華萊士人魚

by Shunji Iwai, 岩井俊二, 孟海霞 (Translator)

這是一個沒有人說過的故事，
親眼見過的人，最後都選擇沉默。
「我們從不渴望變成人。即便有愛，也希望人類遺忘我們的存在。」

「對我而言，這個故事可以說是命中注定。」
日本全方位創作大師　岩井俊二　唯一無法影視化長篇巨作！

地球有70%是水。
然而，此刻生活在30%陸地上的人類，又是從何而來？
事情早就開始了，很多人都已經知道了；但他們不會說，也不能說……

十九世紀末，與達爾文共同發表進化論的生物學家華萊士，留下《香港人魚錄》這本奇書後與世長辭；
2012年，太平洋小島外海頻繁發生無法解釋的魔音現象，深海魚群一一浮上水面；
三年後，日本沖繩一場海難，沉睡海中兩個月的少年奇蹟生還；
緊接著，全球頂尖科學家悄悄聚集到佛羅里達，組成神秘的研究小組……

在世人尚未察覺之前，一切已經緩緩展開──
立誓守護人魚的發現者、因私欲而瘋狂的科學家、人魚與人類生下的混血兒，以及長壽百年的人魚一族。
人類和人魚究竟有何不同？我們在什麼時候決定了自己的命運？
數百萬年來，沉寂無風的汪洋大海，無悔地燃燒著瑰麗而絕望的生命之火。
懸疑、淒美、殘酷，卻又教人不自覺地深陷其中。

Genres: Fiction

420 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

岩井俊二

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shunji Iwai, the director who brought us spellbinding, poetic, beautiful movies such as Love Letter, had once again left me breathless with his amazingly imaginative part fantasy, part Sci-Fi novel Wōresu No Ningyo (Wallace's Mermaid).

I read the Chinese translation of the book. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...)

At the beginning, a book written by a British scientist named Wallace at 1890s, was discovered. The book is titled 'Tales of Hong Kong Merfolks', it tells a strange tale about the author Wallace, bought a living female mermaid from a freak show in Hong Kong. Wallace claimed that the female mermaid later gave birth to a girl who looked outwardly human and can lived on land, and this girl in turn married her unrelated brother, the heir of her adapted family.

Everyone thinks Wallace had gone mad publishing an absurd book like this and claiming what he wrote in the book was fact. But by the year 2012, a merman was discovered at a Southern Pacific island (and then died under mysterious condition); three years later, a Japanese young man was rescued after two months of being lost at sea but he had no memory of how he had managed to survive underwater. What had happened to the young man? What had happened to Wallace's female mermaid and her daughter? Had the blood of merfolks been passed down through generations? Soon the secrets of merfolks are in danger of being exposed, what would happen in the end?

It's a tale about the mysterious mermaid race (merfolks or merpeople) and don't you worry, despite of the subject matter, Mr. Iwai's book is a refreshing take of the mermaids myth. He came up with original, stunning yet bewildering ideas about mermaids while keeping his tone realistic (as realistic as a part Sci-Fi novel can get anyway). I love how Mr. Iwai handles his ideas and plots while always manages to take his readers by surprise with his finely planted plot twists.

Last but not least, you would be shocked by how Mr. Iwai imagines the strange nature of merfolks (in the story, they're aquatic humanoids; and the supposed missing links of human's evolution) especially the mating between mermen and mermaids or mermaids and humans!

Although as a Hongkonger, I did notice Mr. Iwai had made a few painfully obvious mistakes when he wrote about Hong Kong---it's all too clearly that Mr. Iwai's Hong Kong exists mostly in Hong Kong movies and comics. For example, he mistook that the Hong Kong International Airport is still located at Kwoloon by the time of the year 2015 when said airport had long been relocated to somewhere else. This kind of mistake does seriously damaged the realistic tone of the story.

I always know Mr. Iwai has a fascination with Hong Kong and its many curious tradition, it shows in both his movies and his books; but sadly he doesn't always present this city and its cultures accurately. =__=

Plus I also noticed the characters,as likable as they are; still all of them are flat and there isn't much development in them, but the enjoyable and refreshing plots keep me reading no matter what, so I decided to give this book four stars.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to pick up this book after a friend's recommendation, and I was not disappointed. You definitely need to approach this story with an open mind as it is quite crazy and bizarre (in a good way).

Instead of a weird fantasy tale about mermaids, there are elements of science and human evolution. The book was an easy read yet allured me in bold imagination and smooth writing.

Overall, it's an amazing storytelling that takes a unique twist on the legendary aquatic creature and turns it into a beautiful fairytale that will leave you in tears.

[Wallflowering · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Wallace and a Mermaid" by Shunji Iwai

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

「水の球体は少年と少女を包み込み、雨を吸い取り、みるみる膨らんでゆく。やがてそれは一滴の雫になって闇に向かって落下する。」393ページ

What a strange, unexpected story. Frightening in the beginning, philosophical in the middle, and something completely different in the end.

In author Iwai Shunji's 2000 paperback edition afterword, he said a fellow film maker wanted him to help with writing a mermaid story. At the time, Iwai had no interest in mermaids. He went with the colleague to film opening shots in Australia. They sat in a small boat rocked by waves, trying to find whales. Iwai was miserable, kind of like the character Hisoka when we first meet him on a small boat. Using recorded sounds to try and call whales, something unforgettable happened. A whale shot up from the water before Iwai's very eyes. The wonder and amazement of that moment had Iwai thinking what would happen if humans encountered something else beyond words in the sea. That moment was where this story began to take shape.

The first quarter of the book is suspenseful because the reader really has no idea what the mermaids are nor what they are capable of. Iwai creates a being that is complicated. The mermaids of this story have a completely different way of communicating where words are "placed" as in （名前）が声を置く。Part three brings the reader into that world where words are of water. It honestly made the whole book worth reading and everything before it built up to it. What should be nauseatingly horrifying comes across as beautiful in its own way.

In the end, there's a moment that reaches beyond the science fantasy of this novel as a perfect metaphor for identity when coming from two different cultural backgrounds. The mother's desire was not to raise her child in one culture or the other, but to understand that her child was her own being. The maternal love in this novel knew no bounds.

This is the longest book I've read in Japanese so far. I tried not to open my dictionary, but sometimes the actions happening on the page were so bizarre that I was doubting if I was reading it right. I also had some trouble understanding the discussions around ecology, evolution, and society which was literally the name of a class I took in university. But by taking my time on that conversation talking about otters, other marine mammals, and naked mole rats, I was nodding my head like, ok, so mermaids aren't TOTALLY outside the realm of possibility. There were also some difficult discussions in part one surrounding the ethics of what gives someone the right to capture and study something so far beyond their scope of understanding.

As for the characters, I liked Jessie and Billie. The dad Ryan had a good arc connecting with his daughter and accepting her. Hisoka was quite unlikable in the beginning when he was first introduced and I had no idea where his story was headed. The good thing is that all the stories are connected.

Shoutout to part one for having me at the edge of my seat wondering what was going on. The scientists were playing recorded dolphin sounds at other dolphins while on a boat out at sea. Then suddenly, bits and pieces of their own conversations are played back to them on loop. Strange deep sea fish that should be nowhere near the surface appear. The confusion isn't random. It's calculated.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

人鱼的特殊能力让人很惊奇，但也面临灭亡的风险

[Tomoko Isobe · Rating 5 out of 5]

人魚の生態が面白かったですよ。