The Mermaid: Monster from Sea Prison

This Chinese historical-fantasy movie, which also goes by the English title Mermaid in the Fog, follows Chen Zheng, the young patriarch of a family that has been responsible for taming the seas and hunting merfolk for generations. Cheng Zheng has been raised to believe the merfolk are monsters, and that a mermaid killed his wife, but when he goes hunting he encounters a mermaid (Zhao Ying Zi) who saves his life. Repeatedly, even.

The mermaid's kindness gives Cheng Zheng doubts about the righteousness of his cause, but even as the mermaid weeps for him, he grits his teeth and follows the commands of the Emperor and the beseeching of his family to uphold his filial responsibilities. Cheng Zheng learns the truth that mermaids were framed and hunted to near extinction in order to harvest their tears, but even that truth isn't enough. It's only when it's too late and the mermaid has sacrificed her life so that he can live that he finally takes a stance. And so it goes.

I don't think the mermaid gets a name? The story isn't about her anyway. She's the last of her kind and appears both with legs and with a tail, though her whole look is very CGI and her only thing is that she loves Cheng Zheng since the time they saw each other when they were children.

The movies on youtube with English subtitles  HERE