this delighted audience at a number of film festival and and it be not hard to see why . director yang zhang and with the help of some very nice work by the three principle actor and xu zhu a the father and master liu while quanxin pu a the elder son and da ming while and especially wu jiang a the irrepressible and lovable young son and er ming and spin a tale that will warm the cold heart . the film start with a man take a shower in an automated booth in the middle of beijing . he put some money in a slot and open the door and take off his clothes and put some of them on a conveyor belt to be clean and step into the shower and get clean with brush and squirt of water and soap a though he a car at the car wash. this be the future symbolically speak and and the old bathhouse we will see in the next scene be the past . agrarian china be give way to industrial china . pollution . cultural revolution hang over . industrialization blue . no way . what we have here be a celebration of people and their kindness and love for one another and a celebration of goodness in the heart of men . yet i wonder how the chinese government view this film . on the one hand and it clearly present a pleasant view of china and it people . it be stringently nonpolitical without criticism of the present regime express or imply . yet there be the slight sense that the good old way be go to be replace by something that may not be as good . i think yang zhang have the wisdom to just let that be a it may . tell a story about old men at the bathhouse where they get back rub and massage and where they tell tall tale and reminisce about the good old day and where they can relax and play chinese chess and stage cricket fight and where the master be a spry and wise old guy and his assistant be his son and who may be retard or autistic and but who do his job with glee and an infectious spirit of fun and good will . enter back on the scene the old son and da ming and who be polish and well groom and taciturn . he be uncomfortable with what he see a the unsophisticated behavior of his father and brother . he represent modern china with his tie and his briefcase and his cell phone and his education . he have only return because he think his father be die . when he see that this be not true and he pack his bag and be set to return to his wife and his career . but then a crisis ensues and it be during this crisis that da ming see the value of the natural and people center life that his father and his brother have be live . and so yang zhang reconcile the old and the new and and do so in such a charming manner that i will not object and especially since his style be so neat and so carefully express . one of the nice thing he do that i miss in most movie be the way he dovetail the subplots within the large story so that they be resolve before the picture end . the bathhouse regular who sing o sole mio in the bathhouse a the water shower down upon him and much to the delight of er ming and find that he can not sing in public because of stage fright . near the end of the film he lose his stage fright and sings thanks to some inspire help from er ming . and the bathhouse regular who be lose his wife because . well and he tell a tale to master liu before he confess the real reason . but liu understands and again before the movie be over and husband and wife be reconcile . this kind of happy end movie making be unusual in today artistic and international film and or in almost any film direct at adult . some happy ending be so contrived a to embarrass not only their contriver but their audience . and some be so blatantly condescend that the audience be offend . here however the audience be delight . see this especially for the comedic performance by wu jiang whose warm effervescence overcome any handicap his character may have .