Both leads give performances that go beyond their usual range in a satire that’s sometimes diverting but ultimately toothless. Entertainment veteran Shirley Yung, who directs, should know better

A playboy business tycoon, Liu Xuan, purchases the Green Gulf, a wildlife reserve, for a sea reclamation project, and uses sonar technology to get rid of the sea life in the area. Unknown to him, the Green Gulf is the home of merpeople, and the sonar has caused many of them to succumb to illness or die. Xuan’s business ventures in the area are threatened when he crosses paths with the mermaid, Shan, who is sent to avenge her people.

Ti, a really poor construction worker that struggles to keep his son, Dicky, in private school, mistakes an orb he finds in a junkjard for a toy which proves to be much, much more once the young boy starts to play with it.

A night like any other in the streets of Hong Kong: in the midst of the tangle of night-owls, cars and vendors, a group of passengers climbs aboard a minibus that is to take them from Mongkok to Tai Po. The group is as diverse as the city: there’s a young man on drugs, an arguing couple, a woman with prayer beads and a girl who has just fallen in love. And behind the wheel sits the chatty driver. But as the bus emerges from a tunnel, everything is suddenly quite still: the streets and buildings are all empty and there’s not a soul to be seen; it’s as if everyone has suddenly been swallowed by the earth. Only the millions of neon lights continue to blink, as if nothing has happened. The eclectic group of passengers seek refuge in a deserted café and discuss what they should do. Then they make an horrific discovery…

In a world plagued by demons who cause great human suffering, young demon hunter Xuan Zang risks his all to conquer a water demon, a pig demon and the demon of all demons, Sun Wukong.