Happy Times, the second of Zhang Yimou's films set in a modern city, is a bittersweet comedy. Zhao (Zhao Benshan) is a poor, aging bachelor who hasn't had luck in love. Thunking he has finally met the woman of his dreams, he leads her to believe he is wealthy and agrees to a wedding far beyond his means. Desperate for funds, he turns to his friends, who are weary of his fanciful schemes. Zhao's best friend (Li Xuejian) hatches the idea to raise the money by refurbishing an abandoned bus they will rent out by the hour -- the Happy Times Hotel -- to young couples starved for privacy. But this plan goes awry when Zhao is too old-fashioned to allow the couples to have the privacy they are looking for. No one will pay for the Happy Times Hotel if they can't shut the door.
While dining with his intended spouse, Zhao is introduced to her spoiled son (Ling Qubin) and blind stepdaughter Wu Ying (Dong Jie). The stepmother sees Wu as nothing but a burden to her and her son since she and her father divorced. Sad and lonely, Wu is interested in only one thing: the prospect of her father coming to take her to Shenzhen so she can have an operation to fix her eyes.
To be rid of Wu, the stepmother insists that Zhao take her to the Happy Times Hotel and give her a job. Zhao and Wu reluctantly agree to this arrangement, but when they arrive at the bus, Zhao sees the bus being hauled away to the dump. Not knowing what to do next, he brings Wu back to his home and promises her a job at the hotel once it is completed.
Zhao and Wu return to her stepmother's home to find that she has sold Wu's belongings and given her room to her son. She once again insists that Zhao find Wu a job, and informs Zhao that Wu is a good masseuse. As Zhao's compassion increases for Wu, he decides to maintain the lie that he is wealthy hotel manager. To continue this ruse, he once again enlists the help of his friends to build a makeshift massage room in an abandoned warehouse, another one of his hotels. Here everyone perpetuates the deception further by pretending to be customers for Wu, as they tip her generously with Zhao's money.
When Zhao runs out of this tip money, things start to unravel. A plot is developed to use rice paper, which has the feels the situation could go on forever until Wu notices something strange about the massage parlor. She begins to investigate and comes to the realization that everything around her is fake. Simultaneously, Zhao feels he cannot continue this deception and is compelled to tell Wu the truth and come clean with his fiancé, who he discovers has been cheating on him is about to be married to another man -- a rich one.
As the film reaches its poignant conclusion, both Zhao and Wu's actions demonstrate the strong bond that has developed between them. -- © Sony Pictures Classics
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