Hi, Mom is a charming heartfelt comedy that will have you laughing and reaching for the tissues. It is the directorial debut of Chinese comedian Jia Ling and based off a popular comedic sketch she had performed on Zhejiang Television in 2016.
Jia Ling, known for performing sketches on Chinese television, writes, directs and stars as Jia Xiao Ling, who feels she has been a lifelong disappointment to her mother Li Huan Ying. When her mother dies from a fatal car accident in 2001, Jia Xiao Ling is magically transported to 1981, where she befriends her mother Li Huan Ying as a young girl.
Guilt-stricken and armed with future knowledge, Xiao Ling is determined to alter the course of her mom's life for the better.
I laughed a lot through Hi, Mom. The comedy is well-timed and moves with a Swiss watch-like precision, telling its story with gags and zingers. There are some verbal gags that would exclude people who don't speak Chinese. That said, there are a variety of gags for them to give the movie a chance. All the laughter sneakily diverts the audience's attention to the darker question of what is happening: is Jia Xiao Ling trying to erase her own existence out of guilt?
The script brilliantly subverts the audience's conventional expectations of a time-travel scenario and delivers some surprises along the way. The surprises are not focused on plot logistics, but delivers on heartwarming sentiments.
This film has set three records. It is currently the highest grossing movie worldwide of 2021, the second highest grossing non-English movie of all time and the highest grossing film ever directed by a solo female director. One could link this to the Chinese population, I think there is merit to its success beyond that.
Hi, Mom gets personal in its last third and at one point it became increasingly clear that Jia Ling, in real life, had lost her own mother in a tragic accident. A director delivering a personal message with that sheer amount of emphasis would have normally taken me out of the movie. But this particular time, it didn't. The film had already won over the audience in my theater and I too, found myself mourning for the loss of Li Huan Ying.
Jia Ling, known for performing sketches on Chinese television, writes, directs and stars as Jia Xiao Ling, who feels she has been a lifelong disappointment to her mother Li Huan Ying. When her mother dies from a fatal car accident in 2001, Jia Xiao Ling is magically transported to 1981, where she befriends her mother Li Huan Ying as a young girl.
Guilt-stricken and armed with future knowledge, Xiao Ling is determined to alter the course of her mom's life for the better.
I laughed a lot through Hi, Mom. The comedy is well-timed and moves with a Swiss watch-like precision, telling its story with gags and zingers. There are some verbal gags that would exclude people who don't speak Chinese. That said, there are a variety of gags for them to give the movie a chance. All the laughter sneakily diverts the audience's attention to the darker question of what is happening: is Jia Xiao Ling trying to erase her own existence out of guilt?
The script brilliantly subverts the audience's conventional expectations of a time-travel scenario and delivers some surprises along the way. The surprises are not focused on plot logistics, but delivers on heartwarming sentiments.
This film has set three records. It is currently the highest grossing movie worldwide of 2021, the second highest grossing non-English movie of all time and the highest grossing film ever directed by a solo female director. One could link this to the Chinese population, I think there is merit to its success beyond that.
Hi, Mom gets personal in its last third and at one point it became increasingly clear that Jia Ling, in real life, had lost her own mother in a tragic accident. A director delivering a personal message with that sheer amount of emphasis would have normally taken me out of the movie. But this particular time, it didn't. The film had already won over the audience in my theater and I too, found myself mourning for the loss of Li Huan Ying.