The story starts with a 50-year-old laid-off Chinese factory worker dating an enormous, twice divorced tubby. Between the fact that there just aren't enough women to go around in China, and the dearth of women that are attracted to shiftless factory workers anywhere, this nasty looking, nasty tempered women seems a good matrimonial prospect to him. To win her affections he claims to be the owner/manager of the Happy Times Hotel, which is in fact, an abandoned bus he rents to adolescents seeking privacy for trysts. The girlfriend's latest husband saddled her with a blind stepdaughter, whom she palms off on our protagonist as masseuse who can work in his hotel.
The story becomes endearing when our man takes the 18-year old, it really brings out the best in him. He tells her that she is in a hotel and gets his friends to pretend to be massage customers, giving them his own money to tip her. At first he is clearly being kind so the girl will put in a good word with her stepmother, but very soon we can see his actions are selfless. He gives her his room and tells her it is hotel employees' quarters. He sells his television to get money for tips. When he runs out of money he and his friends give her blank paper, thinking she won't know the difference. All the while, the girl knows what the old man is doing, and plays along so he won't be disappointed. Through the picture, the girl expects her father to return with money to pay for surgery to cure her blindness, but in fact her father has bilked his ex out of money and left them. The old man hopes to raise the girl's spirits by fabricating a letter from her estranged father, but is hospitalized and never has a chance to read it to her. Before knowing that he is hurt, the girl ventures out on her own, leaving a tape recording thanking the man for his kindness. The transformation that the girl goes through is uplifting. When she first left her stepmother's house, she runs into the street, half hoping a car would hit her. At the end, she seeks her fortune on her own, determined to make it. I was pretty afraid for her at the end, venturing out, but freedom is scary sometimes. I really admire her for going.
Some people's comments said that they had hoped for a different ending, perhaps with the two ending up in love. That would have been horrible, to think that this girl could aspire to something better than him. He's nice enough, but he really doesn't have much to offer. Another commenter said the movie is a symbol of the Chinese people living under the communist regime. The blind girl symbolizes the supposed blindness of the Chinese people, who know full well what the old man, who symbolized the regime, are doing. The play money supposedly symbolized the false promise of riches by the regime. The girl's going off by herself in the end symbolizes the Chinese people's eventual cut of the regime's cord. I don't buy this interpretation, mainly because the final scene is a real key to this interpretation, and this ending was one that was reshot when early audiences disliked the original ending. Anyway, I'm not sure "Happy Times" is the way I would characterize the relationship of the Chinese people under Communist rule. I usually take movies at face value and don't hunt for symbols, but I thought the girl's blindness symbolized the blind spots that we all grow up with. She refuses to see her father's faults, but in the end she realizes that malefactor that he really is. Finally seeing this is why she can go out on her own, the kind old man played a big part in making her see it. Very uplifting.
The story becomes endearing when our man takes the 18-year old, it really brings out the best in him. He tells her that she is in a hotel and gets his friends to pretend to be massage customers, giving them his own money to tip her. At first he is clearly being kind so the girl will put in a good word with her stepmother, but very soon we can see his actions are selfless. He gives her his room and tells her it is hotel employees' quarters. He sells his television to get money for tips. When he runs out of money he and his friends give her blank paper, thinking she won't know the difference. All the while, the girl knows what the old man is doing, and plays along so he won't be disappointed. Through the picture, the girl expects her father to return with money to pay for surgery to cure her blindness, but in fact her father has bilked his ex out of money and left them. The old man hopes to raise the girl's spirits by fabricating a letter from her estranged father, but is hospitalized and never has a chance to read it to her. Before knowing that he is hurt, the girl ventures out on her own, leaving a tape recording thanking the man for his kindness. The transformation that the girl goes through is uplifting. When she first left her stepmother's house, she runs into the street, half hoping a car would hit her. At the end, she seeks her fortune on her own, determined to make it. I was pretty afraid for her at the end, venturing out, but freedom is scary sometimes. I really admire her for going.
Some people's comments said that they had hoped for a different ending, perhaps with the two ending up in love. That would have been horrible, to think that this girl could aspire to something better than him. He's nice enough, but he really doesn't have much to offer. Another commenter said the movie is a symbol of the Chinese people living under the communist regime. The blind girl symbolizes the supposed blindness of the Chinese people, who know full well what the old man, who symbolized the regime, are doing. The play money supposedly symbolized the false promise of riches by the regime. The girl's going off by herself in the end symbolizes the Chinese people's eventual cut of the regime's cord. I don't buy this interpretation, mainly because the final scene is a real key to this interpretation, and this ending was one that was reshot when early audiences disliked the original ending. Anyway, I'm not sure "Happy Times" is the way I would characterize the relationship of the Chinese people under Communist rule. I usually take movies at face value and don't hunt for symbols, but I thought the girl's blindness symbolized the blind spots that we all grow up with. She refuses to see her father's faults, but in the end she realizes that malefactor that he really is. Finally seeing this is why she can go out on her own, the kind old man played a big part in making her see it. Very uplifting.