From Hitchcock’s Sabotage to Apocalypse Now , the works of Jospeh Conrad have usually made damn fine sea-crossings from page to screen. But there are exceptions. Here, ship captain ‘Konrad’ (Jack Laskey) is bribed to scuttle his own vessel for the insurance; but will he have a change of heart after hiding a stowaway (a mermaid-like Zhu Zhu) from his crew?
If Conrad’s original story dealt with themes of duality and self-transformation, this is rather more ‘Hallmark Movie Of The Week’ territory; a Vaseline-lenses romance plonked rudely into what looks like an infinitely more interesting and gritty study of Chinese sailors.
