Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a 2018 comedy film,
titled Hello Mr. Billionaire. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
Duo Yu Wang is a thirty-seven-year-old goalkeeper for minor league soccer team Daxiang,
who hasn't had a very successful career. In the past few years, he's bitten an opponent and
gotten kicked out of the game for it, played for a female team while pretending to be a woman, worked
as a human sushi plate, and even modeled with no clothes for painters. When Mr. Jin calls him to
have lunch with him, Duo Yu thinks he's about to be recruited to a more successful team, but it's
actually exactly the opposite: Mr. Jin wants to pay him so Duo Yu will lose his next match on
purpose, but he turns down the offer, explaining he dislikes fraud and for this, he won't allow
the other team to make even one goal. When the day of the match comes however, Duo Yu gets cocky and
distracted after catching just one ball, allowing the opposite team to score five goals against him.
The other team's players even throw him up in celebration for having lost so easily to them.
After being kicked out of the team, a depressed Duo Yu doesn't want to leave his apartment, but
his teammate and best friend Qiang Zhuang visits him and drags him out to take him to talk to the
coach, promising he'll get his job back. His plan doesn't go well though: the coach has no interest
in taking Duo Yu back, and thinks a dog is already a better goalkeeper than he ever was. When
Qiang Zhuang threatens to leave if Duo Yu isn't welcome back, the coach laughs and lets him go,
considering losing both of them at the same time a great thing for the team. On their way back home,
when stopping the car at a red light, a traffic racketeer pretends to have been hit by them.
Since he refuses to admit he's acting, Duo Yu and Qiang Zhuang grab him, bump him against the car a
couple of times and even use his body to clean the car window. A young woman Xia Zhu suddenly sees
them and calls them bullies, recording everything with her phone and calling over more people
to be witnesses, not believing the racketeer explanation since she caught them with their
hands in the cookie jar. This lands both of them in jail. The one to pay for their bail is Mr. Jin,
who tells Duo Yu he isn't actually involved in the soccer business and their meeting the other day
had only been a test. He takes them to his office and, after telling Qiang Zhuang to wait outside,
he introduces Duo Yu to Mr. Yin and Mr. Lai of Guang Ming Trust Fund. The three men explain
to Duo Yu that his grandfather had a brother that fell out with his family and lost contact,
causing everyone to think he was dead, but actually, he only passed away last month.
Duo Yu is the sole heir to his fortune, but to be able to receive the money, he has to pass a test,
which his second grandfather explains through a video he recorded before dying.
Duo Yu must spend two billion yuan in one month, and if he's successful, he'll receive
the rest of his second grandfather's money: thirty billion yuan. There are some conditions though:
the money must be spent legally, he can't have any assets left at the end of the month,
he can't get gifts or give money to charity, all money must be spent on himself,
he can hire up to one hundred people but he must accept the service they provide,
he can't destroy any valuable stuff he could buy, he can't bid up to excess the prices of the
market, and he can't tell anyone of this game. In case his grandson can't take the challenge,
the old man has added a coward clause: Duo Yu has the option to take ten million yuan and
leave as if nothing happened, which means the fortune would stay in the trust fund for Mr.
Yin and Mr. Lai to use, or accept the challenge, which could leave him with nothing if he loses.
Duo Yu takes the challenge, so Mr. Jin informs him he'll be monitoring him for the following month to
make sure he follows the rules and assigns one of his company accountants to him to keep track of
his expenses. This accountant turns out to be Xia Zhu, who doesn't want to work for him after what
she saw on the street, but Duo Yu decides to hire her anyway as revenge for sending him to jail.
Afterward, Duo Yu takes Qiang Zhuang with him and together they go to the vault to see the money,
almost passing out when they see so many bills together in one room. On their way out of the bank
with bags full of money, Duo Yu already starts spending it by hiring all the guards working
there by promising them excessive salaries. After renting some cars as well, Duo Yu goes
to see his old soccer team and informs them he'll be renting them and a team from the major league,
the Hengtai, to play against them in the future after he's done repairing the whole stadium.
The team doesn't believe he's rich now and laughs at him, so to make his point,
Duo Yu makes an excavator come over and drop a bunch of money in the middle of the soccer field.
The whole team joins Duo Yu in his cars, although when they take the road, he travels alone with Xia
Zhu to try to hit on her, but she informs him she already has a boyfriend, an orator and educator
that talks about spreading positive energy and doesn't care much about money. Shortly afterward,
they make it to a very fancy hotel that requires membership, but Duo Yu simply talks to the manager
and offers him extra money to allow them to rent the entire hotel for the whole month, and seeing
the insane amount of money he offers, the manager accepts before taking them to the dining room for
a celebratory banquet. All this falls under the rules, since Duo Yu is allowed to buy things
for his employees and he's renting the team now. During dinner, Duo Yu announces he'll be opening
a new investment company and the CEO will be Qiang Zhuang, who is very touched by the gesture
because he doesn't know Duo Yu chose someone who isn't smart on purpose so he can lose him money.
