‘Mermaid’ takes crown of highest-grossing Chinese film
BEIJING: Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid swims to the top of China’s box office by evening, Friday.
The film, directed by Chow and starring Deng Chao, Show Luo, Zhang Yuqi and newbie actress Lin Yun aka Jelly, took in 2.45 billion yuan (RM8.3 million), officially surpassing Monster Hunt to become the highest-grossing film ever in the country.
Monster Hunt, directed by Dream Works Animation veteran Raman Hui, grossed 2.439 billion yuan (US$374 million) over a period of two months last year. Mermaid’s record run is all the more impressive given that it was achieved in just 12 days.
The producers of Monster Hunt tweeted an illustrated congratulations from the film’s official Weibo account, writing: “Congratulations Mermaid! Congratulations Stephen!”
Blending Chow’s signature brand of ribald humour with a love story and an environmentalist message, Mermaid centres on a billionaire playboy (Deng Chao) who buys a dolphin preserve with the intention of illegally developing it. A beautiful mermaid (Jelly Lin) plots to protect the aquatic paradise by seducing and assassinating the tycoon — but her plans go awry after she falls in love with him. The film was produced by Beijing Enlight Pictures and China Film Group.
Mermaid opened on Feb 8, China’s Lunar New Year’s Day holiday, facing fierce competition from rival blockbusters The Monkey King 2 and The Man From Macau 3.
The film received generally positive reviews though some critics were hard on it, calling it “trash” with old and cliche tricks and no groundbreaking progress evident in Chow’s artistic evolvement.
Clearly, however, audiences love Chow’s effort more than critics and the box office performance speaks for itself.
It grossed more than 230 million yuan a day during the Spring Festival, and even since it has continued to earn more than 100 million yuan on ordinary working days, which has never happened before. Mermaid gives China an undisputed claim to its domestic box office record.
There is no contesting Mermaid’s dominance. The film is expected to swim past the US$400 million mark (2.6 billion yuan) before the end of the weekend.