From Chaplin to China

ZHANG YIMOU'S BITTERSWEET HAPPY TIMES

A beautiful blind girl. A kindly fellow, down on his luck, who tricks her into thinking he's wealthy. The hope of an operation that may or may not restore her sight. . . That would be Charlie Chaplin'sCity Lights, yes? And 71 years later it also serves as the plot for Happy Times, directed by Zhang Yimou, the Chinese filmmaker who is best known in this country for historical dramas such as Raise the Red Lantern and also for having discovered Gong Li, the most beautiful actress in the whole wide world. (He used to date her, too-ond come to think of it, where's she been the last few years?) Strictly speaking, Happy Times is based not on Chaplin but on a Chinese novella, Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh. Zhang tells the soggy old story without sentimentality, or not much; it would probably be easier to make Moby Dick without water, but Zhang is aided by his precise style and by a low-key, unself-conscious performance from Dong Jie, another discovery, as the blind girl. Groping her skinny way around her living quarters, she looks like a stork in oversize panties; she is awkward and graceful in equal measure, her queer physicality a language unto itself. (If Dong were American or British she'd have next year's Oscar in the bag.) I must warn you that her character is known as Little Wu, but that's really the extent of the Chaplinesque heart tugging. Does it all end badly for Little Wu? Yes (there's a touch of Fassbinder here, too) and no. That the title is both ironic and not is testament to Zhang's rigor as well as his generosity of spirit. That the closing image has something of the iconic impact of City Lights' famous final close-up, moving in ways explicable and not, is testament to Zhang's skill as a poet of sight * and sound. (Rating: ★ ★★½) BRUCE HANDY