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Goodbye Mr. Loser

Released Oct 9, 2015 1h 44m Comedy List
Tomatometer 1 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
A middle-aged loser is transported back to his high school years to fix his mistakes.
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Goodbye Mr. Loser

Critics Reviews

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Boon Chan The Straits Times (Singapore) For the most part though, this feels like a cheap knock-off that never quite passes off for the real thing. The jokes are of the lame and lamer variety and the story has a whiff of the familiar about it. Rated: 2.5/5 Mar 29, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Loving someone as who they are. -- I was expecting a simple comedy but was touched by the love story. It is about a married man who did not know what he wanted. The leading character, Xia Luo, went to the wedding party of his high school crush, when he drank too much and started to re-iterate his "love" for her. His current wife, who was in the same high school class, came to the party and of course chaos followed, until he passed out from the alcohol. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in his high school class. The story developed from there, when Xia Luo was doing everything to get his crush to like him. At the same time, the wife had loved him since forever. It could have been a silly love triangle story, but the wife line had a lot of touching moments. So who did Xia Luo choose? The movie has quite some funny moments, nothing legendarily funny but good enough. Surprisingly it also made me cry. Overall a light comedy with a moving love story. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Florijan H Very unique style, everyt character is developed in such a detail and acting is outstanding, a very great and entertaining movie, i also liked the other production (Never Say Die 2017) Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/19/21 Full Review dan m It's a romantic drama that originally starts off as a weird, time travel comedy but eventually turns serious. A classic case of "be careful what you wish for"(and you don't know what you have until you've lost it). It's actually pretty decent and with a good ending but it's also very predictable and cliche as well. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an absolutely fantastic movie. Great story; entertaining characters. Excellent acting. And it is in Mandarin, so I get to practice listening to Chinese. Love it! I rated 4/5 only because the last 1/3 of the film seems to have a totally different feel from the rest of the movie. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member I really recommend this movie. In this movie, I can feel the funny and touch. The main actor in this film is Xia Luo (Shen Teng) who attended his high school classmate's wedding ceremony, and the bride is Qiu Ya (Wang Zhi) who is Xia Luo' s dream lover. While he wanted to show off in front of his dream lover, his wife Ma Dongmei (Ma Li) who also was their high school classmate appeared in the wedding ceremony. Then, after Dongmei's pursuing, Xia hided in a restroom and made a dream. In the dream, he returned to his high school period. Because he knew what would happen in the future. Xia promised that he would gain whatever he wanted. His dream came true and he got married to Qiu Ya. In addition, he used future's songs to become a super star. However, he eventually realized that his true love was his real wife Ma Dongmei. After he waked up, Xia completely understands that what he wants the most is always around him. This is the theme of the whole film. Although this movie is brilliant, it still has its weakness. In the ending, everyone thinks that Xia would be a good husband and amend himself, trying to support his family. But he does not. Notwithstanding, Xia becomes treasuring Ma Dongmei, he is gluttonous and lazy as usual. Also, I love the line "I can give you everything that I have, you just need to give her back to me." This film is suitable for people who got married and they will learn lots of thing from this film. From this movie, couples can learn to seize each moment with their partner they have now. Life is too short. It is too easy for someone to lose themselves on the way chasing fortune and fame, ignoring the things that they really want to achieve. Therefore, money is not Jack- of - all -trades. The only thing that we can do well is to cherish your partner and seize each moment you have now Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Typically, remakes are not better than the originals. But, "Goodbye Mr. Loser" is an exception. This 2015 remake of the 1986 American film "Peggy Sue Got Married" is actually the superior work. The film is about a lazy alcoholic husband named Xia Luo who wishes his fate had swung in a different direction. He laments having become a penniless loser married to his saintly and slightly overbearing high school sweetheart, Ma Dongmei, wishing instead that he could have somehow become a successful musician married to his ditzy high school crush, Qiu Ya. While attending his high school crush's wedding along with his other high school classmates and faculty, he embarrasses himself when his wife unexpectedly appears. He has a mild breakdown and considers divorcing her. Suddenly, something mysterious happens and he finds himself transported back in time to his high school days. As soon as he realizes that he is not dreaming, he distances himself from Ma Dongmei, gets aggressive in his attempts to woo Qiu Ya, and becomes a celebrity by writing and singing a number of popular songs before their actual creators can write them. Years go by and we see where that road leads him, as well as what becomes of Ma Dongmei. I think that some of the changes that the scriptwriter decided to make to the original story were actually for the best. For example, I really wanted to see Xia Luo taught a hard, life-changing lesson, whereas I did not really care whether Peggy Sue, the protagonist in the original film, learned a lesson or not. Second, whereas Peggy Sue confided in several people that she had traveled from the future, Xia Luo did not. That added complexity to Xia Luo's character because it made him seem lonelier; only he knew himself. Third, whereas the moral lesson of the original film was simply that sometimes the thing that you want most is not what you would enjoy the most, "Goodbye Mr. Loser" expands that into a lesson directed at men who fail to appreciate their wives: it is better to be a poor man married to a loyal, strong-willed, and good-hearted wife with average looks than a wealthy man with a gorgeous wife who's ditsy, disloyal, and morally flimsy. Fourth, "Peggy Sue Got Married" was much raunchier than "Goodbye Mr. Loser" because Peggy Sue was a bit loose; in contrast, although Xia Luo eventually finds himself struggling with the question of which girl he truly loves, he seems at his heart to be a one-woman man. Fifth, the Chinese remake gives its protagonist much more time (years, in fact) to develop as a character, whereas the character development in the American original seems too rushed. Finally, the idea presented in the original film to become wealthy by inventing things before anyone else does is fully realized in "Goodbye Mr. Loser," whereas it is only proposed in the 1986 original. Those changes in story are what compel me to say that the 2015 version is better than its 1986 predecessor. It is not a perfect film, of course. Few movies are. If I were to nitpick, I would have to say that the film presented its moral lesson too bluntly. In fact, half-way through the movie, someone actually sings a song which explicitly states the lesson. That was a bit insulting to the audience's intellect, I felt. My only other nitpick is that the film seemed to be unsure whether it wanted to be a drama or a comedy. Although the comedic elements were often funny, they seemed forced and unnatural, almost as though they didn't belong in the story. In summary, "Goodbye Mr. Loser" is one of those rare remakes that's actually better than its predecessor. Its protagonist is more complex, its story more fleshed-out, and its scope larger. It is occasionally funny, but its strength is not in its comedy but in its important message. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Goodbye Mr. Loser

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A middle-aged loser is transported back to his high school years to fix his mistakes.
Director
Da-Mo Peng, Fei Yan
Screenwriter
Da-Mo Peng, Fei Yan
Distributor
China Lion Film Distribution
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 9, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 17, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$1.3M
Runtime
1h 44m
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