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* BaitAndSwitch: When Shan pretends to be an attendant working for Liu Xuan (while trying to ''assassinate him'') a bunch of Liu Xuan's bodyguards scans her with metal detectors. At one point it like seems her cover is going to be blown when a detector starts beeping, and Shan thought her hidden knife is spotted, but turns out the detector caught a stray nail stuck to her shoe.
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* TheCameo:
to:
* TheCameo: CelebrityCameo:
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* HarpoonGun: Ruolan's mercenary army uses these weapons [[spoiler: in the finale, when she's ordered them to hunt down every single merfolk. She tries shooting Shan with one of these, but Liu Xuan got in the way]].
to:
* HarpoonGun: Ruolan's mercenary army uses these weapons [[spoiler: in the finale, when she's she ordered them to hunt down every single merfolk. She tries shooting Shan with one of these, but Liu Xuan got in the way]].
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* HeyWait: A non-verbal variant; when Shan pretends to be an attendant working for Liu Xuan (while trying to ''assassinate him'') a bunch of Liu Xuan's bodyguards scans her with metal detectors. At one point it like seems her cover is going to be blown when a detector starts beeping, and Shan thought her hidden knife is spotted, but turns out the detector caught a stray nail stuck to her shoe.
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Deleted unnecessary detail.
Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* CoversAlwaysLie: For some baffling reason, the film's poster and DVD covers (one right on the top) frequently depicts the ''giant'' tail of some unseen fish monster coming out of the ocean, something that doesn't happen at any point in the film. There's also a series of Character Posters promoting the movie where the titular mermaid has her hair fashioned into a fish's tail, but that doesn't happen in the film either.
to:
* CoversAlwaysLie: For some baffling reason, the film's poster and DVD covers (one right on the top) frequently depicts the ''giant'' tail of some unseen fish monster coming out of the ocean, something that doesn't happen at any point in the film. There's also a series of Character Posters promoting the movie where the titular mermaid has her hair fashioned into a fish's tail, but that doesn't happen in the film either.
Changed line(s) 25,26 (click to see context) from:
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Towards the end of the film as Liu Xuan gets near-fatally injured by harpoons in an attempt to shield Shan, Ruolan tries shooting him again only for her henchman, the mercenary leader George, to stop her]].
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assassination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in an outdoor hawker stall (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assassination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in an outdoor hawker stall (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
to:
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Towards the end of the film as When Liu Xuan gets near-fatally injured by harpoons in an attempt to shield Shan, Ruolan tries shooting him again only for her henchman, the mercenary leader George, to stop her]].
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuandecide decides to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assassination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in an outdoor hawker stall (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides resolves to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started start having feelings for each other.
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan
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* HarpoonGun: Ruolan's mercenary army uses these weapons [[spoiler: in the finale when she order them to hunt down every single merfolk to extinction. She tries shooting Shan with one of these, but Liu Xuan got in the way]].
to:
* HarpoonGun: Ruolan's mercenary army uses these weapons [[spoiler: in the finale finale, when she order she's ordered them to hunt down every single merfolk to extinction.merfolk. She tries shooting Shan with one of these, but Liu Xuan got in the way]].
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* MakingASplash: The Mermaid Elder can control water with her tail.
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A sequel, ''The Mermaid 2'', is slated for release in 2022.
to:
A sequel, ''The Mermaid 2'', is slated for release in 2022.development but appears to be stuck in DevelopmentHell.
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Deleted line(s) 37 (click to see context) :
* KillEmAll: Ruolan's final solution to the mermaid problem? [[spoiler: Sending her private mercenary army to drive them all out with explosives, and kill each and every single one of them]].
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* ShoutOut: The merpeople are big fans of actor Adam Cheng and the 1983 version of ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes''. Cheng himself performs the theme of ''Condor Heroes'' during the credits.
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* EpicFail: Shan's first attempt at assassinating Liu Xuan, in a nutshell. She gets at least four attempts, each one backfiring in increasingly ridiculous ways, like her flung urchin bouncing back into her face and getting her fingers stepped on by an oblivious Liu as she tried sneaking up from underneath a table, and Liu Xuan didn't even know she's trying to kill him.
