Mermaid

This short film is about a man who met a fish and starts to see hallucinations. He begins to see the fish as a mermaid, which the people in his country couldn’t accept and forced him to face the reality by making him undergo various kinds of rehabilitation. The man returns the fish back to the ocean in the end as he could no longer see it as a mermaid.

This short film gave me weird vibes when I watched it for the first time in class. Watching the man see hallucinations until the end was too unrealistic that I thought it was more of a film to raise awareness about mental disorder and depression. However, as I watched it over for a couple of times, I soon began to pay attention to the characters such as the police, the doctors, the government and others. It seemed like the man was not allowed to have different kinds of views and values. Considering these reasons and the era this short film was made, I have reached the conclusion that this is a short film criticizing the forced unification of the nation at the time, not allowing people to have freedom of imaginations.

The man who was forced by the people to face reality, begins to see the fish as a mermaid again in the last scene. In my opinion, this means even in a country where he couldn’t have freedom, and was always forced to think and move the same as the people around, he still managed to retain his individuality and values in the end.