Review: “˜The Mermaid’1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteEasily the most delightful comic fantasy in Chinese-language cinema since his own “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” (2013), Stephen Chow’s “The Mermaid” defies the time-worn nature of its material, concocting pure enchantment with the director’s own blend of nutty humor, intolerable cruelty and unabashed sweetness. Like an ecological “Lust, Caution,” this contempo fairy tale about a mermaid who falls for the evil developer she’s been sent to seduce and assassinate is strikingly relevant to China, beset as it is with myriad environmental crises. The film has already broken mainland opening-day records, and is sure to do swimmingly at home and on foreign shores.
The screenplay by Chow and eight other scribes is not wildly original, but keeps springing minor surprises and Chow’s patented smart-alecky dialogue. As with his other directorial works, notably “The God of Cookery” (1996) and “Kung Fu Hustle” (2004), Chow sneeringly pushes past the limits of decency and humanity in his ill treatment of his characters, suggesting an innate misanthropy that at times sits uncomfortably with his exuberant merrymaking and often black-and-white morality. Likewise, the longstanding misogynist streak in his work shows no signs of abating: Newcomer Jelly Lin joins a long line of gorgeous femmes like Karen Mok, Vicki Zhao and Shu Qi who are made to undergo repulsive image makeovers, then subjected to physical and mental abuse, though Lin’s performance proves winning enough to prevail over these obstacles.
via: Variety
Image Credit: Bingo Movie Development
