Happy Times (2000)

Happy Times was a Zhang Yi Mou comedy, something I found to be unexpected from the director of heartbreaking fare. This was a strangely uneven story that required the viewer to accept the unusual setup and just roll with it.

Middle-aged Zhao is determined to marry. Since skinny women aren’t interested in him, he’s turned his sights on plump women in hopes that he will find someone to keep him warm and satisfied. “Big Mom” agrees to marry him though she wants a 50,000 yuan/$7400 wedding to which Zhao agrees. The problem being he is stone cold broke. Friends he has borrowed money from previously are sympathetic, even though this is his 18th attempt at marriage, but don’t have the cash to loan. Big Mom has a blind stepdaughter she treats as a servant and asks Zhao to put her to work at his Happy Times Hotel. The hotel is actually an abandoned bus he and a friend cleaned up in the park to rent out to couples needing privacy. When that financial venture goes awry, he’s forced to manufacture a job for Wu Ying to keep up the illusion he has money so that he can marry her stepmother.

The first thirty minutes were a bit of a slog for me, but picked up when Zhao and Wu Ying ended up forced together. I was afraid they’d go for an inappropriate geezer romance. Thankfully, the duo took on more of a wholesome father-daughter vibe. Though someone needed to buy that girl a robe. Zhao was a good man at heart who bent the truth often in order to try and get ahead. His friends who were also financially challenged and a little peculiar accepted him as he was. The group of lovable losers came to like Wu Ying and did what they could to help her knowing their scam setup would be short lived at best. Big Mama, an expert in consumption, and her overly entitled son, were the annoying villains in this farce. Her selfishness and greed only highlighted Zhao’s desperation for a companion.

This odd, offbeat comedy had its humorous moments and others that fell flat. What was revealed as the story progressed were people capable of genuine kindness and friendship. Zhao and Wu Ying desired the best for each other even if they knew that their lives would be filled with hardship. Happy Times came all too briefly and usually occurred in the presence of loving friends, the gift that requires no wealth. Not one of Zhang Yi Mou’s stronger films, but still enjoyable.

9 May 2026

Housekeeping Note: My 1400th film

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