The Mermaid (2016) and Journey To The West (2013): Stephen Chow's Amazing Fantasy-Adventure-Comedies

I’m guessing that most of my readers are not familiar with Hong Kong-based writer, director and sometime actor Stephen Chow. His earliest films are mostly unknown in the U.S.  Even Shaolin Soccer (2001), which was a worldwide success, did just okay in America. Kung Fu Hustle (2004), on the other hand, was a hit everywhere – even here.

All of Chow’s films are funny and muscular. His most recent ones not only make you laugh (sometimes quietly, but often loudly), but also pump up your heartbeat with thrilling action sequences, widen yours eyes in wonder (how did they do that!?), and might even tickle your moral consciousness (just a little). Mostly, they make you laugh – through slapstick physical comedy, goofy supporting characters, visual and verbal puns, deliciously ridiculous situations and a lot of just batshit crazy, silly fun – frequently accompanied by a soundtrack that could have been borrowed from a Sergio Leone spaghetti western, abetted with a Chinese accent. This is weird, wonderful stuff, but if your taste is exclusively for sophisticated and slyly witty comedies, Chow’s wacky oeuvre may not be for you.

His two most recent pictures, under review here, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013) and The Mermaid (2016), certainly share the aforementioned qualities. Unlike his earlier movies however, Chow himself is not the protagonist in either. Allowing himself to focus exclusively on the big picture, these represent perhaps his best work to date, certainly the most ambitious. The special effects are excellent, especially in Mermaid, and the comedy never stops.

Journey to the West was the most financially successful of any Chinese movie through 2014, earning over $200 million worldwide. The Mermaid was even more wildly popular and walloped those numbers, grossing over $500 million to become China’s biggest movie ever (as well as one of the most expensive ever produced there). Neither film was seriously promoted in the U.S. however, which is a shame, because they’re quite entertaining and damned funny. The good news is that you can now watch them at home (see below).

Journey to the West is said to be one of the four great novels of Chinese literature. Written in the sixteenth century, it’s about the adventures of a Buddhist monk on a pilgrimage to obtain some sacred texts from far, far away. Some of the adventures involve battling and defeating powerful and eccentric demons. Chow’s movie is loosely based on these stories. Very loosely, I’d imagine. It’s a Buddhist action-fantasy-adventure-comedy, if you can imagine such a thing!

The picture opens with a terrific set piece in a rustic and rickety fishing village menaced by an evil river demon –  a creature that is part fish, part dragon, part lord-knows-what - with a hunger for humans and a nasty temperament. In the ensuing mayhem, a stranger steps forward to save the day. This is Xuan Zang (Zhang Wen), a dreamy young man who claims to be a demon hunter. Eventually, after some mishaps, he helps the people subdue the monster, which transforms into what appears to be a man. But when Zang pulls out a book of nursery rhymes, the villagers are understandably perplexed and when he starts to sing these stories to the demon, the creature becomes annoyed, transmutes again into a monster and ferociously attacks him.  Luckily for Zang, the beautiful Duan (actress/model Shu Qi), a far more adept demon hunter, suddenly appears and magically captures the thing, turning it into a harmless little doll.

Discouraged and dispirited, Zang returns to his Buddhist master, ready to abandon the whole demon hunting business. The master reminds him that love and empathy, not violence, is the way. He encourages Zang, noting that he is only lacking “a little bit”; then sends him on a long pilgrimage to find the legendary Monkey King (Bo Huang), who will, he says, provide Zang with that “little bit” he seeks. Along the way, there is (among other incidents) a battle with another demon, KL Hog, a vicious, shape-shifting giant boar, where Zang is saved once again by Duan, npw inexplicably in love with our hapless hero; a farcical trio of more demon hunters; and a long, clever, lovely climactic scene involving the canny but dangerous Monkey King and eventually, yes, the Buddha himself - the ultimate badass demon suppressor. Much of this is phantasmagorical and over the top. Does it make any sense? Not really, but it works. Hilariously.

Check out a trailer for Journey to the West HERE

The Mermaid  reflects China’s fascination with and concern about its relatively new, entrepreneurial class. The movie focusses on a rapacious young billionaire playboy real estate developer, Xuan, who purchases a large tract of coastal land around a pristine bay, with plans to “reclaim” the bay (i.e. fill it in) and build a luxury development there. You know, something ‘yuge’. To do this he must rid the area of dolphins and similar wildlife whose presence might endanger environmental approval of the project – which he neatly accomplishes by planting high frequency sound emitters in the sea that drive the dolphins away.  

But some other creatures in that sea will not take this lying down – merfolk (mermaids and mermen) and their blond, absurdly dreadlocked leader, ‘Octopus’ (Show Lo). What with other human environmental abuses, this area is their last refuge. Now, Xuan’s tactics are killing them, and Octopus [top-half human and bottom half (yep) octopus] has a plan to fight back.

Shan (Yun Lin), a pretty young mermaid, is outfitted in a silly, jerry-rigged human prosthesis, and sent off to seduce Xuan and bring him to the merfolk HQ, whereupon theyhope to kill him. Initially, the plan seems to work: Xuan is surprisingly intrigued by the comely, ragamuffin weirdo who comes to seduce him. But as usual in such circumstances (in the movies, anyway), things don’t work out as planned, because – in a sublimely loopy romantic interlude – Xuan and Shan actually fall in love.

 In the world of this movie, as in our own, sensible people do not believe in mermaids. And so, there’s a great, priceless scene in which a somewhat hysterical, disheveled Xuan, having just escaped from the sea people, tries to explain his predicament to a couple of incredulous (and stupid) cops, who crack up laughing every time Xuan turns his back. 

There’s a surprising scene in which Octopus, while posing as the cook at a lunch counter, accidentally reveals a tentacle, at which point the humans want to eat it – and what comes next reveals a cultural difference in comedic, um, taste between Chinese and American audiences. For the latter, the ensuing mayhem is pretty uncomfortable to watch … and yet, I have to admit that it was laugh-out-loud funny. In any event, many plot twists are in store for Shan, Xuan, Octopus and the other characters before the final message of eco-harmony is delivered.

Check out a trailer for The Mermaid HERE.

As evidenced by these two movies, Stephen Chow is developing into quite an accomplished comedy filmmaker. His influences range from Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd to Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, to Jackie Chan and Edgar Wright. Yet he may never receive his proper due because, as was said of Mark Twain, he “has been seduced from the path of high seriousness by a fatal sense of the ridiculous.”

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is available streaming from Netflix, Amazon, or Vudu (and on DVD from Netflix).   1 hour 50 minutes.

The Mermaid is available on DVD from Netflix or streaming from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play or the Microsoft Store.  1 hour 33 minutes.