From then on, Duo Yu starts spending as much money as possible, from a one million dollar
haircut to renting clothes, furniture, and cars, which confuses Xia Zhu because it would be cheaper
to buy these things. She points out that at this rate, he'll lose it all in half a year, which is
too fast for her taste but too slow for his, but he cannot tell her this. At that moment, Xia Zhu's
boyfriend Jiannan Liu arrives to take her with him to his lecture about not being slaves of money.
After turning down the offer of a drink, Jiannan tells Duo Yu about his lecture,
which sadly hasn't sold any tickets. Duo Yu grabs some money from his safe and buys them
all for his team, instantly making Jiannan drop his anti-capitalism stance. He accepts the drink
even if he usually doesn't have alcohol and offers his services as a gardener, which Duo Yu accepts.
Disappointed by seeing he isn't the man she thought he was, Xia Zhu breaks up with him.
Sometime later, Duo Yu has his first meeting with his new investment company and orders them to
invest in a bunch of sunset industries that could be shut down any minute now. Right after that,
a crazy man tries to get funds for his weird invention: a machine that lets you swim on land.
Duo Yu gives him money as well before asking if anyone else had a dream, so he can fund
them all no matter how ridiculous they are. The following day, while Duo Yu is having a massage,
the masseuse Shasha tries to sleep with him and doesn't take no for an answer. As she corners him
against a statue, Xia Zhu arrives to remind Duo Yu of their next meeting, saving him just in time.
They join Mr. Yin and Mr. Lai on the golf field, which his team will be using to train, and Duo Yu
sees Shasha there with them, discovering she had been hired by Yin and Lai to spy on him and get
him to lose the challenge. Duo Yu invites the two men to lunch, but since the rules say he can only
treat his employees and any other expenses would come out of his own pockets, he serves Yin and Lin
instant ramen. One of them quotes some philosophy told by the famous businessman Mr. Lafitte,
so Duo Yu decides to pay an insane amount of money to bring him to China and have lunch with him.
With Xia Zhu as interpreter between them, Duo Yu asks Lafitte to tell him about the worsts
investments he's ever had because he wants to have classes on business failures. Lafitte finds
this request very insulting, because he only teaches people to succeed, and leaves without
even trying the food. Xia Zhu gets angry with Duo Yu for having been so rude and leaves as well,
but he follows her with his car while hearing her talk about how she's considered the black widow of
the investment world because every company she's worked for went bankrupt, a fact she doesn't
include in her resume and thinks will get her fired. Duo Yu considers it a good thing though,
and says that while the other companies may call her a black widow, for him, she's his company's
mascot. Duo Yu continues to spend money in crazy ways, having a servant for every single little
part of his daily routine. His mood falls however, when he hears all the investments
he chose badly on purpose have actually been successful and are giving him even more money.
After sending his employees away, Duo Yu throws a tantrum in the meeting room, cursing his luck.
Yin and Lai see this news on tv and laugh at how badly Duo Yu is doing with the challenge.
After having a nightmare about burning the money and meeting his second grandfather, Duo Yu is
woken up by Qiang Zhuang, who wants to introduce him to an old friend of his to see if there's room
for him in the team. As soon as Duo Yu sees the man with a bad eye and a cheap choice of clothes,
he hires him on the spot. Feeling very grateful, Qiang Zhuang promises they'll work hard and maybe
one day they can celebrate with fireworks, giving Duo Yu an idea. Meanwhile, Xia Zhu is spending her
birthday alone in her apartment with a little cake she got for herself until Jiannan shows up out of
nowhere. After giving her flowers, he takes her cake and starts eating it without even asking for
permission while telling Xia Zhu he has an idea for a book in mind and he'd appreciate her asking
Duo Yu for funds. Xia Zhu's reply is smashing the cake on his face before kicking him out and
going to see Duo Yu for some business matters. He doesn't let her talk about work tonight though,
he just shows her the surprise he's prepared for her: thousands of fireworks illuminating the
sky all over the city. When Xia Zhu mentions her birthday, Duo Yu pretends this is her present when
he actually had no idea of the date. While she is quite touched by the gesture, she still tells him
they can't date because they're from different worlds, and she'll only see him as an uncle or
brother. Sometime later, Xia Zhu discovers there are posters with her face all over the city that
Duo Yu has put up to convince her to give him a chance. There also are ads on tv and the radio
asking for the same thing. This puts the attention of the public on her, who follow her around to
take selfies with her. She calls Duo Yu to take care of the problem but he just invites her to
a concert instead of listening, so Xia Zhu hangs up on him and takes a taxi while hiding her face.
When the driver stops the car at the red light, the same traffic racketeer from the other day
shows up and pretends to be hurt again, making Xia Zhu realize Duo Yu hadn't been lying after all.
Seeing him with new eyes, she arrives at the hotel and accepts Duo Yu's concert invitation, saying
she'd like to know him better. The concert turns out to be a private affair in the hotel with her
favorite singer. After dancing and taking pictures with him, Duo Yu takes Xia Zhu out for dinner,
then they play soccer with some kids at the park and have a lovely walk together by the river.
