Honestly, if you missed the boat on The Mermaid 2016 when it first splashed into theaters, you missed a genuine cinematic phenomenon. It wasn't just a movie. It was a juggernaut. It's kinda weird looking back now, but this Stephen Chow directed masterpiece—officially titled Mei Ren Yu—didn't just do well; it absolutely demolished the Chinese box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in the country at the time.
It's wild.
We're talking about a film that earned over $550 million globally while barely making a ripple in the traditional US market. Most American audiences were busy with superhero sequels while Stephen Chow was busy making a movie about a billionaire falling in love with a mermaid who was sent to assassinate him with a poisoned sea urchin. It’s exactly as chaotic as it sounds.
What actually happened in The Mermaid 2016?
The plot is basically a fever dream. You’ve got Liu Xuan, played by Deng Chao, who is this ultra-rich, arrogant real estate tycoon. He buys out the Green Gulf wildlife reserve for a massive reclamation project. To get rid of the marine life, he uses sonar technology that basically turns the water into a death trap for anything with gills.
Enter the merfolk.
They aren't the Disney kind. They’re living in a rusted-out shipwreck, scarred and desperate. They send Shan, a young mermaid who can "walk" on land by hiding her fins inside large boots, to seduce and kill Xuan. It sounds like a dark thriller, but because this is Stephen Chow—the guy behind Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer—it’s actually a slapstick comedy. Well, until it isn't.
The tonal shifts are enough to give you whiplash. One minute, you're laughing at a scene where a mermaid tries to cook her own octopus-man friend (played by the legendary Show Lo) on a giant teppanyaki grill to hide their identity. The next, you're hit with some of the most harrowing, brutally realistic depictions of environmental destruction ever put on film. It’s uncomfortable. It’s meant to be.
The Stephen Chow Touch
If you know Chow’s work, you know his style: "mo lei tau" humor. It’s nonsensical. It’s fast. It’s aggressive. In The Mermaid 2016, he pushes this to the limit.
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There's a specific scene where Xuan goes to the police station to report that he was kidnapped by a mermaid. The two officers, played by Wen Zhang and Li Shangzheng, start drawing sketches of what he describes. The resulting drawings—half-human, half-fish monstrosities—are genuinely hilarious. That scene went viral for a reason. It’s the peak of Chow’s ability to take a ridiculous premise and play it completely straight for laughs.
But beneath the jokes, there is a very real, very angry core to this movie. Chow has always been a filmmaker who cares about the underdog. In this case, the underdogs are the literal creatures of the sea. He doesn't hold back. When the mercenaries eventually attack the mermaid cove, the violence is jarring. It’s a bold choice to put that much blood in a movie that features a man flying around in a jetpack for fun.
Why the CGI looks... like that
Let’s be real. The visual effects in The Mermaid 2016 are polarizing.
To a Western eye accustomed to the $200 million budgets of Marvel or Avatar, the CGI in this film can look, well, janky. The mermaids’ tails sometimes look like they belong in a PlayStation 3 game. The physics don't always make sense.
But here’s the thing: it doesn't matter.
In the context of Chinese cinema at the time, and specifically within the "Chow-verse," the stylized, almost cartoonish VFX are part of the charm. It feels like a living comic book. The exaggerated movements and slightly "off" textures contribute to the surrealism of the world. If it looked too real, the comedy wouldn't land as well, and the horror of the final act would probably be too traumatizing for a general audience.
The cast that made it a legend
Lin Yun, who played Shan, was a complete newcomer. She beat out over 120,000 other people in a massive talent search to land the role. That’s insane pressure for a debut. She brings this wide-eyed, slightly clumsy innocence to the role that makes the romance with Xuan actually work.
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And then you have Kitty Zhang (Zhang Yuqi) as the villain, Ruolan. She is incredible. She’s the jilted business partner/ex-lover who represents the absolute worst of corporate greed. Her performance is the perfect foil to Shan’s simplicity. While Shan is trying to save her people with a makeshift roasted chicken dinner, Ruolan is ready to spend millions just to slaughter anything that gets in the way of her profit margins.
Show Lo as Octopus is the unsung hero. Playing a half-man, half-octopus requires a lot of physical comedy, and he nails it. The scene where he has to pretend to be a professional chef while his own tentacles are being sliced and fried is a masterclass in comedic timing. It’s painful to watch, but you can’t look away.
A massive win for environmentalism (seriously)
It’s easy to dismiss a movie with a jetpacking billionaire as "mindless fun," but The Mermaid 2016 had a massive impact on environmental discourse in China.
The film uses real footage of dolphin drives and ocean pollution during its opening credits. It frames the "villains" as people who believe money is the only thing that matters. There’s a line in the movie that basically says: "When there is not a single drop of clean water or a single breath of clean air left on this Earth, what will all your money be worth?"
That resonated.
In 2016, China was grappling with intense "airpocalypse" smog and water quality issues. Seeing a massive blockbuster take such a hardline stance against industrial greed was powerful. It wasn't subtle. Stephen Chow doesn't do subtle. He hits you over the head with the message, and apparently, that's exactly what the audience wanted.
How to watch it today
If you want to experience this piece of cinema history, it's actually pretty easy to find. It’s often available on major streaming platforms like Amazon Prime (depending on your region) or for rent on YouTube and Apple TV.
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If you're watching it for the first time, do yourself a favor: watch it with the original Mandarin audio and subtitles. The English dubs often lose the nuance of Chow's wordplay and the specific comedic timing of the actors. The "mo lei tau" style is so rooted in the rhythm of the language that a dub can make it feel even weirder than it already is—and not in a good way.
What to expect if you're a newcomer
- Total Genre Chaos: It’s a rom-com, a slapstick comedy, an environmental tragedy, and an action movie all at once.
- Bizarre Humor: Expect jokes that linger a little too long or go in directions you didn't see coming.
- Heart: Surprisingly, the romance at the center is actually quite sweet.
- Graphic Violence: The final 20 minutes are much more intense than the first hour suggests. Be ready.
The legacy of the 2016 hit
The film's success paved the way for more big-budget, high-concept Chinese blockbusters. It proved that you didn't need a Hollywood formula to make a global hit. It also solidified Stephen Chow as one of the most bankable directors on the planet.
There have been rumors of a sequel for years. The Mermaid 2 has reportedly finished filming, but release dates have been pushed back multiple times. Whether we ever get that follow-up or not, the original stands alone as a bizarre, beautiful, and deeply angry piece of pop art.
It's a movie that asks you to laugh at a man in an octopus suit while simultaneously crying over the destruction of the natural world. It shouldn't work. By all the laws of filmmaking, it should be a total mess. But somehow, it’s brilliant.
If you're tired of the same old cinematic formulas, put this on. It’s a reminder that movies can still be genuinely weird, unapologetically political, and wildly successful all at the same time.
To get the most out of your viewing experience, start by watching Stephen Chow's earlier work like Kung Fu Hustle. It helps set the stage for his specific brand of comedy. Once you're used to his rhythm, dive into The Mermaid 2016 with an open mind. Pay attention to the soundtrack too—it uses classic themes from old wuxia films to add a layer of heroic nostalgia to the story. Finally, look up the "making of" clips online; seeing how they handled the underwater stunts and the "octopus" rigs gives you a whole new appreciation for the practical effort that went into this digital-heavy film.