Jia fang yi fang

Too bad the critics who seem to act as gatekeepers for Chinese movies haven't approved this. Maybe because it's a comedy. The story is somewhat similar to Mi Jiashan's Wan zhu (1988), and even shares a star (Ge You) with that movie, but it's also much better done.

Jiafangyifang (English titles: Dream Factory; Party A, Party B) launched the 'holiday film' (heshuipian) genre in China over the New Year's period--12/97-2/98. New Year's is the time in China when friends and family reunite. It is also a time when folks go out looking for light entertainment and warm feelings, but these type of vibes were not easy to find in the film houses in China. Feng Xiaogang's Jiafangyifang changed that.

The storyline features a film troup of four (Party B) who create their clients' (Party A) dream for a day. Their first customer is a big, inflated bookstore owner who wants to be Patton. He is given pearl handle pistols, a pool cue, four stars (one better than Patton), driven around in a jeep and given the city of Nanjing to attack. Other dreamers include a cook who can't keep secrets, a husband who wants to do menial work (like his wife), a rich guy who wants to experience poverty, and so on. As time goes on, the group tries to brighten other people's lives, even those who can't pay for their services and it is here that the warmth and heart of the film comes out.

The winks and laughs are there throughout, but they are the products of wit, situation and dialogue rather than pratfalls and double entendres. Overarching the above series of 'dream sequences' is the tentative romancing that goes on between two of the film troopers. The guy suggests marriage lest his father give the house to his sister-- not the most romantic way to pledge one's troth.

Jiafangyifang set box office records for domestic films in 1998 taking in more than 20m yuan. Feng Xiaogang followed up this with three more holiday box office hit comedies: Bujianbusasn (Be There, Be Square) 1999, Meiwanmeili (Sorry Baby) 2000 and Dawan (Big Shot's Funeral) 2002.

This is a wry comedy that requires the understanding of the communist puns of 1960's and 1970's China. Therefore, not only it might be a little bit difficult for non-Chinese to understand it fully, it might even be a little bit more difficult for Chinese who did not live through the 1960's and 1970's to understand. However, once you know those communist puns of the 1960's and 1970's, the film is very funny indeed.

This is really funny is you can understand all the Chinese 60's communism puns. Personally I think that the script was nicely written, and it actually has a quite touching theme. And again, it's really really really funny, one of the funniest movie I've ever seen.

Tl:dr this classic Chinese 1990's comic is still highly entertaining for modern audiences. The unique story is timeless, and since it was a high value production when released it doesn't feel dated.

The comedic story is about a small group of friends who run a company that lets other people have their dramatic fantasies come true, generally involving improvised historic setpieces and improvised solutions by the characters.

People unfamiliar with mainland Chinese cinema will likely not know this movie, even though it was a huge success and still considered a classic nowadays. It stars Ge You, who can be considered the biggest male star of his generation in China. It's one of the earlier truly popular Chinese movies from a time when most entertained was produced in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

The Chinese title "Jia Fang Yi Fang" refers to party 1 and 2 in a legal contract, which is used to set the expectations and limits in the reenactments in the movie.