''Big Red Envelope'' () is a 2021

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film written and directed by Li Kelong and starring

Bao Bei'er Bao Bei'er (; born 3 May 1984) is a Chinese actor. He is noted for his roles as Lu Maoku and Zhang Kai in the films ''Welcome to Shama Town'' and '' So Young'' respectively. Early life Bao was born and raised in Harbin, Heilongjiang, his paren ...

, Clara Lee, Jia Bing, Zhang Yiming, Xu Juncong,

Wang Xiaoli Wang Xiaoli (; born 24 June 1989) is a Chinese badminton player who is a doubles specialist. In 2012, she competed at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Career In 2005, she joined the Chinese national second team and officially became the f ...

, Liao Weiwei, and Yue Yueli. It is a remake of director Li Kelong's own 2014 film ''Cash Gift''. It was released in China on 22 January 2021.

Plot

Office workers Chen Zhong and Da Rui trick British Chinese actress Ellie into playing the part of Chen Zhong's bride at a fake wedding, so that they can collect

red envelopes In East and Southeast Asian cultures, a red envelope, red packet or red pocket () is a monetary gift given during holidays or for special occasions such as a wedding, a graduation, or the birth of a baby. Although the red envelope was populari ...

full of cash from their co-workers. But Chen Zhong's ex-girlfriend Du Ying realizes that their marriage isn't real and tries to expose their deception. According to director Zhao Ji, the film is intended as a commentary on modern Chinese society, where gifts of red envelopes have become so frequent as to be stressful.

Cast

as Chen Zhong * Clara Lee as Ellie * Jia Bing as Qian Haoshi *Zhang Yiming as Da Rui *Xu Juncong as Gangzi *

as Ellie's fake father *Liao Weiwei as Du Ying * Yue Yueli as Ellie's real father

Release

In December 2020, a promotional poster was released and the film's release date was announced as 29 January 2021. On 17 January 2021 it was announced that the release would be moved up a week, and the film was released in China on 22 January 2021. According to data from Maoyan a few days after the film's release, more than 60% of people who expressed interest in seeing it were from third and fourth tier cities, and nearly half of viewers were from fourth-tier cities. 70% of customers who rated the film were male. On its first day, ''Big Red Envelope'' made

RMB The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

12.47 million at the box office. It grossed a total of RMB 235 million.

Reception

The film received a rating of 4.8 out of 10 on

Douban Douban.com (), launched on 6 March 2005, is a Chinese online database and social networking service that allows registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, recent events, and activities in Chinese c ...

, 8.4 out of 10 on

Taopiaopiao Tao Piao Piao (, lit: 'hunting for tickets'), or Taopiaopiao , is an online movie ticket distributor and film promotion service. Together, Taopiaopiao and its main rival Maoyan control approximately 80 percent of movie ticket sales in China. Form ...

, and 8.5 out of 10 on Maoyan. Viewers criticized the sexualization of Clara Lee's character, saying that she is portrayed through the male gaze as a form of male wish fulfillment. Critic Yuan Shan described the film as a sex comedy that values lust over love, and argued that the film's focus on sexuality detracted from its attempts at social critique. Viewers also complained that the romantic plot line, in which Ellie falls in love with Chen Zhong because they kiss, was unrealistic.

Derek Elley Derek Elley (born c. 1955) is an American film and music critic and author, best known as the resident film critic for ''Variety'' until his departure in March 2010. With over 1200 reviews to his credit as of December 2014 on ''Rotten Tomatoes'', h ...

wrote that "the droll tone of the first half gets thinner and thinner during the over-long wedding sequence and the lengthy shenanigans thereafter, with the characters evoking no real emotion by the end." Nonetheless, there were some positive reviews. ''Rhinoceros Entertainment'' wrote that while the film wasn't highbrow, it satisfied most of its audience with a story grounded in their everyday lives.

References

External links

* *{{Mtime, 264189 Chinese romantic comedy films 2021 romantic comedy films 2021 films 2020s Mandarin-language films Remakes of Chinese films