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Changed line(s) 43,44 (click to see context) from:
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Near the end of the climax, Liu Xuan, in a last-ditch attempt to prove to Shan that his love for her is genuine, took two harpoons fired by mercenaries meant for her. He survives his injuries when the police arrive to investigate the sound of explosions and arrest Ruolan, George, and the other mercenaries]].
to:
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Near the end of the climax, Liu Xuan, in a last-ditch attempt to prove to Shan that his love for her is genuine, took two harpoons fired by mercenaries meant for her.Ruolan. He survives his injuries when the police arrive to investigate the sound of explosions and arrest Ruolan, George, and the other mercenaries]].
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* InterspeciesRomance: A mermaid and a human property tycoon.
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Changed line(s) 24,25 (click to see context) from:
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Towards the end of the scene, as Liu Xuan gets near-fatally injured by harpoons in an attempt to shield Shan, Ruolan tries shooting him again only for her henchman, the mercenary leader George, to stop her]].
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assasination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in a restaurant (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assasination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in a restaurant (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
to:
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Towards the end of the scene, film as Liu Xuan gets near-fatally injured by harpoons in an attempt to shield Shan, Ruolan tries shooting him again only for her henchman, the mercenary leader George, to stop her]].
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failedassasination assassination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in a restaurant an outdoor hawker stall (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed
* OhCrap: Liu Xuan after [[spoiler: discovering Shan and the rest of her kin are mermaids. And her "uncle" is actually a mere-octopus and wants to ''kill'' him]].
Changed line(s) 41,42 (click to see context) from:
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Near the end of the climax, Liu Xuan, in a last-dtich attempt to prove to Shan that his love for her is genuine, took two harpoons fired by mercenaries meant for her. He survives his injuries when the police arrive to investigate the sound of explosions and arrest Ruolan, George, and the other mercenaries]].
to:
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Near the end of the climax, Liu Xuan, in a last-dtich last-ditch attempt to prove to Shan that his love for her is genuine, took two harpoons fired by mercenaries meant for her. He survives his injuries when the police arrive to investigate the sound of explosions and arrest Ruolan, George, and the other mercenaries]].
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Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
* BaitAndSwitch: When Shan pretends to be an attendant working for Liu Xuan (while trying to ''assassinate him'') a bunch of Liu Xuan's bodyguards run her through with a metal detector. At one point it seems her cover is going to be blown when the detector starts beeping, at which point Shan thought her hidden knife is being spotted, but turns out the detector caught a stray nail stuck to her shoe.
to:
* BaitAndSwitch: When Shan pretends to be an attendant working for Liu Xuan (while trying to ''assassinate him'') a bunch of Liu Xuan's bodyguards run scans her through with a metal detector. detectors. At one point it like seems her cover is going to be blown when the a detector starts beeping, at which point and Shan thought her hidden knife is being spotted, but turns out the detector caught a stray nail stuck to her shoe.
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Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
** Shan, in her failed attempt to kill Liu Xuan during their dinner, gets a stack of papers flung at her, hit by an ashtray, [[TheDoorSlamsYou a door slammed on her by a random tech]], had urchins embedded on her face, have her [[{{Fingore}} fingers stepped on by Liu]] (who didn't notice her hiding under a table trying to ambush him) before accidentally ''[[ImpaledPalm stabbing herself through her hand]]'' with her own knife and getting a [[GolfClubbing golf club into her cranium by accident]]. And it's all PlayedForLaughs. What takes the cake however is that Liu Xuan didn't even notice she's in ''the very same room as he is'' until he realize his golf club had hit something!
to:
** Shan, in her failed attempt to kill Liu Xuan during their dinner, Xuan, gets a stack of papers flung at her, hit by an ashtray, [[TheDoorSlamsYou a door slammed on her by a random tech]], had urchins embedded on her face, have her [[{{Fingore}} fingers stepped on by Liu]] (who didn't notice her hiding under a table trying to ambush him) before accidentally ''[[ImpaledPalm stabbing herself through her hand]]'' with her own knife and getting a [[GolfClubbing golf club into her cranium by accident]]. And it's all PlayedForLaughs. What takes the cake however is that Liu Xuan didn't even notice she's in ''the very same room as he is'' until he realize his golf club had hit something!
