Happy Times on DVD (2002)

ThomasKus from Gloucester [Highly rated reviewer] , 23/05/2004

A man in his fifties is desperately trying to find another wife. After a number of mishaps he pins his hopes on a large lady with and equally large son and a neglected, blind and beautiful stepdaughter. In order to keep his beloved on track for marrying him he agrees to find her a job and a new home and creates a pretend world around her. As times goes on it becomes more and more difficult to keep this going until events take some unexpected final turns...

Once again Yimou Zhang creates a film full of warmth and love for his characters. This seemingly simple story is beatifully realised and the pace more like a European movie than traditional Chinese cinema. As usual there is a strong moral viewpoint creating great sympathy for the 'good' and antipathy for the 'bad'. Ultimately, this is a very humane and positive film with real people who have good intentions but make mistakes and have to learn from them.

I was a little disappointed with the DVD version, however. The film language is Mandarin and the only subtitles are 'English for the hearing impaired', there is no 'just' English option on this Region 2 DVD. You will also look in vain for any extras and the menu is very simple indeed.

My verdict: Don't let the minor DVD flaws stop you from enjoying this otherwise fantastic movie.

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

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Professor Cornelieus from London , 26/10/2004

Director Zhang Yimou is not as well known in the west as he should be,

and if you only known him from his latest movie 'Hero', you'd be in for

a big surprise, as Hero is most untypical of the man and a creaking

attempt to gain the big bucks audience that lapped up 'Crouching

Tiger'.

Happy Times is far more familiar territory from the man who directed

'Raise the Red Lantern' and 'Not one Less'. It tells the deceptively

simple story of a 50-year-old redundant factory worker trying to find a

wife. He settles on a fat, selfish woman who dotes on her equally fat

and selfish son, but here the magic begins... because also part of the

household is a blind teenage girl, abandoned by her father.

From this simple premise, Happy Times develops into a wonderful and

heart warming comedy of errors involving the bumbling hero and his

attempts to 'employ' the girl - simply to get into bed with the fat

lady.

I will not spoil the plot, but it involves factories, over sized

massage desks, a defective tape recorder and a 'love bus', as the

relationship between the man and the frail, pure blind girl develops.

Along the way, as you come to expect from this most talented director,

are all sorts of subtle digs at the inequalities of wealth and the

commercialisation of modern day China.

This is not the director's masterpiece, and the usual ravishing

photography of his films is kept to a minimum - the film is based in a

world of massive tenement blocks and abandoned warehouses. But it still

manages to tug at the heart strings. This is the kind of film that

could never have come from Hollywood. And thank God for that.

  4 out of 5 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Yorkshire , 17/04/2005

Hope to see more films like this! Happy Times I found to be a film that held humour mixed with emotion & a very enjoyable story line. The only thing that could have been better was the very last bit, the ending. But it was not too much of a let down. Maybe it was I just wanted to know more and would have liked the story to continue, but all things must have their ending. This story is mainly about a blind girl who is helped by a man who is trying to impress her step mother by giving her a false job. But deciept can only run for so long and the thoughtful, mixed with self gaining plot to achieve love and hold onto his girlfriend slowly caves in. Found the rather well fed Chunky Mamma and her son quite amusing and you cant help but smile at their behaviour, yet at the same time cringe in disgust at their selfish greedy ways and the way they treated that blind girl, well she was better off living her life of fabrication. Watch and see, its a Good film. Even with subtitles! I found Subtitles were clearly stated in the Language section - so was not surprised myself to see them. Just as well as I can not understand Manderin. This was One of the more enjoyable films I have seen from China. This film displays an emotion I find hard to feel when watching both British & American films. Once they decide to The Chinese seem to be good at putting more feeling into a storyline and looking deeper inside of a characters thoughts & inner feelings and are able to get this across to the public in a much more powerful way.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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Shunter from Kingston upon Thames [Highly rated reviewer] , 17/01/2008

The film is well made and quite amusing in places but I did feel that the entertainment was in part at the expense of the blind girl character and doubt this film would be made in the west - audiences may well find it a little expoitative

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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A customer from Yorkshire , 17/04/2005

Hope to see more films like this! Happy Times I found to be a film that held humour mixed with emotion & a very enjoyable story line. The only thing that could have been better was the very last bit, the ending. But it was not too much of a let down. Maybe it was I just wanted to know more and would have liked the story to continue, but all things must have their ending. This story is mainly about a blind girl who is helped by a man who is trying to impress her step mother by giving her a false job. But deciept can only run for so long and the thoughtful, mixed with self gaining plot to achieve love and hold onto his girlfriend slowly caves in. Found the rather well fed Chunky Mamma and her son quite amusing and you cant help but smile at their behaviour, yet at the same time cringe in disgust at their selfish greedy ways and the way they treated that blind girl, well she was better off living her life of fabrication. Watch and see, its a Good film. Even with subtitles! I found Subtitles were clearly stated in the Language section - so was not surprised myself to see them. Just as well as I can not understand Manderin. This was One of the more enjoyable films I have seen from China. This film displays an emotion I find hard to feel when watching both British & American films. Once they decide to The Chinese seem to be good at putting more feeling into a storyline and looking deeper inside of a characters thoughts & inner feelings and are able to get this across to the public in a much more powerful way.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Reading England , 19/03/2005

Its a subtitled film! Why does the site not make the fact films are subtitled CLEAR its such a waste of our money sending out films we cannot enjoy!!!

  1 out of 8 people found this review helpful

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