Funeral March

Seung joi ngo sam (2001)

Director: Joe Ma
Writing credits: Wing-Sun Chan, Joe Ma
Cast: Eason Chan, Sheila Chan, Charlene Choi, Wai-Hung Fung, John Quincy Lee, Kai Chi Liu, Candy Lo, Kenneth Tsang, Pauline Yam

A young woman discovers she has cancer and sets about preparing for her funeral. She chooses a young funeral director to assist her. On a trip to New York they fall for each other and he convinces her to go home for the operation that could cure her. But then she learns his secret.

It seemed pretty obvious to me what was going to happen. His secret was that he too was sick and then because of their love they would be healed and live happily ever after. But that's not quite how it went. Yes, it did turn out that he also was sick, but he never told her. She (Kee) gave up her despair. He (Duan) never lost his optimism. Her operation was a success.

Duan tries to get Kee to look at their relationship in a different way. They are just friends, he tells her. She should go look for someone more suitable. He remaines gentle and kind to her as the story progresses. It's so obvious he cares for her that I kept waiting to find out the secret that held him back... Maybe it wasn't him being sick (we didn't know at this point). Maybe he was married and his wife was sick, maybe... ??? But then we found out...

Although Duan tried everything, all the treatments, he wasn't getting better. He had completely stopped seeing Kee and she decided to wait for him. She finally went to his home. At first they just sent her away, but when they saw her determination, his brother told her the truth.

Duan was in the hospital and would not be leaving. I was mad at this point. How can he die? He's the star! There's no point to this story. But as the story progressed, it dawned on me, yes there is a point and it's the point of the whole movie!

Duan told Kee when she first hired him for her funeral, that she must not give up and also that if she's sure she's not going to live long she should do something worthwhile. Help someone.

When Kee finds Duan in the hospital and is staying with him there, her stepmother asks to stay with her. This I feel is a significan't part of what makes the story feel right. Kee passes from pretending to like her stepmother to turning to her in her need. This was an example of something Duan did that was worthwhile. It was his exaggerations about the stepmother that made Kee return home from New York and have the operation that saved her and to see her stepmother in a different light.

All through the movie, Duan is a happy and upbeat character, even when he's being serious and you can see his is concerned about something. Even in the hospital, right to the end.

So it doesn't end "happily ever after." Neither does life most often. The ending is quite realistic for the circumstances. It's more poignant. A happy ending may have left the viewer facused on the "happily ever after" factor rather than the little message at the very end of the film: "Whether life brings sunshine or storm, we must face it bravely..." I'm not sure if this little printed message was necessary. I also think that the message of the film was a little more than that. It's about how a storm faced bravely can affect those around you.

This is a quiet film. It may move a bit slowly for some, especially those who prefer action films. It pays off in a bittersweet ending, one that says "Yeah, there's sorrow in the world, but there's also love and happiness even in the sorrow."