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Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
** Shan, in her failed attempt to kill Liu Xuan during their dinner, gets a stack of papers flung at her, hit by an ashtray, [[TheDoorSlamsYou a door slammed on her by a random tech]], had urchins embedded on her face, have her [[{{Fingore}} fingers stepped on by Liu]] (who didn't notice her hiding under a table trying to ambush him) before ''[[ImpaledPalm stabbing herself through her hand]]]'' with her own knife and getting a [[GolfClubbing golf club into her cranium by accident]]. And it's all PlayedForLaughs. What takes the cake however is that Liu Xuan didn't even notice she's in ''the very same room as he is'' until he realize his golf club had hit something!
to:
** Shan, in her failed attempt to kill Liu Xuan during their dinner, gets a stack of papers flung at her, hit by an ashtray, [[TheDoorSlamsYou a door slammed on her by a random tech]], had urchins embedded on her face, have her [[{{Fingore}} fingers stepped on by Liu]] (who didn't notice her hiding under a table trying to ambush him) before accidentally ''[[ImpaledPalm stabbing herself through her hand]]]'' hand]]'' with her own knife and getting a [[GolfClubbing golf club into her cranium by accident]]. And it's all PlayedForLaughs. What takes the cake however is that Liu Xuan didn't even notice she's in ''the very same room as he is'' until he realize his golf club had hit something!
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mermaid_china_chinese_water_bender_magic_ocean_sea1.jpg]]
''The Mermaid'' is a 2016 Hong Kong fantasy-comedy-drama directed by Creator/StephenChow, starring Deng Chao, Show Lo, Kitty Zhang (Stephen's former collaborator from ''Film/CJ7'' and ''Shaolin Girl'') and newcomer "Jelly" Lin Yun as the titular character.
A small community of merpeople living underneath Hong Kong's Green Gulf, a coastal wildlife reserve, have their lives threatened when a property tycoon, Liu Xuan (Deng) and his business partner and second-in-command, Ruolan (Zhang) purchases the entire area for a land reclamation operation. With their project threatening all marine life in the area, and the sonar used by Liu's company causing multiple members of the merpeople to fall sick, it's up to a young mermaid girl named Shan (Lin) who's accommodated into human society to infiltrate Liu Xuan's company and assassinate him. But after a botched assassination attempt ends with an oblivious Liu sending Shan home and spending a day with her, Shan started having second thoughts on killing him.
And ''yes'', HilarityEnsues. Loads and loads of it.
A sequel, ''The Mermaid 2'', is slated for release in 2022.
----
!!''The Mermaid'' contain examples of:
* AmusingInjuries: It's not a Stephen Chow comedy ''without'' this trope.
** Shan, in her failed attempt to kill Liu Xuan during their dinner, gets a stack of papers flung at her, hit by an ashtray, [[TheDoorSlamsYou a door slammed on her by a random tech]], had urchins embedded on her face, have her [[{{Fingore}} fingers stepped on by Liu]] (who didn't notice her hiding under a table trying to ambush him) before ''[[ImpaledPalm stabbing herself through her hand]]]'' with her own knife and getting a [[GolfClubbing golf club into her cranium by accident]]. And it's all PlayedForLaughs. What takes the cake however is that Liu Xuan didn't even notice she's in ''the very same room as he is'' until he realize his golf club had hit something!
** Brother Octopus, pretending to be the cook of a Korean seafood restaurant Shan and Liu Xuan are dining in, repeatedly had his tentacles beaten, cut, mutilated, burnt and sliced off when the other cooks mistaken his exposed limbs as calamari. He shows up later with a bunch of his tentacles as bandaged stumps.
* BaitAndSwitch: When Shan pretends to be an attendant working for Liu Xuan (while trying to ''assassinate him'') a bunch of Liu Xuan's bodyguards run her through with a metal detector. At one point it seems her cover is going to be blown when the detector starts beeping, at which point Shan thought her hidden knife is being spotted, but turns out the detector caught a stray nail stuck to her shoe.
* ButtMonkey: Shan and Brother Octopus repeatedly runs into various AmusingInjuries just for entertainment's sake.
* TheCameo:
** Veteran Hong Kong producers and directors, Chiu Chi-ling and Tsui-Hark have walk-on cameos in the movie that doesn't have any bearing on the plot.
** There's also Creator/KrisWu as a random student in the final scene. [[spoiler: He's the one who interviewed Liu Xuan and Mrs. Liu, a.k.a Shan, about their company's marine preservation project's efforts]].
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Subverted with Liu Xuan, the tycoon developing the Green Gulf development who is unaware his project is driving the mermaid population to extinction. [[spoiler: His partner Ruolan is a much straighter example]].
* CoversAlwaysLie: For some baffling reason, the film's poster and DVD covers (one right on the top) frequently depicts the ''giant'' tail of some unseen fish monster coming out of the ocean, something that doesn't happen at any point in the film. There's also a series of Character Posters promoting the movie where the titular mermaid has her hair fashioned into a fish's tail, but that doesn't happen in the film either.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Towards the end of the scene, as Liu Xuan gets near-fatally injured by harpoons in an attempt to shield Shan, Ruolan tries shooting him again only for her henchman, the mercenary leader George, to stop her]].
