"This humbling little film, fueled by the light comedic work of Zhao Benshan and the delicate ways of Dong Jie, is just the sort for those moviegoers who complain that 'they don't make movies like they used to anymore.'" -- Joe Baltake, SACRAMENTO BEE   "The comedy makes social commentary more palatable." -- Liz Braun, JAM! MOVIES   "Aspires for the piquant but only really achieves a sort of ridiculous sourness." -- Walter Chaw, FILM FREAK CENTRAL   "A mawkish, implausible platonic romance that makes Chaplin's City Lights seem dispassionate by comparison." -- Mike D'Angelo, TIME OUT NEW YORK   "A metaphor for a modern-day urban China searching for its identity." -- Duane Dudek, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL   "An extremely funny, ultimately heartbreaking look at life in contemporary China." -- Ken Fox, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE   "The basic premise is intriguing but quickly becomes distasteful and downright creepy." -- Jamie Gillies, APOLLO GUIDE   "Occasionally funny and consistently odd, and it works reasonably well as a star vehicle for Zhao." -- John Hartl, SEATTLE TIMES   "There are some wonderfully fresh moments that smooth the moral stiffness with human kindness and hopefulness." -- Laura Kelly, SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL   "Benefits from a strong performance from Zhao, but it's Dong Jie's face you remember at the end." -- Andy Klein, NEW TIMES

Hot Pick   "A bittersweet contemporary comedy about benevolent deception, which, while it may not rival the filmmaker's period pieces, is still very much worth seeing." -- Malene Arpe, TORONTO STAR

Cream of the Crop FRESH 79% Avg. Rating: 6.9/10   "A bittersweet contemporary comedy about benevolent deception, which, while it may not rival the filmmaker's period pieces, is still very much worth seeing." -- Malene Arpe, TORONTO STAR   "That Zhang would make such a strainingly cute film -- with a blind orphan at its center, no less -- indicates where his ambitions have wandered." -- Michael Atkinson, VILLAGE VOICE   "To me, it sounds like a cruel deception carried out by men of marginal intelligence, with reactionary ideas about women and a total lack of empathy." -- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES   "Worth watching for Dong Jie's performance -- and for the way it documents a culture in the throes of rapid change." -- Jonathan Foreman, NEW YORK POST   "One feels the dimming of a certain ambition, but in its place a sweetness, clarity and emotional openness that recalls the classics of early Italian neorealism." -- Edward Guthmann, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE   "Gently humorous and touching." -- Eric Harrison, HOUSTON CHRONICLE   "With an expressive face reminiscent of Gong Li and a vivid personality like Zhang Ziyi's, Dong stakes out the emotional heart of Happy." -- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER   "An engaging and specific portrait of a culture in transition, even as it evokes humanity's most universal and timeless values." -- Ann Hornaday, WASHINGTON POST   "The film's maudlin focus on the young woman's infirmity and her naive dreams play like the worst kind of Hollywood heart-string plucking." -- Michael O'Sullivan, WASHINGTON POST   "Not a film to rival To Live, but a fine little amuse-bouche to keep your appetite whetted." -- Janice Page, BOSTON GLOBE ( More... )

  "Zhang Yimou delivers warm, genuine characters who lie not through dishonesty, but because they genuinely believe it's the only way to bring happiness to their loved ones."
-- Jason Korsner, BBCI FILMS