General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Happy Times (幸福时光)

Happy Times (幸福时光) is a 2000 Chinese comedy-drama directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Zhao Benshan and Dong Jie, about an unemployed middle-aged man who builds a chain of well-meant deceptions around a blind stepdaughter his fiancée wants to unload. It was released in mainland China on 31 December 2000 and was adapted from Mo Yan's novella Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh (师傅愈来愈幽默), with a screenplay by Gui Zi.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Director / screenwriter	Zhang Yimou; screenplay by Gui Zi, based on Mo Yan's novella¹
Release	31 December 2000 (China); later South Korea (10 November 2001), Germany (7 February 2002), France (10 July 2002)¹
Cast	Zhao Benshan, Dong Jie, Li Xuejian, Fu Biao, Dong Lifan, Niu Ben, Zhang Hongjie, Leng Qibin³
Casting	More than 40,000 girls auditioned for the female lead; Dalian native Dong Jie was chosen from eight finalists on 25 July 2000⁴
Running time	102 minutes in the Chinese version; the international cut is six minutes longer¹^•⁵
Box office (US)	$240,093 in the United States and Canada; $361,000 worldwide, against an estimated $1,900,000 budget⁶
Awards	Dong Jie won Outstanding New Actress at the 7th Huabiao Awards (2001); at Valladolid 2002 the film won the Silver Spike, Best Actress for Dong Jie, and the FIPRESCI Prize¹^•²

Spoilers

Plot

Zhao (Zhao Benshan) is a 50-year-old retired, unemployed worker who wants to marry a large, hard-headed woman he has been courting. At their first meeting she asks for 50,000 yuan to cover the wedding, and Zhao, who is broke, promises it anyway and then tries to borrow the money.³^•⁷ His friend Li (Li Xuejian) comes up with a scheme: refurbish an abandoned bus as a private rendezvous spot for young couples, rented by the hour, and call it the "Happy Times Hotel". The plan fails, partly because the prudish Zhao insists on sitting with the customers, and the bus eventually ends up in the scrapyard.³^•⁸

The fiancée then introduces Zhao to her spoiled son and her blind stepdaughter Wu Ying (Dong Jie), whom she treats as a burden. To be rid of the girl, she insists that Zhao give her a job at his supposed hotel. Zhao, who has no hotel, improvises: since Wu Ying has trained as a masseuse, he and his friends fit out a massage room in a disused factory and take turns posing as her customers, tipping her with fake money because they are all poor.²^•⁹ Wu Ying eventually notices the deception but plays along, and a genuine affection grows between the young woman and the old man, until the factory itself is demolished.²^•⁸

Production and casting

The search for the female lead was unusually public. In May 2000 Zhang Yimou announced the audition through a website and held casting calls across the country; more than 40,000 girls took part. On 25 July 2000 he settled on Dong Jie, a Dalian girl who had never appeared on screen, selected from the last eight candidates. Because some commentators thought she resembled Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi, press reports accused Zhang of a "Gong Li complex".⁴ The demands were exacting: the director wanted a young, pure-faced lead, ideally around 16, and earlier candidates from a blind school were rejected after failing to find the right feeling for the role of a blind girl.¹⁰

Shooting and revision. The film shot in Dalian in the summer of 2000, opening on 26 July and wrapping on 10 September, after which the crew disbanded the same day.⁴^•¹¹ Zhao Benshan, the male lead, said the finished screenplay differed from Mo Yan's novella by "a hundred thousand li", having been changed almost beyond recognition.¹¹ After early preview screenings, audiences and the foreign buyers who had purchased overseas rights found the ending unclear, and Zhang brought the crew back to Dalian to reshoot it.³ IMDb notes that two cuts exist, the original Chinese theatrical version and an international cut six minutes longer.⁶

Release and reception

The film premiered in China on 31 December 2000 and reached South Korea, Germany, and France over the following year and a half.¹ In the United States it was released by Sony Pictures Classics, opening on 28 July 2002 to a weekend gross of $31,084 and a final US and Canada total of $240,093.⁶

Critical response was mixed. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it three of five stars, writing that it lacks the resonance of Zhang's other work but has pathos and charm.⁵ Time Out called it a sentimental comedy that drifts from low satire into high pathos without catching recognizable aspects of present-day Beijing life, while praising Hou Yong's bright, gently stylized cinematography.⁸ Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times was warmer, describing a film at its best when showing Zhao trying to cope with a shifting reality while keeping the truth from Wu Ying, and noting that its closing question, whether what the audience just saw were happy times or not, stays with the viewer.¹² Eye for Film called it a rarity, a comedy of modern-day China, and singled out Dong Jie's tactile, delicate performance as the blind girl.⁹

Place in Zhang Yimou's career

Happy Times was the fourth film on which producer Zhang Weiping worked with Zhang Yimou, and a 2012 China News Service retrospective described it as a failure in both reputation and box office.¹³ It was also Zhang's first New Year-season release, a slot associated with lighter commercial entertainment, and his first film built around the television comedian Zhao Benshan, whom he had reportedly promised a tailored leading role after their earlier collaboration on Keep Cool.³^•¹⁴ For Dong Jie it was a debut that produced awards: the Huabiao Outstanding New Actress prize in 2001, a Best Actress nomination at the 2nd Chinese Film Media Awards in 2002, and the Best Actress award at Valladolid.¹^•²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2000 to 2002 › Comedies of 2000

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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