Director Yimou should have maybe kept the book title on which this bittersweet tale is based if he wanted to attract the floating cinema-goer.

You have to admit that Shifu, You'll Do Anything For A Laugh, has a bit more clout than the disarmingly optimistic one he eventually settled for.

The Happy Times refer to the relatively blissful period blind 18-year-old Wu Ying (Jie) spent "working" as a masseuse for cheerily deceiptful Zhao (Benshan).

Ironically, the pleasant chapter of the teenage girl's life was reached by a pretty wretched deceit practised by the marriage-hungry bachelor.

He arranged for her to work in his luxury hotel as a favour to his roly-poly fiancee and Wu Ying's spiteful stepmother (Lihua).

What he failed to mention was that his five-star Happy Times Hotel is, in fact, a derelict bus abandoned on wasteland and rented out to local courting couples.

When the environmental health department tows it away, Zhao continues the hotelier deception by building a makeshift "massage room" in an abandoned warehouse.

Here, Zhao's cronies perpetuate the trickery by pretending to be customers for Wu as they tip her generously with his money.

You'd be forgiven if you fancied lining up Zhao for the immoral treatment he metes out to a blind girl... but Benshan's performance is so exquisitely judged you'd forgive him most things.

He's a natural comedian and has great support in Jie, whose enchantingly naive teen sets up the story for a profoundly touching conclusion.

Affectionate and unsentimental, this has, at times - believe it or not - the bleakly knockabout feel of a Chinese Full Monty.

Tim Evans