Audiences are cramming into Chinese cinemas to watch a sentimental comedy that has rapidly become one of the most popular films of all time in the country and marks a triumphant debut for its female director.
Since its release a fortnight ago, Jia Ling’s Hi, Mom has become the fourth best-selling film ever in China with ticket sales of at least 4.3 billion yuan ($670 million), according to box-office tracker Maoyan.
If it continues its monumental success, Hi, Mom could become the highest-grossing movie ever by a female director.
Jia also plays the lead role as the daughter who travels back to 1981, before she was born, and tries to give her mother a better life than the one she had the first time around. The film is partly biographical and an ode to Jia’s mother, who died in an accident when Jia was 19.
Chinese cinemas are largely back to normal after the country wrestled down coronavirus infections to a comparative trickle, and the film has given many a renewed appreciation of their mothers.
