always some good movies waiting somewhere

[Outofin]

Happy Time

A middle-aged unemployed man puts himself in an awkward situation that he has to convince a blind girl that he’s a hotel manager. He even let the girl visit and work in his “hotel”. Of course he needs some helps from his old buddies…

Zhang Yimou made his name in the US for his Hero. He’s long been famous in China for winning European film awards. But no hit movies. His stories mostly happen in the backward rural side of China. Audiences like me have troubles understanding them. But he also made a few movies for city folks, like this one, Happy Time, which I found is indeed a good movie.

It’s a comedy. Even though the life is so cruel and desperate, the pure-hearted people live an easy life. But the problem, to me, is that the color of comedy fades away as the story goes on. There’s no happy ending. The life is still cruel and desperate.

I’ve seem several Chinese movies that don’t have happy endings. I think it’s more like my problem rather than theirs. It became a habit for me to see that every blind person becomes to see in the end. I watched too many a-british-agent-fighting –in-arctic-with-an-evil-scientist movies.

The movie is worth seeing.

Beijing Bicycle

A country boy comes to the capital city and finds a dream job as a bicycle delivery boy. But, the bicycle the company gives to him is stolen! The boy makes his mind that surprises his manager – he’s going to find it back, in a city with millions of bicycles! On the other side of the story, a school boy buys the bicycle in the second-hand market to impress his girl friend.

It sounds like a good story, doesn’t it? It attracted me. But the storyline stops when it’s getting interested. The movie runs into its end on the momentum, leaving me thinking, what was I watching in the one hour? And the jungle rules among teenagers distracted me a lot.

Better to avoid it.

[Gary Soup]

Zhang Yimou made his name in the US for his Hero. He’s long been famous in China for winning European film awards. But no hit movies. His stories mostly happen in the backward rural side of China. Audiences like me have troubles understanding them. But he also made a few movies for city folks, like this one, Happy Time, which I found is indeed a good movie.

Zhang Yimou was pretty well known in the US well before Hero, with Oscar nominations for Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou for Best Foreign Film.

I like to say that a happy ending in a Chinese film is when the main character doesn't get killed, go insane, or become hopelessly addicted to opium (three things that have happened to Gong Li in her movies).

[gougou]

I think the end of "Happy Times", while certainly not being your standard Lion King bright-sun-in-a-blue-sky-over-the-African-steppe happy ending, is far from sad. For me, it is rather hopeful, a new start - not giving up. More realistic than Walt Disney, albeit less gay.