Laikals
The greatest movie ever made..!
2hotFeature
one of my absolute favorites!
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Paul Magne Haakonsen
Being a fan of Asian cinema, I decided to give this movie a go, so I purchased it from Amazon, and having just seen it, I can honestly say that I think something is missing from this movie. It is a great movie, but there is just something missing to make it that one notch more memorable. And I must admit that I had expected the movie to be more of a comedy than a drama about life.**Warning! The following part here contains spoiler to the ending of the movie.**Perhaps it was the semi-lousy ending to the movie. After all of Zhao's (played by Benshan Zhao) effort to give Wu Ying (played by Jie Dong) a purpose in life and make her life meaningful, he ends up in a hospital, and we don't get to know his fate? That was not very satisfactory to me. However, I will say that seeing Wu Ying on the street alone walking off at the end was just beautiful. It was nice to see that she was determined to make an effort and try on her own.The story itself was nice, Zhao is courting a woman (played by Qibin Leng) and ends up having to take care of her blind girl. But with little means and nothing real to offer, Zhao is put to the test. A test of the heart, so to speak.I found the acting in "Happy Times Hotel" to be quite good, and most memorable was Jie Dong. She portrayed the blind girl, Wu Ying, so nicely and so believable."Happy Times Hotel" is a great movie, a beautiful movie, just a shame that it started to fall apart towards the end. The movie could have been so much more if the director (Yimou Zhang) had opted to go a different direction. I felt that us viewers were left with so many unanswered questions to the story, and that was a shame, because it made the movie feel incomplete. But still, given the great story, then this movie is well worth checking out.
Meganeguard
After China opened itself to the world in 1980, and especially after Tiananmen, it began a huge process of modernization to fuel the potential for its economic growth; however, everyone was not involved in this whirlwind of development. While many younger entrepreneurs were able to take advantage of the massive changes, many older individuals who were steeped within the system of government subsidized businesses and depended on the "iron rice bowl" for housing and food were left out in the cold. A group of these individuals make up the core characters of Zhang Yimou's 2000 film Happy Times.Noted for films such as The Road Home and Red Sorghum which show off the beauties of the Chinese countryside, Zhang Yimou also created films such as Not One Less and The Story of Qiu Ju which display the clash between the urban and the rural. However, Happy Times is different because it focuses entirely on the urban and the displacement some individuals can feel when their homes go through rapid changes.Old Zhao seems like a decent enough fellow. He is friendly and humorous, but has yet to get married. However, with the appearance of Chunky Mama in his life it seems that maybe he will finally get married, it is the 18th time that he has attempted to do so. The problem is that Chunky Mama desires an expensive wedding that would cost Zhao 50,000 Yuan or so: an amount of money that is quite out of his reach. However, determined to marry Chunky Mama he goes to his friend Fu for help and they establish the Happy Times Hut which is nothing more than a broken down bus where young couples can make out. Being a chronic liar, Zhao tells Chunky Mama that he is in the hotel business and that he is making lots of money. Believing him, Chunky Mama dumps her unwanted blind stepdaughter Wu Ying onto him. Having no true place for the girl to work, Zhao and his friends build a "massage parlor" for the girl to work at so Zhao can keep his promise to Chunky Mama that he will look after the girl, but for how long can he keep up such a subterfuge? While it was panned by many critics, in my opinion, Happy Times is quite a delightful film. Zhao Benshan is absolutely hilarious and Dong Jie as the blind Wu Ying is magnificent. Full of humor and sadness Happy Times contains some extraordinarily touching moments. A great film for those who enjoy Zhang Yimou's films or Chinese film in general.
Rock Savage
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 because he continues to produce motion pictures of such a high standard and with such consistency that comparisons are bound to be made with other great artists such as Stanley Kubrick.
Aaron R. H.
I wish my films could capture the mellowness of Zhang's "Happy Times." The film follows a 50 year-old single man looking for love in all the wrong places. As old as that sound, "Happy Tims" makes it new again. Finally, he finds, what he thinks will be, his future wife. This very large woman as a son and a blind girl left with her, from her former boyfriend's former relationship. The girls father fled away looking for money. The woman wants the girl out of her home, so the bachelor takes her in as a worker in his fake massage parlor. This sounds horrible, taking advantage of a blind girl, but you realize it's mostly for good reason.The cinematography is excellent. From the beautiful country-side to the big city, Zhang knows a thing or two about cinematography. If feels like a classic Asian film. I think most people will enjoy this more than "Hero" or "House of Flying Daggers." It has this mellowness and freedom that other films don't capture. You feel the connections between the characters, and the Ending will rock your world.I only docked it because it's not for everyone. It's an artsy film. It's not Hero. It's not House of Flying Daggers. No fights. No swordplay. Just a raw bittersweet heart-warmer (NO! not a chick Flick!)