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assasination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in a restaurant (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
* FunnyOctopus: Brother Octopus (played by the Taiwanese singer and comedian, Show Lo a.k.a "Piggy"), the film's resident ButtMonkey who decide to follow behind Shan to make sure she succeed on her quest, only to suffer one humiliating injury after another, like having his tentacles mutilated and getting decked out of a restaurant's windows.
* GreenAesop: Much of the film revolves around the importance of preserving the marine environment, with the development of the Green Gulf resort being depicted as highly-destructive to a group of benevolent merfolk living in the gulf, to the point where a mermaid is sent to assassinate the project's director. [[spoiler: The film even has a happy ending with Liu Xuan, having survived being shot by Ruolan, deciding to abandon the project and dedicate his research to preserving the environment]].
* HarpoonGun: Ruolan's mercenary army uses these weapons [[spoiler: in the finale when she order them to hunt down every single merfolk to extinction. She tries shooting Shan with one of these, but Liu Xuan got in the way]].
* HateSink: [[spoiler: Liu Xuan's partner, Ruolan, takes the cake for being the one character in the film the audience can despise. While Liu Xuan had a HeelRealization after realizing the damage his project is causing to the environment, Ruolan care only about the profit, turning on Liu Xuan and having him locked up before deciding to massacre the merfolk, and trying to kill Shan personally for "getting in her way"]].
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler: When Liu Xuan discovers the mermaids are ''real'', his project is harming the population, with Shan, the titular mermaid, saving his life from her kind. He immediately pulls the plug on the construction after escaping, only for Ruolan to take over]].
* HiddenVillain: The film seemingly doesn't have a villain for most of the first act, with Liu Xuan, the tycoon behind the Green Gulf project, being unaware that the sonar used for the Green Gulf's development is hurting the mermaid population. [[spoiler: But then the project is usurped by Liu's partner, Ruolan, who is willing to ''exterminate the mermaid population to extinction'' for the project to be completed]].
* InLoveWithTheMark: Shan's original mission is to assassinate Liu Xuan, the Green Gulf project's manager, to put a stop to his operations which is threatening the merfolk living underneath. She inevitably falls for him after Liu Xuan mistakens her for an escort and takes her back home, where they started bonding to the point where [[spoiler: Shan stops Octopus from killing Liu Xuan by hacking off one of his limbs]].
* JetPack: One of the various equipment developed by Liu Xuan's company, which he is shown testing a few times in the film, only for it to malfunction and throw him around in a comical manner. It's a build-up for a ChekhovsGun when [[spoiler: it finally works for real in the finale when Liu Xuan straps on the jetpack to rescue Shan and the other mermaids from Ruolan's mercenary army]].
* KaraokeBondingScene: Liu Xuan and Shan had one of these after spending a day in an amusement park. The song they chose, however, is the opening theme of the 1960s TV adaptation of ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'', for [[RuleOfFunny some really odd reason]].
* KillEmAll: Ruolan's final solution to the mermaid problem? [[spoiler: Sending her private mercenary army to drive them all out with explosives, and kill each and every single one of them]].
* {{Masquerade}}: Shan, the titular mermaid, blends in with human society by pretending to be one of them. [[spoiler: At the film's conclusion it's revealed she's permanently part of human society after marrying Liu Xuan]].
* ObliviouslyEvil: Liu Xuan's attempts to use sonar technology to drive away the population of marine life in order for the Green Gulf construction is destroying a peaceful community of merfolk living underneath, which he is oblivious about until he found out his lover, Shan, is a mermaid.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The mermaids in this film, for instance? They can shape-shift from merpeople to human form after years and years of practice, but must learn to walk like a human. Shan is one of the few mermaids who succeed in her training and volunteered to infiltrate human society, while her mentor, Octopus, being a mer-octopus, can easily walk around by twisting his tentacles into legs and hiding them in trousers.
* SeaHurtchin: One of the "weapons" utilized by Shan to kill Liu Xuan is a handful of sea urchins, but being a klutz she ends up stabbing a bunch of urchins in her face.
* SmallSecludedWorld: Shan and her fellow merpeople lives in an abandoned shipwreck underneath the Green Gulf, having been cut off from the world outside for several generations. They're implied to be the LastOfTheirKind.
