Happy Times

Chinese director Zhang Yimou's 11th feature is also his second urban comedy (1997's dark satire KEEP COOL was his first), an extremely funny, ultimately heartbreaking look at life in contemporary China. Desperate to marry somebody — anybody — before he gets too old, middle-aged Zhao (Zhao Benshan) proposes to a rotund divorcée (Dong Lihua) who, without much hesitation, accepts. She's looking for a man of means — she's been left to raise her own horribly spoiled son (Ling Qibin), and Wu Ying (Dong Jie), her second husband's blind teenage daughter — and Zhao leads her to believe that he's one of modern China's nouveau riche. But the trut...