(simplified Chinese: 美人鱼; traditional Chinese: 美人魚; pinyin: Měirényú)
is a 2016 Chinese fantasy romantic comedy directed, co-written and produced by Stephen Chow.[8] The film tells the story of a playboy businessman who falls in love with a mermaid sent to assassinate him. The film was released in China on 8 February 2016, and broke numerous box office records, including biggest opening day and biggest single day gross through its seventh day of release, as well as having the biggest opening week of all time in China. It is the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time in China.
Playboy property tycoon Liu Xuan (Deng Chao) purchases the Green Gulf, a coastal wildlife reserve, for a land reclamation project, and uses sonar technology to get rid of the sea life in the area. Unknown to him, the Green Gulf is the home of merpeople and the sonar (in addition to heavy pollution) has caused many of them to die or get sick. The few survivors live in an abandoned shipwreck in the gulf, and want to assassinate Xuan for his deeds. The merfolk send Shan (Lin Yun), a beautiful young mermaid, who has been trained to walk and dance on her fins and hide among humans, to seduce and kill Xuan.
At an extravagant party celebrating Xuan’s business success, Shan, pretending to be a dancer, gives him her telephone number and asks him to call her. Xuan, believing that Shan is an escort, calls her number in order to make Ruolan (Zhang Yuqi), his business partner (and ex-girlfriend), jealous. Shan tries to kill Xuan, but all her attempts backfire. In the end, Xuan decides to take Shan back home, and along the way Shan takes him to a funfair where she works. While there, Shan tries to show Xuan there are more important things than money, and Xuan is impressed with Shan’s simple, amusing antics.
They spend the day together and develop feelings for each other. When Xuan finally takes Shan home, Shan quickly sends Xuan away before her people can kill him. The next day, Xuan takes Shan for another date and proposes, saying that he is lonely. Xuan admits that even though they only met the day before, he already knows that she is the one for him. Shan, in a fit of shock and confusion, rejects him and admits that she was sent there to kill him. Xuan kisses her, but the kiss is interrupted by Ruolan.
As Shan runs out, Ruolan stops Xuan from following her. Xuan gets angry and tells Ruolan to cancel their business deal. That night, as Shan gets into an argument with the other merpeople, Xuan goes to Shan’s house to talk to her. There, he discovers that she and her family are merpeople. Against Shan’s wishes, the others capture Xuan and explain that he is killing them with his land development project. Xuan is about to be killed when Shan helps him escape. Octopus (Show Lo), one of Shan’s friends, gets mad and asks her if she has fallen in love with Xuan. She refuses to answer and goes on crying. Xuan returns home and, after the shock has worn off, decides to investigate the consequences of his project. He turns off the sonar but tells Ruolan that Shan is a mermaid and reveals where the other merpeople live.
Watch with English subtitle
Watch from Mainland China
爱奇艺/乐视/优酷/腾讯
Bibliography:
左亚男，童话之巅:《 美人鱼 》中周星驰延续的情 怀及作者元素的再现，2016.
包磊，3D版《功夫》与怀旧电影——再审周星驰电影文化，《新世纪剧场》，2016。DOI:10.13528/j.cnki.nct.000511