''Happy Times'' () is a 2000

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

film directed by

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retriev ...

, starring

Zhao Benshan Zhao Benshan (; born 2 October 1957) is a Chinese skit and sitcom actor, comedian, television director, and businessman. Originally from Liaoning province, Zhao has appeared on the CCTV New Year's Gala, a widely watched performing arts program, ...

and

Dong Jie Dong Jie (, born 19 April 1980) is a Chinese actress and dancer. Dong made her debut in Zhang Yimou's '' Happy Times'' (2000) ( Yimou girl), playing a blind girl mistreated by her stepmother. Zhang selected Dong after a casting call on the Int ...

. It is based loosely on the short story, ''Shifu: You'll Do Anything for a Laugh'' () by

Mo Yan Guan Moye (; born 17 February 1955), better known by the pen name Mo Yan (, ), is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. Donald Morrison of U.S. news magazine ''TIME'' referred to him as "one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirate ...

; the story appears in English translation in the collection of the same title translated by

Howard Goldblatt Howard Goldblatt (, born 1939) is a literary translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese (mainland China & Taiwan) fiction, including '' The Taste of Apples'' by Huang Chunming and '' The Execution of Mayor Yin'' by Chen Ruoxi. Goldblatt ...

. Though the story and the film share a common opening, they begin to diverge almost immediately.

Plot

In the city of

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

, an old and laid-off factory worker (played by

) seeks to marry an obese and divorced middle-aged woman (

Dong Lifan Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Persons *Queen Dong (1623–1681), princes ...

), who he hopes will bring him warmth and comfort in life. So he sets out desperately to find a way to make money for the posh wedding he has promised. The hapless man and his friend (

Fu Biao Fu Biao (September 27, 1963 – August 30, 2005) was a Chinese actor. Biography Fu Biao was born in the family of an army officer on September 27, 1963, in Beijing. After graduating from high school, he entered a film academy in Beijing to learn ...

) decide to renovate a broken bus on top of a hill that is popular for romantic couples. He turns this bus into a small dwelling he names "Happy Times Hotel," which he will rent to willing couples visiting the hill. As he brags about his newly opened "hotel" and how much money he is making, he finds himself entrusted with the care of the woman's emaciated, blind stepdaughter Wu Ying (

), who is unwanted in the house. Not willing to expose his scheme and ruin his attempt to get married, the man enlists the help of his retired co-workers, who agree to do all they can to make the lonely girl happy at her new job as a

masseuse Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...

in the "hotel." As the story unfolds, a touching friendship between the childless man and the dejected, orphaned girl under his care develops, leading to a moving and surprising conclusion. Although the film was criticized as sentimental, it has a sharp eye for the absurdities generated both by China's socialist past, and by the encroaching capitalism. The two endings, one for the domestic audience and the other for the international audience, suggest a bleak future for those left behind in China's rush to power and wealth.

Cast

Li Xuejian Li Xuejian (; born February 20, 1954) is a Chinese actor. He played the role Song Jiang in ''The Water Margin'', a 1998 television series adapted from the Chinese classical novel of the same title. Li also played the roles of military personne ...

Niu Ben Zhang Xuejing (张学景, Tianjin, 1935-), stagename Niu Ben (牛犇) is a Chinese film actor. Biography He lost both of his parents at the age of six, then lived with his oldest brother, who worked as a driver at the third film factory in Beij ...

* Tao Hong (cameo) *

Sun Honglei Sun Honglei (; born 16 August 1970) is a Chinese actor. Early life Sun was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, on 16 August 1970. Sun developed an interest in acting and performances at a young age. He often skipped school to learn breakdancing on the ...

(cameo) * Fan Wei (cameo)

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

, reports that 72% of 60 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "One of Zhang's smaller films, Happy Times is nevertheless moving and bittersweet."

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 ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "a modern-day character comedy with a touching edge", comparing it to 1960s European character comedies. In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', A. O. Scott described it as "a wise, gentle and sad new comedy" whose sentimentality "reverberates discreetly underneath a rough, matter-of-fact surface".

References

External links

Official site
from

Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...

*
Official site
from Fox Japan * * *
Happy Times - Film location map in Dalian
{{Mo Yan 2000 films Chinese comedy-drama films 2000s Mandarin-language films Films set in Liaoning Films about blind people Films directed by Zhang Yimou Chinese New Year films 2000 comedy-drama films 2000s Chinese films

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links