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Mei ren yu (2016)
'Mermaid': A modern fairy tale with Chow's flavor
"Mermaid," a science fiction comedy directed by Stephen Chow, tells a modern fairy tale with adult jokes and restricted blood scenes while never losing the genius comedian's charm.
It is the story of a playboy businessman (Deng Chao) who falls in love with a mermaid (Lin Yun) who had been sent to assassinate him. The plot line seems to be a mix of "Lust, Caution," an erotic espionage thriller directed by Ang Lee and "The Cove," a 2009 documentary film directed by Louie Psihoyos.
It also has an environmental protection theme, as Chow gets the mermaid to declare, "if there's no clean water to drink and no clean air to breathe, what can you do with all this useless money?" It reflects Chow's ambition and vision to tackle an issue of global concern. Actually, he used the same words when he attended the annual local session of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Guangdong.
Deng Chao, notorious for his previous low-rated and flatulent comedy performance, benefits well from Chow's direction. This should remind people of his great acting skills and even earned him a Best Actor Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2015.
Lin Yun, as a new actress, also flourishes under Chow's guidance. However, as she proclaimed in a dialogue line at one point in the film, "I'm not a professional actress, I can't do it," she still has a long way to go.
The comedy partly comes from the weird, ugly and distinct supporting actors cast by Chow, as he has done before. Taiwan singer Show Lo, who plays an "octopus mermaid", is some kind of incarnation of Chow, evoking most laughter from the audiences.
Though the director does not take part in any of the acting, it's obvious he has clearly taught every cast member, no matter whether they are leading actors or supporting ones, to act like him and follow his vision. In many behind-the-scenes clips, Chow actually acts until cast members can mimic him.
"Mermaid" also has some dark and cruel scenes that are not appropriate for children to watch, and the special effects are far from stunning and satisfying. Chow even used many classic Chinese music compositions that have appeared in his classic movies before, such as "Daring General" to put the seal on the film with his own characteristics.
It is no wonder some critics called the film a mere repetition of old and clichéd tricks and offering no groundbreaking progress in his artistic evolvement. However, this is still the Chow many have loved.
The film has a simple and strong message to deliver: Love can transcend race and other barriers. You could hardly expect to see such a pure fairy tale and such a clean theme in blockbusters for a long time, but Chow has done it with a pure and childlike heart. He seeks to the complicated into the simple, trying hard to make it beautiful and understandable.
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* My review is also selected and published on China.org.cn.
Ye yan (2006)
A good film....visual and musical feast
Though it has premiered in four other Chinese cities and Venice, the so-called official world premiere of The Banquet was launched in Beijing on Saturday with stars lining up on the red carpet. I was there.
Much criticism has also emerged in China after several smaller showings in the cities of Guangzhou, Xi'an, Hangzhou and Shenyang. Interestingly enough, in recent years, Chinese audiences and critics have followed the unofficial "routine" of trashing any big-budget blockbusters by Chinese directors aiming to rival their Hollywood fellows. Even Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou whose Curse of the Yellow Flowers is due out this year, received a great amount of negative publicity in China while being highly praised in the rest of the world and topping the US' movie chart. Chen Kaige's The Promise has also provoked much controversy, even public anger from audiences, especially netizens.
The Banquet, reportedly costing about 150 million yuan to make, is expected to be longtime comedy director Feng Xiaogang's directing transformation. The movie tells a tragedy happening in a kingdom during the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in ancient China.
The storyline was inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, which has been admitted by the director from very beginning, but has several adaptations: Empress Wan (Zhang Ziyi), in love with Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu) since their very young age, she is crowned as the Empress and becomes her beloved's step-mother by marrying his father, who was later murdered by Emperor Li (Ge You), his power-hungry brother who crowned Wan as the Empress once again. Meanwhile, the prince Wu Luan is locked in a power-struggle with Emperor Li, and loved by Qing Nu (Zhou Xun), an innocent minister's daughter. In the end, all die for love, struggle, revenge and desire.
Director Feng punched back when asked by press about foreign criticism who said the movie lacked Chinese characteristics. "I think it was their biased conspiracy. They want to look down upon us from their hegemony culture angle. When you have done a good job as they do, they are not pleased. They will say it lacks so-called 'Chinese characteristics' and 'hope' you go back to do those old colorful stuff. They also feel that The Banquet is almost the same as the House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a matter of fact, I feel the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are almost the same, too. But they are definitely different. This only indicates that we have known very little about each other." I exclusively invited, was treated to the morning viewing. With its depressive but magnificent music, short but eye-catching action scenes and darkly beautiful set and costume designs, The Banquet is far from a flop. The plots are well organized, though a little sluggish. The cast works well, especially Zhang Ziyi, at her best when demonstrating her character's physical and mental crises.
For Chinese audiences, the biggest problem may be the movie's Chinese dialogue, much of it drawn from literary language. The amusement inherent to hearing characters speak in such a way detracts from the tragic atmosphere the film tries to build. Feng argued there should have been nothing to laugh at, blaming it on journalists and unprofessional critics themselves who had not fully understood the movie and the script. But some news outlets previously guessed that one of the causes is Chinese audience's long-standing impressions of comedian Ge You and Feng's former comedies. No one laughed at the Venice premiere since most of the audience did not know who Feng was.
At the evening's showing, most audience members gave warmer responses than critics did. When Feng Xiaogang asked if the movie was good as credits rolled, people cheered "good!" immediately.