Mermaid Got Married

Mermaid Got Married (人魚傳說) is a 1994 Hong Kong film based on the film Splash^[1], directed by Norman Law Man^[2][3]. There is no plans for a DVD release.

Plot

The film starts out at sea. We^[who?] see a woman on a boat talking to her young son, Chi. It's his birthday, yet he's not very happy. His mother tells him to address her current boyfriend as "God Father", much to his dismay. The mother's boyfriend is fishing at the back of the boat. As soon as he catches a fish, he tells the mother to run and get a net. When she says she can't find it, he puts the fishing pole in a holder and runs up to find the net in a rage. The child walks down and sees the pole jerk from the fish's attempts to escape. He feels sorry for it, and takes a pair of pliers and cuts the line. The man comes back and slaps the boy across the face, accidentally sending him into the sea. His mother runs over and pushes him in after the boy, telling him that her son can't swim. It turns out the man can't swim either, so all the mother can do is cry desperately for someone to help her son. Meanwhile, underwater, we see the orange tail of the fish that the boy saved and long, flowing hair. The next moment, some people find the boy is found on shore. He says he was rescued by a big fish.

Many years later, the affects of the boy's accident still plague him, preventing him from bathing without breaking down in fear. This causes his mother to bathe him herself with force. After yelling at his mother for forcing it upon him, he runs out the door for a job interview as a Judo teacher at the local high school. The principal refuses him at first because of his good-looks, but later accepts his offer when he is given a sob story about all the other schools turning him down for the same reason. The principal tells him to avoid flirting with the girls, and to also be careful around Ms. Yuen, who is considered the local hottie (which is not). At his first Judo class, Chi meets Kenji, the sometimes-boyfriend of Kiki, a girl who the school calls "Princess". Kiki shamelessly flirts with Chi, which leads to him being scolded by the principal.

One day, as he takes his class out to the docks, Chi is pushed into the sea by one of his students after one of Kiki's followers (known as Fatty) is violently shoved into the water. He sinks and loses consciousness. Soon, out of the shadows, arrives a beautiful mermaid with an orange tail and long, flowing hair, who turns out to be the same mermaid that saved him long ago. She takes him to shore and turns into her human form and then steals a woman's clothes that were lying on the rocks. Feeling they were destined to meet, she releases a pearl from her stomach and uses its power to revive him. Just then, she's frightened by the sound of people approaching, and her pearl is shoved down Chi's throat in an attempt to hide its brilliant glow. It's the woman that the mermaid stole the clothes from and her boyfriend. They notice Chi and help him. Seeing that he is safe, the mermaid attempts to return to her home under the sea, but she soon realizes that without her pearl, she can't dive down to her home.

She decides to follow Chi and take her pearl back. While on shore, she is mistaken for a man's niece, and takes on the name "Siu May". She attends the school where Chi works, and attracts the attention of Kenji and Kiki. Kiki befriends her at first, but soon becomes jealous when she starts getting more attention than she does. Not being able to stay out of water for too long, "Siu May" must "recharge", i.e. bathe in water. One day, Ms. Yuen goes into the girl's bathroom to wash her hands and hears one of the showers running. When she goes to see who it is, she's shocked to see only the orange tail of a fish and faints. Luckily, Siu May's face was hidden by her hair. Kenji runs in to see what was wrong and discovers Siu May. She makes him promise not to tell anyone, and the two quickly become friends.

As Siu May continuously attempts to get her pearl back from Chi, they too seem to be getting closer. They soon share a kiss, and Siu May decides to teach Chi how to swim, on the condition that he wear a blindfold. That night, they swim around in the school's swimming pool.

The next few days, Kiki gets increasingly jealous of Kenji hanging out with Siu May more than with her. A misunderstanding on Chi's birthday leads to Siu May thinking that Chi is cheating on her, causing her to take back her pearl and run away from him in the pouring rain. She soon transforms, and Chi falls to the ground in shock. At this moment, Ms. Yuen, the principal, a policeman, and a man who caught Siu May in his swimming pool, run up and take Siu May away. After snapping back to his senses, Chi enlists the help of Kenji and a now reformed Kiki to rescue Siu May. They find her in the swimming pool of the unnamed man, with an electrical fence over it so she can't escape. In an act of desperation, Kenji and Chi end up pushing a guard standing guard over Siu May into the electric fence, killing him and causing the fence to run out of juice. They rescue Sui May and get away.

In the next morning, they come to the docks, and Siu May says her goodbyes. Now that her pearl is back, there's no reason for her to stay. Except for Chi. He bravely declares his love to her and says that he'll wait for her, and she promises to be back someday. She jumps into the sea, transforms, waves goodbye once more, and swims gracefully away into the murky depths of the sea.

The principal, Ms. Yuen, and the other men wait patiently for Siu May to return as Chi is so that they can capture their "Big Fish" and become rich. One day while following Chi around, they see him bump into a bridesmaid who looks identical to Siu May at a wedding. She throws the bride's bouquet and hits Chi on the head. The principal takes a hose from a nearby gardener and starts spraying Siu May. Chi shields her with his body while Kiki and Kenji fight off the principal and take the hose away from him. Eventually, the girl slips up and reveals that she is Siu May. Chi invites her to eat clams with him, but warns her it'll be hot. She says, "I don't mind." They run to each other and embrace, Chi swinging Siu May in his arms and Kenji and Kiki watch happily. The film ends with the pair swimming in the ocean as the movie's theme plays.

Cast and Roles

• Ekin Cheng - Chi
• Christy Chung - Siu May, the mermaid
• Takeshi Kaneshiro - Kenji
• Teresa Mak - Princess/Kiki
• Kent Cheng - Principal
• King-Tan Yuen - Miss Yuen
• Siu-Ming Lau - Uncle Lau
• Dennis Chan - Officer Chan

Songs from the movie

There are two songs in the film. They are both sung by Chinese pop star Faye Wong, and are included in her 1994 album Sky:

• "Angel", which is the main theme. It is played during Chow and Sui May's swimming pool scene and during the end credits.
• "Sky", which is played while Chow walks sadly on the shore after Sui May leaves.

References

1. ^ loveHKfilm entry
2. ^ HK cinemagic entry
3. ^ loveHKfilm entry

External links

• Mermaid Got Married at the Internet Movie Database