Starring Zhao Bershan, Dong Jie, Dong Lihua, Ling Qubin, Li Xuejian.
Directed and Produced by Zhang Yimou.
A poor, recently retired worker (Zhao Bershan) in modern China is unmarried and looking for a wife.
That is his first mistake. He meets a woman (Dong Lihua) whose second husband has recently
left her. She has a lazy, selfish brat of a son, who under the one-child policy, is
spoiled rotten. The woman is greedy and looking for someone to take care of her financial
needs, and he pretends he is the manager of a prosperous hotel, but his hotel is only
an old abandoned bus that people come and visit for romantic liasons.
The woman also has a blind, skinny 18-year old step-daughter Wu (Dong Jie) who her
ex-husband left behind. She "encourages" the man to get her step-daughter a job
- anything to get her out of the house. He eventually sets her up as a masseuse,
which she is very good at, in an abandoned warehouse, where only his friends are
clients and he pays them money to give as tips. Eventually the girl and the old
man form a bond, the girl being loved and treated decently for the first time in
a very long time.
From the acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern, To
Live), Happy Times is a very simple and straight-forward bittersweet story.
There is gentle humour and genuine emotion throughout. The young blind girl is immediately
sympathetic and beautifully played by the dancer-turned-actress Dong Jie. She quickly
brings us into her world by seeing her sadness and isolation, and we hope that she
can find a job, take care of herself and escape her overbearing step-mother. Zhao
Benshan is also quite good as the desperate bachelor who will try any deception he
can to win the hand of the woman he desires. Although, I can't for the life of me
see why. The ending tugs at the heartstrings and tear ducts a bit, but it is appropriate
for the tone of the film.
Of interest too is the subtle political insights Yimou layers in without arousing the
suspicions of the Chinese sensors. The film shows the growing materialistic corruption
of modern Chinese, and the infiltration of foreign multinationals in the country.
In one scene, the woman's son is chowing down on a mini container of HagenDas ice
cream, and later Zhao wishes to buy some for Wu, but the price is outlandish for the
average person and he can't afford to buy her one. With capitalism comes opportunity,
but it has helped create a stark divide between the haves and have nots. With capitalism
comes increased wealth, as well as increased greed. Of course, through recent events,
we know all about that here in North America.
If you are in need of an antidote to the high-octane, special-effects laden summer
films, Happy Times is a sweet and humanistic story well told.
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