The Mermaid 美人魚 (2016): The "Environmentalist Propaganda" That Used a Mermaid to Teach Capitalists a Lesson — and Made $500 Million Doing It

Let me tell you about a film where a billionaire falls in love with a mermaid, a talking octopus gets cooked alive, and the villain's final defeat involves being hit in the face with a flying dolphin.

Yes, that film exists. It's called The Mermaid. And it's one of the strangest, funniest, and most unexpectedly sincere films Stephen Chow has ever made.

Released in 2016, The Mermaid shattered box office records in China, earning over $500 million worldwide. It became the highest-grossing film in Chinese history at the time, surpassing even Chow's own Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.

But here's the thing: The Mermaid is not just a comedy. It's an environmentalist fable disguised as a slapstick romance. It's a film about greed, about destruction, about the price we pay for progress. And it's also a film where a mermaid sprays a jetpack-powered fart to escape captivity.

This is Stephen Chow at his most unhinged — and his most sincere.

A Billionaire, a Mermaid, and a Very Unconventional Love Story

The plot is deceptively simple. Liu Xuan (Deng Chao) is a ruthless billionaire who wants to build a luxury resort on a pristine bay. The problem: the bay is home to a secret community of mermaids, who have been forced to live in a sunken ship after humans destroyed their natural habitat.

The mermaids, led by their matriarch (a gloriously unhinged performance by Show Lo), decide to send their most beautiful member, Shan (Lin Yun), to assassinate Liu Xuan. The plan: seduce him, get close to him, and kill him.

But Shan has a problem. She's not a very good seductress. And Liu Xuan, despite being a ruthless capitalist, has a weakness: he's not actually a bad person. He's just lost his way.

The film's central romance is absurd, improbable, and genuinely moving. Liu Xuan falls in love with Shan not because she's beautiful, but because she's kind. She's the only person who has ever seen him as anything other than a wallet. And Shan, despite her mission, falls in love with him because he's the only human who has ever shown her kindness.

It's a love story between a capitalist and a mermaid. And it works.

The Comedy: Stephen Chow's Trademark Absurdity

The film is packed with classic Stephen Chow gags — the kind that make you laugh, cringe, and wonder what you just witnessed.

There's the scene where Liu Xuan tries to impress Shan by eating a live octopus (played by a CGI creature that looks both delicious and horrifying). There's the scene where the mermaids attack Liu Xuan's compound, using jetpacks and superhuman strength to fight off armed guards. There's the scene where Liu Xuan's assistant (played by the ever-hilarious Zhang Yuqi) delivers a lecture on the importance of preserving the environment while simultaneously planning to destroy it.

But the film's funniest moment comes when Liu Xuan is strapped to a chair, surrounded by mermaids who are trying to decide whether to kill him or not. He offers them money. He offers them land. He offers them anything they want. And the mermaids, who have been living in a sunken ship for decades, are genuinely tempted.

It's a brilliant satirical moment: the capitalist who can solve any problem with money, confronted by a group of people who have no use for it.

The Message: Environmentalism Disguised as a Comedy

The Mermaid is, at its core, a film about environmental destruction. The mermaids are refugees, displaced by human greed. The bay is dying because of pollution. The resort is a symbol of everything wrong with unchecked capitalism.

But Stephen Chow doesn't lecture. He doesn't preach. He just shows you a world where a billionaire can learn to care about something other than money — and makes you laugh while he does it.

The film's most powerful scene is not a comedy scene. It's a scene where Liu Xuan sees a massive, thousand-year-old whale trapped in a net, bleeding, dying. He orders his men to cut it free. He stands in the water, drenched, watching the whale swim away. And in that moment, he realizes that he has been the villain all along.

It's a quiet scene. It's a beautiful scene. And it's the moment when the film stops being a comedy and becomes something more.

The Reception: A Phenomenon, But Not Without Controversy

The Mermaid was a massive hit in China, becoming the highest-grossing film in the country's history. It was praised for its humor, its heart, and its environmental message.

But not everyone was happy. Some critics accused the film of being "propaganda" for the Chinese government's environmental policies. Others complained that the special effects were uneven. And some viewers just didn't get the humor.

Stephen Chow responded to the criticism in his typical style: by shrugging and saying, "I made a film about a mermaid. If people want to read political messages into it, that's their problem."

And he was right. The Mermaid is not a political film. It's a film about love, about kindness, about the importance of protecting the things we care about. If that sounds political, it's only because the world has become so cynical that basic decency feels like a statement.

Why It Still Matters — A Decade Later

It's been nearly a decade since The Mermaid was released. The world hasn't gotten any less polluted. The oceans haven't gotten any cleaner. And billionaires haven't become any more responsible.

But The Mermaid remains a reminder that change is possible — that even the most ruthless capitalist can learn to care, if given the right reason.

The film's final scene is a testament to that hope. Liu Xuan and Shan, now together, sit on a cliff overlooking the bay. The resort has been abandoned. The mermaids are safe. The water is clear.

It's a happy ending. It's an unrealistic ending. But it's also a necessary ending — a reminder that we have a choice, and that we can choose differently.

Final Thoughts

The Mermaid is not a perfect film. It's uneven. It's messy. The special effects are sometimes laughable. The humor doesn't always land.

But it's a film with a heart. A film that believes in kindness, in redemption, in the possibility of change. A film that uses a mermaid to teach a capitalist a lesson about love.

And that, in the end, is why it became such a phenomenon. Because even in a cynical world, we still want to believe in something better.

Have you seen The Mermaid? What do you think — is it a comedy, a fable, or something else entirely? Let me know in the comments.

Tom De · The Movie Prince 🎬