HAPPY TROUBLE

In this grassroots rural black comedy, Jia Youquan (Yao Anlian) takes out a bank loan to open a village restaurant. To attract customers, he attends and gives out cash gifts at a series of family banquets, weddings, and birthday parties. Soon, his balance runs low, his wife ends up in the hospital, he takes out another loan, and hatches a plot to avoid the debt collector—by faking his wife’s death. After the funeral feast, though, things get out of hand. Available on iqiyi, the film satirizes the custom of elaborate gift-giving still prevalent in many parts of China.