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Happy Times [2002]


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Hidden gem
Review date: 2008-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a beautiful film, deeply touching. A bachelor goes in search of a wife. This being China, he wants his wife to bring him status, and lies about his own status... this shallowness is wonderfully exposed when he ends up caring for a blind girl, he lies that he can give her work as a masseuse in his hotel. He has to call on his friends, and they painstakingly construct a massage-parlour in their disused steel-mill, and then pretend to be her customers - which results in some scenes I will never forget. The parlour is meant to be an intimate space, but instead it is sat in a huge warehouse, with an audience. The humour is gentle, coming from the silly and increasingly tenuous situation, and the charming, bumbling, out-of-their-depth but well-meaning old people. The film is about contrasts; shallowness and depth of character, pretend and real feelings, selfishness and sacrifice. The film's message is as profound as it gets: if you don't take risks, you will never discover yourself.

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Reviews


A Great Director at work!!!!
Review date: 2007-06-11 Rating: 8 out of 10

Xingfu Shiguang (2000) or "Happy Times Hotel" is a gem of a film. It has some laugh-out load moments yet is perfectly balanced with tragedy. It reminded me somewhat of Mike Leigh's "All Or Nothing".

The acting, as with all films directed by Zhang Yimou, is of the highest caliber. Not one performance can be faulted.

The editing and camera work again cannot be faulted. The art direction was perfect.

The more I see this director's work the more I feel he is the most talented film director alive today. He continues to produce motion pictures of such a high standard and with such consistency that comparisons are bound to be made.

Ultimately Disappointing
Review date: 2007-03-25 Rating: 6 out of 10

I really wanted to like this film - and there are some things to like about it - but in the end, it fails. The publicity for this film repeatedly calls it `hilarious'; it isn't. It does have its amusing moments and it is not without charm, but it isn't a funny film. There is tenderness from the character of Zhao, ably played by Zhao Benshan, from his friends and from the character of Wu, a competent performance by Dong Jie. Zhao is a lonely bachelor trying to find a wife. The repulsive character he pursues dumps her blind stepdaughter on him, believing him to be a hotel owner - a deception he has encouraged to improve his standing. He constructs an elaborate sham to convince Wu that she is a gainfully employed person. Of course, the deception fails and she reveals that she knew it all along - and there the film just stops and she wanders off alone.
This is not an enigmatic ending with viewers left to project their own interpretation of where it goes from there - it just stops as if everyone had got bored with it and decided to call it a day. It is less than the sum of its parts, which is a pity because it could have been a good film. In the end though, it is just disappointing.

A modern parable
Review date: 2004-09-08 Rating: 10 out of 10


I see this as a tale of 20th C China. Wu is the people, enslaved under the imperial regime (complete with little emperor). Zhao & his friends represent the old men of the post-imperial government who take the runined shell of China and renovate it (even painting it red!). They create work for the people, and happiness of a sort, but the whole system is flawed, being built on lie upon lie. Eventually, even the imprisoned, blinded people start to discover the truth and realise they have to make their own life. Even then, an "official" continues to recite the lies, written by a dead man (draw your own parallels here!), to his "people", but he is talking to a ghost and the people are no longer listening. And the father? Well, he ran off to an island somewhere with all the cash.

Whatever. It's beautifully made, wonderfully acted, a must for Zhang Yimou fans. And like me, you can have fun making up hidden meanings. But although there are some amusing moments, the Happy Times are few.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jie Dong
Lifan Dong
Biao Fu
Xuejian Li
Benshan Zhao

Creators:
Lifan Dong (Primary Contributor)
Benshan Zhao (Primary Contributor)
Edward R. Pressman (Producer)
Erin O'Rourke (Producer)
Lizhong Qiao (Producer)
Ping Zhou (Producer)
Qinglong Yang (Producer)
Terrence Malick (Producer)
Gai Zi (Writer)
Yan Mo (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036011655
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2003-06-16
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 93 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2002
Language: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: English (Subtitled)

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