Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity

Director: Mina Shum
(2002)

Using ancient Chinese magic, twelve-year-old Mindy decides to help her divorced, hardworking mother (Sandra Oh) find love, happiness and good fortune in Mina Shum’s ambitious and clever but ineffective offering which fails by trying to encompass too many intriguing stories into an hour and a half of running time. Too melodramatic and a bit boring in places to hit the richly humorous mark of whimsy the film’s plot sets the viewer up for—only fans of Shum and Oh’s first superior film together, Double Happiness need apply. Still, the performance of precocious and mischievous newcomer Valerie Tian as the well-meaning Mindy warms audience hearts just enough to keep them intrigued.