The Mermaid header

Cartoony isn’t an unusual way to describe Stephen Chow’s modern screwball masterpieces – Kung Fu Hustle often felt like a full-length live action Looney Tunes bit – but Chow’s latest, The Mermaid, looks like one of the first times when his fantastical aesthetic could get in the way of the storytelling. We previously wrote about a teaser in December, which was charming and kooky in all the right ways, but this new trailer, frankly, looks like a bit of a mess.

Maybe it’s just the Chinese trailer, but it’s a jarring meld of tone and aesthetic with a scolding environmental subtext, ominous piano keys, and a visual style that at worse, looks plastic and cheap; and at best, resembles a less elegant version of Tsui Hark’s supernatural action-adventures.

The Mermaid follows the story of a biological professor who discovers a real mermaid, and falls in love. In between, there seems to be some mermaid king and military fights, and who really knows? Still, it’s certainly intriguing to see Chow tackle subject matter that’s so defiantly different than his usual stories of kung fu mysticism, even if it looks rougher the more we see of it.

Starring Deng Chao, Show Luo, Kris Wu, Lin Yun and Zhang Yuqi, check out the latest trailer below, and hope that the first teaser is more representative of the final product.

The Mermaid poster

The Mermaid hits theaters on February 8th, 2016 in China.

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