Meanwhile, Yin and Lai call Jiannan and hire him to help them make Duo Yu lose the challenge.
Speaking of Duo Yu, he falls under more stress when he sees his soccer team partying instead
of training and Qiang Zhuang informs him the company has made another billion.
After punching his friend, Duo Yu throws himself into the swimming pool to calm his
nerves and while remembering everything he's learned so far, he gets an idea.
After getting Mr. Jin's approval, he makes a special presentation at the mall announcing
his new project: a fat insurance program. You only pay one yuan for it, and the company will
pay you back for every gram you may lose. The program is a success, which drives Yin and Lai
crazy but they can't do anything about it because as Jin explains, insurance is a legal business
and what Duo Yu came up with is technically not charity. A huge amount of people sign up and start
exercising all over the city, sometimes under the guidance of Duo Yu himself. Gyms are crowded,
and people begin to use alternatives like normal stairs and even the land-swimming machines.
This project earns Duo Yu an award as humanitarian of the year, and when he goes up to the stage to
receive it, he tries to explain he's not doing this to help people but because of business
reasons, but nobody takes him seriously. When the day of the soccer match finally comes, the
players of the Hengtai team promise they'll break a record and make a two-digit number of goals.
Most of the stadium is cheering for them, while Daxiang only has a small section of
fans among the crowd, but they still manage to make a big entrance by arriving in helicopters.
As soon as the match begins, Qiang Zhuang pretends to be hurt so the most important Hengtai player
gets red-carded, giving them an advantage of one extra player. Sadly this isn't enough,
and during the first half, Hengtai scores eight goals while Daxiang makes zero. Duo Yu thinks they
should at least stop them from scoring two digits to keep some dignity, so during the second half,
they try some ridiculous tactics like forming a circle of players around the opponent.
This is still not enough to stop them from making the ninth goal, so the Daxiang goes for their last
and most desperate strategy: putting all players in front of their goal to stop any incoming balls,
even if they have to use their faces or groins to achieve it. Meanwhile, in the audience,
Xia Zhu finds Jiannan and tells him his payments have been missing on the paperwork, which he has
been doing on purpose to make it seem like Duo Yu is spending less than he is. Tired of hearing her
defend him, Jiannan finally tells her the truth about the game, claims Duo Yu is just using her,
and tries to win her back, but Xia Zhu hits him with her purse and leaves the stadium,
intending to tell Mr. Jin about all this. Jiannan chases after her, following her into some shady
parts of the neighborhood. Back to the match, the Daxiang team is defending the goal to the
point of bruises and bleeding. This determination earns the sympathy of the audience, who starts
cheering for them, and even their coach tries to join the match when they run out of substitutes,
but he slips on a water bottle and is out of the game before he can even do anything.
Thankfully, having each other and their memories as a team together with the public's support is
enough for them to hang on until the end and not let a single goal more happen.
When the referee ends the game at zero-nine, the whole stadium celebrates as if Daxiang had won,
because stopping such an important team from reaching two digits feels like a victory.
In the middle of the celebration, Duo Yu gets a call from Xia Zhu's phone, but there's a
mysterious voice on the other end of the line telling him he's kidnapped his girlfriend,
sending a picture to prove it. Duo Yu thinks this is another plan by Yin and Lai so he hires some
criminals to make them confess, but they only admit to having hired Jiannan to fake the bills,
nothing else. Duo Yu gets another call from the kidnapper then, showing him how he's pushing
Jiannan off the edge of a building and threatening to do the same to Xia Zhu if he doesn't pay ten
million before six o'clock. Duo Yu now is in a difficult situation, because if he pays to
save Xia Zhu, he'd be breaking the rules of the game and lose his second grandfather's fortune.
What he doesn't know is that this isn't real, it's the third and final test his grandfather left him:
he has to prove he cares more about a human life than money - if he does,
then he wins the challenge. Jiannan and Xia Zhu are fine, and the kidnapper is just Mr. Jin,
who believes in Duo Yu and is sure he will come through. As the hours pass however,
Duo Yu spends them drinking and singing at the karaoke and doesn't show up in time.
At six o'clock, Mr. Jin and Xia Zhu get ready to leave, feeling rather disappointed,
but when they're about to take the stairs, they find Duo Yu crying with his bags of money,
ready to exchange them for Xia Zhu's life. Mr. Jin congratulates him on passing the test and plays
the last message the grandfather left for Duo Yu, making him wonder how come he never got married
or had kids when he was so rich. Mr. Jin reveals then he was the grandfather's significant other.
Many months later, Duo Yu and a very pregnant Xia Zhu come back from traveling around the world. Now
they've enjoyed themselves enough, they're ready to donate all their money, but they interrupt
their paperwork process when they realize they need to keep at least some for their future baby.
The couple starts making a list of things they need, and while it starts pretty basic,
it becomes filled with enough extravagant things that will end up with them donating nothing.