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Near the end of the climax, Liu Xuan, in a last-dtich attempt to prove to Shan that his love for her is genuine, took two harpoons fired by mercenaries meant for her. He survives his injuries when the police arrive to investigate the sound of explosions and arrest Ruolan, George, and the other mercenaries]].
----
''The Mermaid'' is a 2016 Hong Kong fantasy-comedy-drama directed by Creator/StephenChow, starring Deng Chao, Show Lo, Kitty Zhang (Stephen's former collaborator from ''Film/CJ7'' and ''Shaolin Girl'') and newcomer "Jelly" Lin Yun as the titular character.
A small community of merpeople living underneath Hong Kong's Green Gulf, a coastal wildlife reserve, have their lives threatened when a property tycoon, Liu Xuan (Deng) and his business partner and second-in-command, Ruolan (Zhang) purchases the entire area for a land reclamation operation. With their project threatening all marine life in the area, and the sonar used by Liu's company causing multiple members of the merpeople to fall sick, it's up to a young mermaid girl named Shan (Lin) who's accommodated into human society to infiltrate Liu Xuan's company and assassinate him. But after a botched assassination attempt ends with an oblivious Liu sending Shan home and spending a day with her, Shan started having second thoughts on killing him.
And ''yes'', HilarityEnsues. Loads and loads of it.
A sequel, ''The Mermaid 2'', is slated for release in 2022.
----
!!''The Mermaid'' contain examples of:
* AmusingInjuries: It's not a Stephen Chow comedy ''without'' this trope.
** Shan, in her failed attempt to kill Liu Xuan during their dinner, gets a stack of papers flung at her, hit by an ashtray, [[TheDoorSlamsYou a door slammed on her by a random tech]], had urchins embedded on her face, have her [[{{Fingore}} fingers stepped on by Liu]] (who didn't notice her hiding under a table trying to ambush him) before ''[[ImpaledPalm stabbing herself through her hand]]]'' with her own knife and getting a [[GolfClubbing golf club into her cranium by accident]]. And it's all PlayedForLaughs. What takes the cake however is that Liu Xuan didn't even notice she's in ''the very same room as he is'' until he realize his golf club had hit something!
** Brother Octopus, pretending to be the cook of a Korean seafood restaurant Shan and Liu Xuan are dining in, repeatedly had his tentacles beaten, cut, mutilated, burnt and sliced off when the other cooks mistaken his exposed limbs as calamari. He shows up later with a bunch of his tentacles as bandaged stumps.
* BaitAndSwitch: When Shan pretends to be an attendant working for Liu Xuan (while trying to ''assassinate him'') a bunch of Liu Xuan's bodyguards run her through with a metal detector. At one point it seems her cover is going to be blown when the detector starts beeping, at which point Shan thought her hidden knife is being spotted, but turns out the detector caught a stray nail stuck to her shoe.
* ButtMonkey: Shan and Brother Octopus repeatedly runs into various AmusingInjuries just for entertainment's sake.
* TheCameo:
** Veteran Hong Kong producers and directors, Chiu Chi-ling and Tsui-Hark have walk-on cameos in the movie that doesn't have any bearing on the plot.
** There's also Creator/KrisWu as a random student in the final scene. [[spoiler: He's the one who interviewed Liu Xuan and Mrs. Liu, a.k.a Shan, about their company's marine preservation project's efforts]].
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Subverted with Liu Xuan, the tycoon developing the Green Gulf development who is unaware his project is driving the mermaid population to extinction. [[spoiler: His partner Ruolan is a much straighter example]].
* CoversAlwaysLie: For some baffling reason, the film's poster and DVD covers (one right on the top) frequently depicts the ''giant'' tail of some unseen fish monster coming out of the ocean, something that doesn't happen at any point in the film. There's also a series of Character Posters promoting the movie where the titular mermaid has her hair fashioned into a fish's tail, but that doesn't happen in the film either.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Towards the end of the scene, as Liu Xuan gets near-fatally injured by harpoons in an attempt to shield Shan, Ruolan tries shooting him again only for her henchman, the mercenary leader George, to stop her]].
* FallingInLoveMontage: After Liu Xuan decide to escort Shan home (the latter having knocked ''herself'' out in a failed assasination attempt) the two of them spend some time together, firstly in a restaurant (with an impromptu karaoke duet) and later in an amusement park where Shan decides to show Liu Xuan there's more to life than making money. They then started having feelings for each other.
