Stephen Chow is a madman. I mean that in the best way possible, obviously. If you’ve seen Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer, you know the vibe—it’s high-octane, slapstick, surprisingly emotional, and deeply weird. But in 2016, he released something that felt like a fever dream even by his standards. We're talking about movie the mermaid 2016, a project that didn't just perform well; it absolutely demolished the Chinese box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in the country at the time. It made over $500 million. Think about that for a second. Half a billion dollars for a movie where a guy tries to cook himself in a giant octopus suit.
People outside of Asia were honestly kind of baffled. How does a movie with mid-tier CGI and a plot that feels like a deranged Disney remake become a global phenomenon?
The answer isn't just "Stephen Chow is famous." It’s that Meiyu (the Chinese title) tapped into a very specific, very urgent anxiety about the environment, wrapped in a blanket of total absurdity. It's a romance, sure. But it's also a horror movie. And a corporate satire. And a PSA about sonar killing sea life.
The Plot That Shouldn't Work (But Totally Does)
The setup is basic. Liu Xuan, played by Deng Chao, is a billionaire playboy with a mustache that looks like it was drawn on with a Sharpie. He buys a pristine wildlife reserve called Green Gulf. His plan? Use "reclamation" to turn it into a massive real estate project. To get rid of the pesky sea life, he installs high-powered sonar technology that literally shreds anything with fins.
Enter the merpeople. They aren't the singing, shell-bra-wearing types you’d see in a Burbank animation studio. These guys are living in a rusted-out shipwreck, scarred and bleeding from the sonar. They send Shan (Lin Yun), a young mermaid who has been trained to walk on her fins like they’re feet, to assassinate Liu Xuan.
She's terrible at it.
The first half of the movie is basically a Looney Tunes short. She tries to poison him, she tries to stab him, and she fails in increasingly hilarious ways. But then—because it’s a Stephen Chow movie—they go out for roast chicken. They sing karaoke. They fall in love. It’s weirdly sweet, even when you remember she's technically there to murder him.
Why Movie The Mermaid 2016 Actually Matters
Don't let the jokes about octopus tentacles fool you. This film is angry. Underneath the "mo lei tau" (senseless) humor, Chow is making a pointed critique of the "growth at all costs" mindset that defined the Chinese economic boom of the early 2000s.
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Liu Xuan represents the nouveau riche—tacky, arrogant, and desperate for validation. When he meets the "old money" business mogul Ruolan (played with icy perfection by Zhang Yuqi), she mocks him for his lack of class. This class conflict drives the stakes. Ruolan isn't just a jilted lover; she’s the face of heartless industrialization.
When the third act hits, the tone shifts violently. If you haven't seen it, be warned: the finale is brutal. We see the merpeople being hunted down with harpoons and machine guns. It’s a stark, bloody contrast to the goofy comedy of the first hour. Chow is showing us that environmental destruction isn't a joke. It’s a massacre.
The line that everyone remembers from the film is: "When there is not a single drop of clean water or a single breath of clean air left on this Earth, what is the point of all the money you’ve made?"
It’s heavy-handed. It’s blunt. But in 2016, in a country grappling with massive industrial pollution, it hit like a freight train.
The Secret Sauce: Mo Lei Tau Humor
If you aren't familiar with Hong Kong cinema, the humor in movie the mermaid 2016 might feel... jarring. "Mo lei tau" literally means "coming from nowhere." It’s a style that relies on non-sequiturs, rapid-fire wordplay, and physical comedy that ignores the laws of physics.
Take the scene where Liu Xuan goes to the police station to report that he was kidnapped by a mermaid. The two officers (one played by Wen Zhang, who was the lead in Chow’s Journey to the West) try to draw a sketch of the mermaid based on his description. They keep drawing things like a "half-fish, half-human" creature where the top half is a fish and the bottom half is a man.
It’s a three-minute scene that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot.
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But it’s the funniest thing in the movie. It’s that specific comedic timing that makes Chow’s work stand out. He knows exactly when to lean into the ridiculous to keep the audience off-balance.
Technical Flaws vs. Creative Vision
Let's be real: the CGI in this movie is not great. At all. The water effects often look like they were rendered on a PlayStation 3. The way the tails move sometimes feels weightless and "floaty" in a way that breaks immersion.
Does it matter?
Honestly, no. For most fans of the genre, the subpar VFX are part of the charm. It feels like an old-school practical effects movie that happens to use computers. Chow focuses on the expression of the actors and the framing of the shots rather than trying to achieve Pixar-level realism. The exaggerated movements of the merpeople—the way they flop around or hide in the shadows—feel more like theater than cinema.
And then there's the music. The film uses classic tracks like "The Invincible" and pieces from The Dashing Fellow. It creates a sense of nostalgia for the golden age of Hong Kong action-comedies, bridging the gap between the 1990s and the modern era of blockbuster filmmaking.
The Cultural Impact of 2016
When the film came out during the Lunar New Year, it didn't just win; it dominated. It set a record for the fastest film to reach 1 billion yuan. It stayed in theaters for months.
It proved a few things to the global film industry:
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- Local stories with local sensibilities can outearn Hollywood behemoths.
- Audiences are hungry for environmental themes when they aren't presented as a boring lecture.
- Stephen Chow's brand of humor is a gold mine.
Interestingly, the movie faced some criticism for being "too simple." Some critics felt the environmental message was "The Lorax with blood." But the simplicity is exactly why it worked. It didn't try to be Inception. It tried to be a fable.
Fables don't need complex subplots. They need a clear moral and characters you actually care about. When Liu Xuan finally realizes the damage he's done, his redemption feels earned because he has to literally put his body on the line to save Shan.
A Long-Awaited Sequel?
For years, rumors have swirled about The Mermaid 2. We know it was filmed. We know Lin Yun is returning. But the release has been delayed more times than I can count. Post-production issues, the pandemic, and shifting regulatory landscapes in the Chinese film industry have kept it in a vault.
But the original movie the mermaid 2016 still holds up. It’s a time capsule of a specific moment in cinema history where a weird, fish-out-of-water comedy could become the biggest thing on the planet.
How to Watch and What to Look For
If you’re planning to revisit this or watch it for the first time, keep an eye out for the cameos. Tsui Hark, the legendary director of Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, shows up as "Uncle Rich." It’s a fun nod to the interconnected world of Hong Kong filmmaking royalty.
Also, pay attention to the sound design. The sonar scenes are genuinely uncomfortable to listen to. It’s a brilliant bit of sensory storytelling that makes you feel the physical pain the merpeople are experiencing. It turns the "ocean" from a beautiful backdrop into a place of trauma.
Practical Takeaways for Film Buffs
To truly appreciate what Stephen Chow did here, you should:
- Compare it to Kung Fu Hustle: Notice how Chow uses the same "underdog" template but swaps martial arts for environmentalism.
- Look up the "Mo Lei Tau" tradition: Understanding the roots of the humor makes the "random" scenes feel much more intentional.
- Watch the behind-the-scenes footage: Seeing how they filmed the wire-work for the merpeople explains why the movements look so stylized and intentional.
- Research the 2016 Chinese box office: Seeing the numbers in context helps you understand why this movie changed how studios think about Lunar New Year releases.
The movie isn't perfect, but it is unforgettable. It’s a loud, messy, hilarious, and heartbreaking reminder that we only have one planet—and maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't kill everything in the ocean for a quick buck. Plus, you get to see a guy try to hide a mermaid tail in a pair of oversized pants. What more do you want from a Saturday night movie?