Chow's Mermaid makes box-office waves

WITH its plot kept under wraps tighter than Liam Neeson shielding the identity of his secret girlfriend, one would have thought Stephen Chow's latest film The Mermaid must be so bad the studio didn't want fans or critics catching wind of it before it hit the big screen.

But the fantasy-comedy's stellar performance at the box office says it all. Raking in US$42 million, it set a new record for the opening day of a domestic film in China.

That's hardly surprising because The Mermaid is classic Chow. His brand of "mou lei tau" (Cantonese for nonsensical) comedy, which spawned a sub-genre in Hong Kong cinema, is still there even though these days he's no longer acting in front of the camera and has instead moved behind it as a director and writer.