Movie Review: Hello Babies/六福喜事

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It’s Chinese New Year, and that means Chinese New Year movies.

What does that mean? Silliness, cameos, and happy endings.

I mean in the movies, not…

Never mind.

Chinese new year movies tend to be very much in the holiday spirit.

They’re usually comedies, they’re usually pretty light weight, and they’re a whole lot of fun to watch in a cinema with an audience during the holiday.

It used to be that you could depend on two recurring franchises at Chinese New Year; I Love Hong Kong, featuring Eric Tsang (and seemingly everyone at TVB) and Raymond Wong’s All’s Well Ends Well series.

This year, they’ve teamed up to bring you **Hello Babies/六福喜事 .**

And I get 90 minutes of my life back.

Don’t get me wrong. I love New Year movies.

But I only love them during Chinese New Year.

Every now and then, a movie made for the holiday gets held back for some reason and ends up being released outside the holiday.

And it’s just not the same.

I guess it’s like watching It’s a Wonderful Life outside of Christmas.

I don’t know, I’ve never seen it.

My favorite Christmas movie is a tie between The Lion in Winter and Friday After Next.

So what do I know?

Well, I know that New Year movies are really only funny during new year.

And luckily for me, it’s the new year holiday.

Hello Babies/六福喜事  is about a lazy, spoiled married couple who need to have a baby to ensure that they can continue to live off of their rich uncle.

But they have fertility issues stemming from their lifestyles, and they don’t really want to have a baby.

They’re too lazy.

Another couple have a baby, but it’s a girl.

The grandfather, played by Eric Tsang, wanted a boy.

Sound familiar?

So now we have conflicts centered around love and family and tradition.

Don’t worry, it’s a New Year movie. Everything will be fine in the end.

It’s basically contractual.

But there are surprises in the film, and it is entertaining.

There’s quite a lot of… , at least in the dialogue.

If you think Eric Tsang as Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Ip Man is funny,

Sandra Ng as Zhang Ziyi is even funnier.

And kind of unsettling.

A scene between Ronald Cheng and Fiona Sit involving whipped cream had me laughing in spite of myself.

It’s stupid, but it’s hilarious.

Which you could say about the movie itself.

It’s not a good movie, but it’s a good Chinese New Year movie. 

If you’re in Hong Kong, or Malaysia, and you want to have a classic 90-minute brain recess, then watch Hello Babies/六福喜事.

It’s fluff, but it’s fluff season, and I have to admit that I really like New Year movies.

During new year.

I honestly love how much people enjoy the New Year and the festive spirit in Hong Kong, and new year movies are part of that.

I guess I appreciate the movies more for their role in the holiday than the narrative or cinematography.

But I really do appreciate them.