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Once Upon A Lie (2025) [N/A]

Featuring:
Irene Wan

Directed by:
Ho-Cheung Pang


Release Date:
March 23, 2025

Original Title:
謊島美人魚

Alternate Titles:
如果人魚不劈腿

Genres:
Drama | Romance

Production Companies:
Emperor Entertainment Group
Emperor Motion Pictures
Irene Production Limited

Production Countries:
Hong Kong

Ratings / Certifications:
HK: IIB 

Overview from TheMovieDB

Online movie critic known for his sharp reviews, has now become an AI to dish the dirt on the latest cinematic disaster, "The Mermaid Falls for Me." A struggling writer who's close to his mom, stumbles into an online romance with a fan of his work. He thinks he's hit the jackpot in love and heads to an island for a mix of business and pleasure. But when his internet sweetheart is a no-show and his writing gig goes south, He's left high and dry. That's when he unexpectedly connects with Wen, his innkeeper, who's actually his online crush in disguise—a woman healing from a broken heart through her anonymous internet persona. Wen, once shy and lacking confidence, comes alive with the writer’s flirty chats. The writer inspired by Wen, invites her to co-write a new spin on the tired mermaid story. But as they finish, life throws a wrench in the works: His mom falls ill. In the emotional chaos, he finds out Wen was his mystery girl all along. He reacts badly, and Wen leaves, heartbroken.

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Rankings and Honors

Once Upon A Lie (2025) on IMDb
Awards Won: 1 nomination

Performers

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Production

Director:
Stanley Liu Ming Yin

Executive Producer:
Edmond Pang
Kenny Chan

Music Director:
Peter Kam Pau-Tat

Writer:
Stanley Liu Ming Yin
Emily Chan

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While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

  • I added "runners up" to Top 10 lists, treating them as ties where applicable and numbering them accordingly at the bottom of each list.
  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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