the first time doesn't know what to do, so he picks up the camera around his neck and takes a picture. The director used another full shot to show the audience that the bad guys were already catching up. A low angle shot, as the black boots appear in the frame, the man realizes danger is approaching. He is unable to help the mermaid and can only tell children to go. The camera turns to the mermaid, who is surrounded by black boots, signifying that she has nowhere to escape.

Conclusion

To conclude, this wiki page has covered the following topics related to the film The Mermaid (2016) directed by Stephen Chow. We have covered the following topics: stories behind film production, histories of reception, scholarly literature review, comparative analysis and an alternative interpretation. We intend to offer a thorough and informative research of this movie. Overall, critics and the audience enjoyed this film, with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Our group enjoyed this film as a comedic blockbuster, which entertained us every second and didn’t leave a minute of boredom.

References

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