MUJI's New Short Film Turns a Father-Son Dinner Into an Argument for 'Good Enough'
Most brand campaigns about food go big. Close-ups of glistening dumplings.
Most brand campaigns about food go big. Close-ups of glistening dumplings. Art-directed tablescapes. A voiceover telling you to
live deliciously
.
MUJI's second "Jiu Zheyang Jiu Hao" (这样就好, roughly "this is good enough") short film does the opposite. It puts Chen Xiaoqing—the director behind
A Bite of China
, arguably the most influential food documentary series ever made in the country—in a kitchen with his son Chen Le. Then it mostly ignores the food.
The setup is almost aggressively ordinary. Father and son buy groceries, cook together, eat, talk. There's no scripted climax, no product placement handshake moment. At one point, the younger Chen says something that could double as the entire campaign's thesis: "Who you eat with is way, way more important than what's on the plate."
When his son admits he's uncertain about the future, Chen Xiaoqing doesn't offer advice. He just hopes his son can "live a peaceful, interesting life, wherever you are. That's enough."
This is the second installment in MUJI's "Jiu Zheyang Jiu Hao" series. The first paired Cantopop icons Gigi Leung and Charlie Yeung—friends for three decades—in a similarly understated portrait of companionship. Where that film explored long friendship, this one turns inward to family. Both share the same logic: cast people with real history, put them in real situations, and let whatever happens happen.
The campaign extends beyond these films. MUJI also crowdsourced real snapshots from customers under the hashtag #MomentsThatFeelGood—meals, idle afternoons, hands at work—folding everyday life into the brand's quiet argument that contentment isn't something you achieve. It's something you notice.
For a retailer that sells storage boxes and cotton shirts, the flex here is restraint. MUJI isn't telling you its products will make life better. It's suggesting that life, in its current unvarnished form, might already be good enough. The harder sell is getting people to believe that.
