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Happy Times (2001)
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Having previously filmed Mo Yan's novel Red Sorghum, Zhang Yimou freely adapts another of his stories in this charming comedy of inner-city manners. Exploring the shift in morality and reduction in privacy that have attended economic reform, the cleanly told tale centres on Zhao Benshan, a middle-aged huckster, whose attempts to impress his gold-digging fiancée result in him befriending her blind, teenage stepdaughter, Dong Jie. Often shooting with hidden cameras, and deftly avoiding lapses of tone and taste, Zhang concentrates on the everyday lives of these marginalised characters, while also staging some droll set pieces involving a converted bus and a fake massage parlour. Slight, but sweet. DP
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Tell us what you think
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Running time
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98min
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Country of origin
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Chi
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Genre
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Comedy
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Alternate title
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Happy Times Hotel,
Xingfu Shiguang
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Original language
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Mandarin
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Screenplay
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Gui Zi, from the story Shifu Yue Lai Yue Youmo by Mo Yan
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Theatrical distributor
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20th Century Fox
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UK cinema certificate
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PG
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UK cinema release date
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September 2002
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Subtitling information
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In Mandarin with subtitles
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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