The Mermaid

The Mermaid (2016)

美人鱼

Half Fish, Half Human, 100% Assassin.

When Xuan's real estate project threatens the home of mermaids, Shan is sent to stop him. When they fall in love, he is encouraged to cancel the project. However, he must save them from bigger danger.

Date of release
2016-02-08
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (503)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Director
Stephen Chow

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $553.8M

The Mermaid is a 2016 romantic fantasy comedy film directed, co-written and produced by Stephen Chow, which stars Lin Yun, Deng Chao, Zhang Yuqi and Show Lo. A Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, the film tells the story of a playboy businessman who falls in love with a mermaid sent to assassinate him.

Production

The story was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of "The Little Mermaid" in which a mermaid loves a human, but Chow wanted to make it a modern interpretation: "I saw great creative space and development potential from the story". In another interview, Chow said: "I'm actually a big fairy-tale fan. All my previous titles can be understood as fairy tales.

Another inspiration comes from Chow's own childhood experiences. "I lived near the sea at a young age and I looked at the sea every day. I was frightened and curious. I was very nervous when I swam in the sea and felt there might be something hidden below. I've been fascinated with the (mermaid) story since then, and I felt I could do the film, creating the concept 6 years ago and beginning to write the script four or five years ago."

Stephen Chow picked Deng Chao to play the film's lead male character Liu Xuan, even though Show Lo (who played Octopus in the film, and had previously worked with Chow in Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons) was also in the consideration.

Zhang Yuqi first worked with Chow in CJ7 and gained fame from that role. They both later fell out in a highly publicized contractual dispute. But the personal relationship between them was not intense and Zhang once defended Chow when he was under personality attacks from former disgruntled collaborators and employees. When Zhang got a call from Chow, she was in a foreign country while her car broke down.

The selection of the female lead character, the "Mermaid" Shan, was one of the most publicized parts of the filming process. As reported on Oriental Daily News, the then 18-year-old actress Lin Yun was selected by Chow and his casting team from over 120,000 participants due to her demure personality in a talent contest held in Shenzhen.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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