Giant Fish (2020)

The title really should be called Bycatch. Missed opportunity.

I can't read a lick of Chinese characters so I have no clue who the people are in this. MDL has no info, either, about who cooked up this strange story. We essentially have a fisherman's son who runs the shop, some bored 20-something delinquents who steal from his rich friend who then asks him to help retrieve the bike or whatever was stolen this time etc... they fight, they race, they do small town bored 20 something stuff... and in a race they encounter a pretty girl on the road and it's not totally clear if she just collapsed or the ML hit her, but he obviously stops racing unlike the other twit and takes her to the hospital. To raise suspicion, she's barely wearing a nightgown and is barefoot. I very briefly thought perhaps she would be some victim of sexual assault or something... nope. That white nightie is a bit damp. There's our land bound mermaid.

From here the story gets a bit, well, rushed and basic, so basic. Any time I can remember over 80% of anything over an hour when over an hour has passed since viewing, eh, it is pretty doggone basic BUT to be fair it also means the scenes were all distinct and visually really memorable. THAT is where this has a definite plus from me-it is visually as varied as some 20+ hour dramas I've seen if not moreso, and we change elevation, lighting, 'class' (wealth perception), safety, etc in a hurry with nothing but very clear visual cues from the sets. The story that takes place IN each setting, though, gets kinda meh. Ooh, the hurt pride guy sees you interested in a girl... opportunity to take a hostage and gather your pals to beat him up, right? Geez. It's a bit too full of cliches to love.

I'll leave the end story spoilers out because it looks like I'm one of the first few to actually see it who use MDL, but while the acting was mostly fine, it didn't grip me, touch me, make me deeply sad, etc. Things felt watered down/rated G. Nothing really hit me the way I would expect it to considering my stance on environmental issues, my sensitivity to violence, etc... I think it'd be different if the dialogue/voice over material was in Korean since I could just listen and be immersed-if the dialogue is any better in the native language, that is, and not actually this incredibly simple (not always bad but... here, it felt a bit lame, elementary, and just boring). The subs where I watched it (kissasian but their file already had hard subs in it when it was uploaded) were occasionally awful in that they don't have very thick or dark/high contrast borders/shadows-shading like they should and when the screen would have part of it be bright the subs kind of disappear, making me go back for a story I hadn't really gotten any sense of desperation or pain or fluttering or giddiness for-if a story is good, I don't mind repeating a scene if I didn't catch everything (not ideal but worth it to get all the subs read!)...

I can completely believe that the FL is a majestic sea creature, though... the girl is incredibly beautiful WHOEVER she is (the sea creature? Not as convincing beauty-wise). The older man from her inland village kept reminding me of Kam Woo Sung to a point where I was constantly startled when his face was shown. The ceremony thing... oof, just creepy AF. Drug her, serve some of her family for dinner, and have her run off only to get hurt solely for the purpose of fame? Delusional creep. The sea devoured the wrong folks.

Now onto the reason this was made, maybe, the propaganda which in this case I wouldn't mind if it did a good job of selling their point. Alas, they did a rather lousy job integrating it. Was this ACTUALLY a school project and you just happen to have a really connected teacher who'll get you some people to make something aesthetically sufficient while you sell us on nature?! The message was kinda just WEIRD because teaching about species extinction through a fantasy creature is just... that's just bonkers. I do appreciate that this one does not retain the head and bust, though. It's more believable in that respect (and yes we all came from the sea, whales with legs so to speak)... but I dunno, the whole 'you don't know what you got til it's gone' (song lyrics used, possibly misquoted) idea here is a little flimsy-taking care of nature etc... only works in this case if you're advocating veganism... for overfishing, there are plenty of actual species we no longer have-river trout etc. Protecting nature as a whole... I'd say this is more a golden rule or children inherit the sins of their parents kind of story or just 'don't be a dick' plus a bit of only take what you need... those I can totally see integrating here. To really make the moral thrown at us make sense, we have to actually believe there were fish-human transformers that we just happened to make extinct. That's a bit freaky a premise. This felt a little too aimed at adolescents, perhaps, but also felt immensely odd coming out of China given how THEY are pushing for wealth and fame at the cost of their land, clean water, fish, and so many species.

This turned into something way too long. In any case, it's a 5-pretty to look at but dull in dialogue and script actions, what I can't help but call mediocre, entirely mediocre.

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