Po · Dei juk

I snuck into this film expecting absolutely nothing, since I was unaware of even its title. Asians dominated the crowd of 25 matinee, so I figured it was an Asian film. This was such a beautiful experience to have unfold before me. Standup comic Dayo Wong is Dominic. His wedding planning business went bust during Hong Kong Covid. But his girlfriend's retiring Uncle Ming has turned over his half stake in his funeral business to him. The other half is held by Master Man (Michael Hui), a well regarded Taoist priest. MM lives with his ambulance driver daughter Yuet (Michelle Wai) and son Ben, who is continuing the Taoist tradition. Ben in turn has a wife and son. Dom visits often. He implements a lot of wacky money making ideas. But it's also a very dramatic film. The priest performs the "breaking hell's gate" ritual, which liberates dead souls so they can move on, as he did with his own deceased wife. Women are forbidden from such jobs, and Yuet is still holding a grudge. All the characters are very well developed. There are beautiful establishing shots of Hong Kong. I was very moved by the film and there was detectable crying in the audience. I would definitely try to see it. It was first released in HK, England, then Ireland. Now the US in very limited release. Anselm Chan is a fine writer/director.

I went in watching this not knowing a single thing but was weeping by the end of it. This is a character-driven movie with well-written characters. I'm not sure if it was intended but the start of the movie made me slightly uncomfortable (?) because the protagonist was clearly in it for the money, which was understandable because he had a lot of debts. However as the movie progressed and Dominic (the protagonist) gained more experience in the funeral business, he also became more empathetic and respectful of not only the dead but the dead's family. It was really good but the one aspect of this movie that hit me the most was the relationship between Hello-man and Man Yuet, his daughter. Throughout most of the movie they barely got along but it was when crisis struck that he and his daughter started getting closer. They didn't have a perfect relationship but they loved each other in their own ways and it's another parent-daughter dynamic that reminded me of the quote from Arcane, "Is there anything so undoing as a daughter?"

I didn't want to go see a movie about a Hong Kong funeral director, but my wife made me go. Sounded boring. But WOW. This is one of those rare movies that can appreciated by all cultures and all age groups. It's a dark comedy that can make you smile or have tears of compassion well up in your eyes -- even as you follow the story in subtitles. I am not familiar with the Chinese actors, I hear that some of them are very well known, and I can see why. They were all brilliant, bringing to live a screenplay that is rich in emotion and drama. Solid editing and post-production work as well. Catch it if you can. Maybe someday it will even be on Netflix!

Giving this an 8/10 rating

Latest from writer director Anselm Chan, and it's a topper, a proper drama about a subject that really does not get screen time. This is a great film by him and a good acting choice by Dayo Wong, who is nothing short of brilliant in everything he is in, but this performance and this role, it's a big ask and pulls it off.

A film about death nd the effects on the living, it must be handled with great care and can be a minefield, add humour and it can be a disaster, this is a almost perfect film that does this right, and there is a lesson to be learnt out of it.

Michael Hui, Michelle Wai and Pak Hon Chu are just so good and play off each other and cause Dayo Wong's character chaos. And he has plenty of that, which causes him all sorts but he grows and grows, and the last act of the film, which is the title, just finishes what is a great film off. The film is playing to packed cinemas here in London, for a good reason, it's got Dayo Wong, on top form, and I will travel to see what he is in.

The Chinese entertainment culture is not reknowned for its emotional output but occasionally out pops a movie that transcends the mainstream by a mile.

This one is such a movie and I've not seen one as good since I saw another Chinese movie, "The Shower" back in 2005.

"The Shower" has family ties and traditions as its centerpiece and has you biting your lip with heartrending scenes and I recommend that you watch it.... it's a marvellous movie.

This movie, though, goes even further and had most of the spartan audience blubbering unashamedly as the story brilliantly unfolds.(the audience spartan because the screening was at 9.50 pm on New Year's Eve.)

It starts with a middle aged, handsome and personable man falling into debt as a result of his failing "Wedding Planner" business in Hong Kong. The failure mainly because of political upheaval and the financial crisis.

He is offered a lifeline by one of his relatives and the lifeline is in the form of a partnership with an elderly, strict and irascible Daoist priest who runs a funeral business. The business follows very strictly and sincerely the ceremonies of the religion..

A clash of ideas immediately surfaces and we are treated to a tour-de-force of acting by every member of the cast, as we see how tradition faces the new world. The clash sweetly resolves into a mutual respect as they start to understand each other.

Underneath the main storyline is the family interplay of the Daoist priest, and a look into the characters of his son and his troubled daughter.

Daoist tradition will not permit a woman to conduct the ceremonies of sending the deceased to the afterlife as they are thought to be worthless. The son is only a reluctant follower to appease the wishes of his father.

The relationship between the Wedding Planner and the priest is a lovely story of adaptation and compromise while the relationship between father, son and daughter has everybody weeping in the theater at its intensity.

Some of the scenes where they embalm the deceased, especially one where they tenderly embalm a young child are almost too hard to take. But the skill of the cinematography and the gentleness of the acting lets you just about hold on.

If you can watch this movie without crying you must have a heart of stone, just a brilliant production.