* FunnyOctopus: Brother Octopus (played by the Taiwanese singer and comedian, Show Lo a.k.a "Piggy"), the film's resident ButtMonkey who decide to follow behind Shan to make sure she succeed on her quest, only to suffer one humiliating injury after another, like having his tentacles mutilated and getting decked out of a restaurant's windows.
* GreenAesop: Much of the film revolves around the importance of preserving the marine environment, with the development of the Green Gulf resort being depicted as highly-destructive to a group of benevolent merfolk living in the gulf, to the point where a mermaid is sent to assassinate the project's director. [[spoiler: The film even has a happy ending with Liu Xuan, having survived being shot by Ruolan, deciding to abandon the project and dedicate his research to preserving the environment]].
* HarpoonGun: Ruolan's mercenary army uses these weapons [[spoiler: in the finale when she order them to hunt down every single merfolk to extinction. She tries shooting Shan with one of these, but Liu Xuan got in the way]].
* HateSink: [[spoiler: Liu Xuan's partner, Ruolan, takes the cake for being the one character in the film the audience can despise. While Liu Xuan had a HeelRealization after realizing the damage his project is causing to the environment, Ruolan care only about the profit, turning on Liu Xuan and having him locked up before deciding to massacre the merfolk, and trying to kill Shan personally for "getting in her way"]].
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler: When Liu Xuan discovers the mermaids are ''real'', his project is harming the population, with Shan, the titular mermaid, saving his life from her kind. He immediately pulls the plug on the construction after escaping, only for Ruolan to take over]].
* HiddenVillain: The film seemingly doesn't have a villain for most of the first act, with Liu Xuan, the tycoon behind the Green Gulf project, being unaware that the sonar used for the Green Gulf's development is hurting the mermaid population. [[spoiler: But then the project is usurped by Liu's partner, Ruolan, who is willing to ''exterminate the mermaid population to extinction'' for the project to be completed]].
* InLoveWithTheMark: Shan's original mission is to assassinate Liu Xuan, the Green Gulf project's manager, to put a stop to his operations which is threatening the merfolk living underneath. She inevitably falls for him after Liu Xuan mistakens her for an escort and takes her back home, where they started bonding to the point where [[spoiler: Shan stops Octopus from killing Liu Xuan by hacking off one of his limbs]].
* JetPack: One of the various equipment developed by Liu Xuan's company, which he is shown testing a few times in the film, only for it to malfunction and throw him around in a comical manner. It's a build-up for a ChekhovsGun when [[spoiler: it finally works for real in the finale when Liu Xuan straps on the jetpack to rescue Shan and the other mermaids from Ruolan's mercenary army]].
* KaraokeBondingScene: Liu Xuan and Shan had one of these after spending a day in an amusement park. The song they chose, however, is the opening theme of the 1960s TV adaptation of ''Literature/TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes'', for [[RuleOfFunny some really odd reason]].
* KillEmAll: Ruolan's final solution to the mermaid problem? [[spoiler: Sending her private mercenary army to drive them all out with explosives, and kill each and every single one of them]].
* {{Masquerade}}: Shan, the titular mermaid, blends in with human society by pretending to be one of them. [[spoiler: At the film's conclusion it's revealed she's permanently part of human society after marrying Liu Xuan]].
* ObliviouslyEvil: Liu Xuan's attempts to use sonar technology to drive away the population of marine life in order for the Green Gulf construction is destroying a peaceful community of merfolk living underneath, which he is oblivious about until he found out his lover, Shan, is a mermaid.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The mermaids in this film, for instance? They can shape-shift from merpeople to human form after years and years of practice, but must learn to walk like a human. Shan is one of the few mermaids who succeed in her training and volunteered to infiltrate human society, while her mentor, Octopus, being a mer-octopus, can easily walk around by twisting his tentacles into legs and hiding them in trousers.
* SeaHurtchin: One of the "weapons" utilized by Shan to kill Liu Xuan is a handful of sea urchins, but being a klutz she ends up stabbing a bunch of urchins in her face.
* SmallSecludedWorld: Shan and her fellow merpeople lives in an abandoned shipwreck underneath the Green Gulf, having been cut off from the world outside for several generations. They're implied to be the LastOfTheirKind.
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Near the end of the climax, Liu Xuan, in a last-dtich attempt to prove to Shan that his love for her is genuine, took two harpoons fired by mercenaries meant for her. He survives his injuries when the police arrive to investigate the sound of explosions and arrest Ruolan, George, and the other mercenaries]].
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