House of Happiness 一家亲亲过好年: Poor Start with a Heart Warming Ending

988 radio station had been accompanying me for years. Despite their lack of experience in movie making, I listed their CNY effort, House of Happiness  (一家亲亲过好年) as one of my CNY movie binge. Richard Ng and Chu Mimi both spearhead the cast with their vast acting experience from Hong Kong and it shows greatly. They basically hold the movie together with each screen they were on.


The story is expected from any local CNY effort. Uncle Shui suffers from dementia, and had forgotten his family. He treats his wife as a maid and his son as the maid's son. The first half follows the story of how a vixen took advantage to tried to break their marriage while running away from a fail pyramid scheme. The second half follow as Shui tried to win back his wife, and later struggle with his loss due to dementia.

I would not even touch on casting as the 2 main lead is just perfect. Their veteran experience really shines among the amateur. The main problem is probably the script and the editing. The first half of the movie felt unsatisfying. If it is because of the main lead, it felt like an extended youtube video. The editing is poor, sometimes, the whole transition between scenes felt disjointed. The whole first half serve nearly nothing to the flow of the story and I felt they could just do it in less than half of the time. You can feel that many characters were so purposely written so that each DJ can have their moments on the silver screen. And talk about product placement..... it could be done more subtlety. The jokes felt flat many times as it felt forced.

However, if you manage to stay awake until the second half, this is where the movie shines. This is when the movie pick up, free from its own burden of showcasing the DJ and pushing products. Richard Ng manages to tug the heart with his struggle with his own memory loss. I can personally feel how Chan Fong's character son agony as he watch his father struggle with his dignity and his love for his family.

The movie could be done so many ways better, but the last scene on the father and son, .....that is just perfect, although cliche. Although there are many CNY offerings from HK and China, but I believe this is one of the more memorable ones this year.

ratings: 3 poink~!
comments: Sometimes, it could be a cut from the authority that disjointed the story telling. This is my guess how the story of the son running away from home was not told properly.