Happy Times, 2000 dir. Zhang Yimou
- The film helps redefine happiness (success) in post-socialist China; to some happiness is instant gratification (Haagen Dazs ice-cream, quickie at the park, massages, etc.) but for others happiness is caring for others and being cared for by others. How does Zhang Yimou negotiate the change Chinese experience? 影片对后社会主义时期的幸福重新定义。对某些人来讲，幸福是即兴的享受：吃哈根达斯冰激凌，在荒郊野地做爱，去洗浴中心做按摩。对另外的一些人来说，幸福是付出，照顾别人同时也受到别人的呵护。张艺谋怎么看？
- Is Old Zhao selfish and calculating or fatherly, compassionate and caring? Reference dramatic details. 老赵这个人到底是一个自私，会算计的人还是一个富有同情心，乐于帮助人的父亲？
- How to do interpret the fact that even though the massage parlor is a fake where Wu Ying receives fake money as a masseuse, it nonetheless allows her to feel secure, protected, loved and useful, a brief period of time she calls her happiest? 吴颖在大饭店给人按摩虽然是个骗局，她收到的虽然是假钱，但她却感到温暖和幸福。你怎么看她的幸福观？
- In the film, people tell lies and deliberately misrepresent themselves. But the reasons for being untruthful differ. What falsehood is but an expression of kindness and compassion, and what acts of hypocrisy cover real inhumanity? 影片中很多人都不诚实，但是她们撒谎的理由和原因却不同。请你举例分析。
- What Wu Ying cannot see may hurt her, so her blindness protects her. As a viewer, would you like to see her live in reality or in her innocence/naivete? Is China ready to see what it has become or accept itself as different from before? 吴颖看不见的东西可以伤害她，换言之，她的无知是一把保护伞。你觉得她应该生活在真实的生活中还是保持她的天真？为什么有的人到今天还不愿意正视中国改革开放的现实？
- How do you think Zhang Yimou views the values of the bourgeoisie: individualism, the thirst for power, money, and eroticism, which triumph over the ancient feudal values of altruism, charity, and love? Give instances. 张艺谋怎样看待传统价值(慈善、自我牺牲、和爱)被现代小资产阶级的价值(贪婪、自我享受、和个人主义)所取代？
- Who represents the ideal of socialism: one for all and all for one, and who the ideals of the free market economy: the rights of the individual and freedom? To the extent that such ideological differences exist, in what light are they introduced? 社会主义的理想：大家为一人，一人为大家，和资产阶级自由化的价值观是由谁来代表的？导演是怎样介绍这些意识形态的分歧的？
- Why is Wu Ying blind? Where are her real parents? How does she as a character advance the film narrative and contribute the significance of the story as a whole? 吴颖为什么是瞎子？她的父母为什么跟她不在一起了？她对整个故事的发展起了什么作用？
- In the context of the story, how to interpret the stubbornness and asceticism of Old Zhao who, broke as he is, would rather accept no money than bend his moral belief that the door of the “Happy Time Hut” should not be shut? Do you see him spend money to uphold his moral beliefs? 你怎么看老赵的固执和不同人意，宁可自己不挣一分钱，也不允许年轻人在他的幸福时光小屋里关门？他是一个非常吝啬，非常小气的人吗？
- On finding out that Old Zhao is no more a hotel manager than she is beautiful and attractive, the Fat Woman says she hates men who lie; does she have more moral integrity than he? Why? 发现老赵并不是什么大饭店的经理后，胖女人对老赵说“我最恨的就是骗人的人”；她真的比老赵在道义上优越吗？