Po · Dei juk

This one is that kind of movies that linger in your mind, that make you think about life, that give you certain positive impacts.

The casting is great and the acting of the individuals is near perfect.

The movie is good for audience of any religious background, for audience who believe or not the last dance is meaningful for the death, for audience who has good/bad bonding with the family, for audience who is struggling for life, and even for audience who doesn't like going to cinemas.

Hong Kong movie industries have been relying too much on kungfu/gangster stories for the last 10 or even 20 years. This movie is a major break-through while in Asia Korean/Japanese movies have been dominating.

Good job!!

"Dominic" (Dayo Wong) is struggling to make ends meet, post COVID, with his business in tatters and his repayment bills at almost $13,000 per month. He's not afraid of hard work, though, so when his "Uncle Ming" (Paul Chun) offers him his share in a funeral parlour he jumps at the chance. His partner - rather sarcastically referred to as "Hello Man" (Michael Hui) comes across as a rather curmudgeonly fellow - a traditionalist Taoist priest who lives with his ambulance-driving daughter "Yuet" (Michelle Wai) and his favourite son "Ben" (Pak Hon Chu) who is attempting to follow in his father's footsteps. Thing is, in his excitement to get the job done and to make enough money to clear his debts, he makes quite a few schoolboy errors at the start that are way more lively to offend the ancestors than send them peaceably on their way to the next life, and that just irks the older man who feels his new pal is disrespectful. As the story unfolds, we follow a young man who learns a little more about a business that is really anything but. At times this is quite a funny story, with a special appearance by a full-sized, papier-mâché, yellow Maserati rather summing up the ineptness of "Dominic" as he strives for success, but that humour rather quickly evaporates leaving us with a familial drama the can be quite poignant at times as it looks at the restricting roles for women and the hereditary responsibility of sons. Given the professions of the characters, grief is never far away and we focus quiet tenderly at times at just how people come to terms with that - or not, whilst we also try to reconcile just how families themselves change from generation to generation, with some tough decisions having to be made that centre around "Ben" and his need to look forward and not back. The acting is engaging and the dialogue well written, allowing the action to do plenty of the work without subjecting us to a constant surfeit of chatter, and it handles the topic of death and the provisions we make to deal with it and it's aftermath sensitively.

A Hong Kong movie for the people of Hong Kong, it's been a while since the last time I've seen something like this. And the result shows. A testament that movies should be based on quality and not for the wider market only then can you create something that truly transcends to everyone. The Last Dance delves into an ancient tradition of the Canton people, and looks at how something like this affects the society of today. And by looking at the deceased, can we truly appreciate the living. A wonderfully created, dynamic film that has more to do with emotions, families than the topic itself and the box office is its best testament. Perhaps more impressive is the immaculate cinematography, it's so picturesque yet soaked in tradition and culture.

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!

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.