Being a fan of Asian cinema, I decided to give this movie a go, so I purchased it from Amazon, and having just seen it, I can honestly say that I think something is missing from this movie. It is a great movie, but there is just something missing to make it that one notch more memorable. And I must admit that I had expected the movie to be more of a comedy than a drama about life.
**Warning! The following part here contains spoiler to the ending of the movie.**
Perhaps it was the semi-lousy ending to the movie. After all of Zhao's (played by Benshan Zhao) effort to give Wu Ying (played by Jie Dong) a purpose in life and make her life meaningful, he ends up in a hospital, and we don't get to know his fate? That was not very satisfactory to me. However, I will say that seeing Wu Ying on the street alone walking off at the end was just beautiful. It was nice to see that she was determined to make an effort and try on her own.
The story itself was nice, Zhao is courting a woman (played by Qibin Leng) and ends up having to take care of her blind girl. But with little means and nothing real to offer, Zhao is put to the test. A test of the heart, so to speak.
I found the acting in "Happy Times Hotel" to be quite good, and most memorable was Jie Dong. She portrayed the blind girl, Wu Ying, so nicely and so believable.
"Happy Times Hotel" is a great movie, a beautiful movie, just a shame that it started to fall apart towards the end. The movie could have been so much more if the director (Yimou Zhang) had opted to go a different direction. I felt that us viewers were left with so many unanswered questions to the story, and that was a shame, because it made the movie feel incomplete. But still, given the great story, then this movie is well worth checking out.
**Warning! The following part here contains spoiler to the ending of the movie.**
Perhaps it was the semi-lousy ending to the movie. After all of Zhao's (played by Benshan Zhao) effort to give Wu Ying (played by Jie Dong) a purpose in life and make her life meaningful, he ends up in a hospital, and we don't get to know his fate? That was not very satisfactory to me. However, I will say that seeing Wu Ying on the street alone walking off at the end was just beautiful. It was nice to see that she was determined to make an effort and try on her own.
The story itself was nice, Zhao is courting a woman (played by Qibin Leng) and ends up having to take care of her blind girl. But with little means and nothing real to offer, Zhao is put to the test. A test of the heart, so to speak.
I found the acting in "Happy Times Hotel" to be quite good, and most memorable was Jie Dong. She portrayed the blind girl, Wu Ying, so nicely and so believable.
"Happy Times Hotel" is a great movie, a beautiful movie, just a shame that it started to fall apart towards the end. The movie could have been so much more if the director (Yimou Zhang) had opted to go a different direction. I felt that us viewers were left with so many unanswered questions to the story, and that was a shame, because it made the movie feel incomplete. But still, given the great story, then this movie is well worth checking out.