The Mermaid

Arguably Chow's most accessible movie since Hustle.

It offers a visual reprieve from the cumbersomely mechanized aesthetic of so much contemporary fantasy.

You've already seen most of what Chow and his seven(!) co-screenwriters have crafted, and you've usually seen it with greater coherence and more impressive CGI.

In The Mermaid, Chow never forgets that the camera is the funniest tool at his disposal, and the only one that speaks in a language that everyone can understand.

I had a really good time.

The Mermaid is not Chow at his absolute peak... Still, it's probably the most accomplished blockbuster which the global entertainment industry has given us since Mad Max: Fury Road.

This is a short, sweet and charmingly strange story populated by all manner of colourful characters, two-legged and otherwise.

Chow’s comedies, though, are alive in every frame. His key stars are all wonderful, but he uses the technology at his disposal to enhance and maximise the full comedic potential of everything...

A little wacky, a little off-kilter in its world view, and deceptively clever throughout. As has been the case for many of the best-known works of director Steven Chow.

"The Mermaid" is aptly titled, not just because of its central protagonist, but because it is a magical, genre-bending pastiche of over-the-top comedy and compelling sociopolitical drama; it's a "mermovie" in more ways than one.