Première fête, deuxième fête

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 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.

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.

Funny and yet full of wisdom. There are 7 stories in the movie. Each story is about a personal wish which may looks simple or even irrelevant. But actually there is some deeper meaning in it and it is actually quite real. I wish more people can seriously look at the last story. It has a warm ending. The world can be a better place. A much better place.

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.