Mermaid swims to box office bonanza

In a season when blockbusters are deemed standard, The Mermaid has proved to be so splashy that it wiped clean a slate of records and made numerous headlines. The Stephen Chow comic fantasy, which opened on Lunar New Year's Day, Feb 8, set a record with seven consecutive days with at least 230 million yuan ($35.2 million) in receipts each day.

By Tuesday evening, it had raked in a total of 2.1 billion yuan in its nine days of release, poised to overtake Monster Hunt, which at 2.4 billion yuan is the reigning champion in China's box office tally.

Anticipation runs high that The Mermaid could be the first film, domestic or foreign, to reach the new landmark of 3 billion yuan in gross receipts in the world's fastest-growing film market.

The supernatural tale with an environmental message has wowed moviegoers with zany Chow-style slapstick and moments of tenderness. Maggie Lee, a film critic for Variety, a Hollywood trade magazine, called it "pure enchantment". On the home front, critics seemed uncertain, wavering between cautious approval and rehashed concerns about Chow's losing his touch.

Chow, a Hong Kong bit player who morphed into a superstar in the early 1990s, is known for his own brand of humor, which at first glance is similar to that of Jim Carrey. While most comedy is local and fails to overcome geographical boundaries, Chow's works were not only welcomed by mainland audiences, but given a philosophical spin in interpretations when they were avidly consumed across China's college campuses.

Chow, who produced and directed The Mermaid but did not star in it, is one of the Hong Kong filmmakers who have been most successful in adapting to the mainland culture.

Instead of churning out several pictures a year, he has slowed down the pace to about one film in four years, perfecting every joke and detail until the last minute. When he was criticized by some of his Hong Kong peers for being "difficult", fans would jump to his defense, and his work, with its appeal to those across the taste spectrum, is probably the best answer.

For The Mermaid, Chow also pulled off a marketing stunt unprecedented in showbiz. The customary pre-screenings, designed to generate buzz, were called off. Instead, he and his cast embarked on a 20-city promotional blitz.

raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn