Ni hao, Li Huanying

The highest grossing film of 2021 so far is a sincerely crafted & emotionally uplifting story of love, loss, family, regret & wish fulfilment that centres on a mother-daughter bonding and is curated with heart & compassion. Packed with laughs yet capable of tugging the heartstrings, it is a sweet, simple & sentimental family drama that works as advertised.

Co-written & directed by Jia Ling in her directorial debut who also stars as the lead, the film uses the time travel framework only to transport itself into the past where it works on reforging the relationship between a woman & her mother. It's a safe play but the script is witty throughout and its emotional authenticity shines through, thus making it a pleasant delight for all.

Ling is fantastic throughout, both in front & behind the camera and her performance is the glue that holds this story together. Her grip on comedic elements is also spot-on for the most part. The 1980s setting plays to its strength. All supporting roles are well-drawn & finely acted. And the central relationship is captured with honesty. Still, its pacing is uneven at times and it sure is overlong.

Overall, Hi, Mom makes for a lovely tribute from a daughter to her mother and brims with all the ingredients that's required for it to be a crowdpleaser. A typical fare by all means, the film in many ways is far from the best version of itself yet its arrival is apt & fitting as it exudes a familial warmth & sense of community that many viewers lost in this raging pandemic, and it is bound to move & resonate with some of them if not all.

"Hi Mom" is based on the famous 2016 stage production that Jia Ling wrote, acted and directed about the events from her own life! The story centers on college student Jia Xiao Ling who has a hard time getting over her mother's death. In her grief, she somehow manages to travel back in time to meet her mother in 1981 and form a friendship together.

Jia Ling, Shen Teng, Michael Chen are all big stars in China and having a screenplay which allows them to show fully all their acting abilities is rare. Emotional, full of love, tender, funny, and typically Chinese! The directing was the weakest link, but it was not too bad.

Far from perfect, but highly recommended!

A tear quencher, you can easily tell how much this film means to Jia Lin. However, apart from the ending, while the rest of the film is funny, it is very much in the mold of recent Chinese comedies, and it is greatly helped out by a very strong supporting cast. The last 10 or so minutes is not an easy accomplishment though, it is very much a career and lifetime defining moment for someone to pour this much personal emotions on film. Accomplishing this is perhaps more important than any amount of box office for Jia.

Watch this since heard of crazy box office in China. Take an overview of storyline highlight that it's a time travel theme. My first impression is such an old theme how can the box office be no.1? During the first hour and half, I feel it's really mediocre and storyline just so what as expected and not funny at all, it deserves a 3 is what I gave. However, things change for the last 30 minutes, unexpected is one of the reasons. But the most succeed part is it touches audience hearts for sure cuz the motherhood. I believed it's a portrait of everyone with their mom, it is thing that probably everyone would want to happen to make up the regrets and do better in their past. This movie makes that happen and give everyone a big consolation and purify our soul. Meaningful story get applaud but this one is so special. 7 is my final rating.

The plot is very humorous, the love between mother and daughter is also reflected incisively and vividly.But there are some details that deserve a little bit more refinement. There's a little bit of emotional sublimation, but there's still a little bit of lack of feeling, you know, the smooth feeling of the movie.