Vertical (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

According to Emporis, there are 7,650 skyscrapers in Hong Kong, putting the city at the top of world rankings. ...36 of the world's 100 tallest residential buildings [are located] in Hong Kong, and more people [live] or [work] above the 14th floor than anywhere else on Earth, making it the world's most vertical city. (From the Architecture section of Wikipedia's Hong Kong entry)

It's not often that I begin any blog entry with a quote -- and from Wikipedia, no less! -- but the above words go a long way towards explaining why my choice of subject for this week's Photo Hunt was a no-brainer and contextualizing the matter of urban Hong Kong's verticality.

Some of you might find the views to be breathtaking, others scary and ugly -- and then get to thinking that high density Hong Kong must be an awful place to live. To the latter especially, I just want to point out that the first photo was taken while out hiking in the Quarry Bay Extension of Tai Tam Country Park (a natural section of the Big Lychee that is as physically attractive as it is surprisingly close to the city) while the second was taken from the top of a bus. (Among the attractions of high density living in Hong Kong is the convenience of it all -- with such as public transportation, grocery and other stores, and pretty much everything you need often being just a stone's throw away.)

Pictures from another Aberdeen Country Park hike (Photo-essay)

As the first post-Hong Kong International Film Festival weekend (one that -- touch wood -- the weather forecasters currently predict will be without rain on Sunday) looms, my thoughts have turned once more to hiking. So rather than continue with my HKIFF reviewing at least tonight, I'm going to go ahead and put up another set of hiking photos from several months ago -- taken just one week after the previous hike (whose photo-essay I put up here):-

Early on in our hike, my companion and I caught sight
of this unusual botanic arrangement

Not what you'd expect to see
out in the wild or a country park

...but this pillbox that I'm thinking dates back to
the Second World War is a reminder that sections of
what is now country park land in Hong Kong were
where troops marched through and battles were waged

The kind of scenery one expects more to see
in a country park -- even one which actually
is not all that far away from civilization

Small waterfalls along the path
of a hill stream that flows down
into one of the Aberdeen Reservoirs

Another rusting metal door spotted

Another World War II-era structure --
this one in not as good condition as the one
we came across earlier on this same hike

My hiking companion likes to take photos of bugs
and I of flowers -- so this scene satisfied the both of us! ;)

To be continued... but of course! ;b

The last but two movies I viewed at the 2010 HKIFF

A restaurant I ate in a couple times
without realizing that it's the supposed location
of the villain's lair in The Game of Death!

The Hong Kong International Film Festival officially ended yesterday -- but the reviewing of films I saw at the fest go on (along with some programmes like the tribute Yasujiro Shimazu: Fanfare for the Common Man and Hong Kong Film Archive's Hong Kong Auteur, Lung Kong; some of whose future screenings I have tickets for). And, without further ado, here is my personal take on two more movies I caught at this year's HKIFF:-

Memories of a Burning Tree (Tanzania-Malaysia-The Netherlands-Singapore, 2010)
- From the Indie Power programme
- Sherman Ong, director
- Starring Smith K. Kimaro, Link Reuben, Abdul Khalfan Malaika

As some of you will know, I'm a Malaysian who lived and worked for a couple of years in Tanzania. Alternatively put in Kiswahili -- a language I learnt for two years before my second visit to that East African country: Nilikaa Tanzania kwa mwaka mbili kwa kufanya utafiti. So when I saw that this year's HKIFF offerings included a film made by a Malaysian that was set in Dar es Salaam (the sprawling city where -- along with Zanzibar Stone Town -- I spent the majority of my time in Tanzania), I couldn't resist the impulse to check it out.

For, even while I didn't have high expectations for the work as a cinematic product, I figured that it would satisfy my urge to get a good view of what Dar es Salaam (the Haven of Peace) looked like these days -- one that would allow me to compare and contrast the city and its people circa 2010 with when I lived there (more than a decade ago now). Except the way that the film was shot (and here, I'll point out that helmer Sherman Ong also is the work's credited cinematographer), I found to my utter disappointment that I couldn't even really do much of that.

For one thing, an inordinate amount of the work's proceedings take place in a cemetery (somewhat understandably because its main plot concerns an unemployed graduate going to Tanzania to search for his mother's grave) or indoors, primarily in a canteen type establishment (where the man and another who he met early on in Dar es Salaam and enlisted to help him in his search go to eat at least once, and a couple of sub-plots involving the canteen's cook, a grave digger and a scrap metal scavenger who source of scrap metal includes metal crosses of new graves).

For another, up until the very last car journey that takes place as the end credits roll, ventures beyond often are shot in such as a way as to mask locales -- maybe because, as I myself experienced, many Tanzanians are loathe to be photographed -- because, more than one person has told me, they associate being photographed with animals and Maasai tribesmen encountered on tourist safaris -- and consider it a matter of national security to ensure that such as railway stations, airports and electric power plants not be recorded on film.

In any event, and for whatever reason, the end product is a film that's boring because stories don't really develop and ultimately come to nought, and characters just aren't fleshed enough to be all that interesting, never mind sympathetic and understandable. Indeed, pretty much all that I came out of the viewing with is a sense of ennui -- on the part of the film's Tanzanian characters (some of whom did remind me of certain people I met during my time in the country) but also for my own part post viewing 86 minutes of what may well have been the worst film of this year's HKIFF.

My rating for the film: 2

Game of Death (Hong Kong-USA, 1978)
- From the Bruce Lee 7010 programme
- Robert Clouse, director
- Starring Bruce Lee, Colleen Camp, Kim Tai Chun, Yuen Biao, Robert Wall, Dean Jagger, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Dan Inosanto, Sammo Hung, etc.

Released five years after its top billed star's death and using footage he had shot for what would have been his real film but also coverage of his real-life funeral(!), this Golden Harvest production is considered even by unabashed fan boys as "a cheap bastardization of [Bruce] Lee's work" and "a hack job". And although a worded caveat along the lines of "any resemblance to real persons is entirely coincidental" flashes onto the screen early on, things are made even more questionable by there being little question that viewers are meant to think that its action star protagonist (who is named Billy Lo but is shown filming a scene that's straight out of Fist of Fury, among other things) is based on Bruce Lee.

All in all, there are so many things that are just plain wrong with this movie -- and I don't just mean the absurdity that comes from watching the Hong Kong (rather than international) version of this film meaning that there are situations in which non-Hong Kong characters are seen speaking Cantonese (rather than, say, English) to one another -- even when not a single Hong Konger is present!! (On a Hong Kong movie location note, it truly does seem stupid that Billy Lo that would arrange to have a secret meeting with somebody at a place (the Po Leung Kuk orphanage in Causeway Bay) just a few minutes' walk away from the villain's lair (which I observed, to my great amusement, is supposed to be the Red Pepper restaurant that I've eaten at a few times in the past)!!!)

Additionally, although this film's non Bruce Lee action are supposed to have been choreographed by the great Sammo Hung, they often don't seem very polished. What's worse, those that involve Billy Lo when he is played by others sometimes have him fighting in ways that just don't capture the spirit and style of the legendary Little Dragon -- something that becomes patently apparent once we're shown footage of the real Bruce Lee going at it against first Dan Inosanto and then Kareem Abdul Jabbar (both of whom were his real life students).

If truth be told, for this viewer, all that genuinely matters is what ensued in the limited time that the real Bruce Lee appears on screen -- precious time during which the film's audience is treated to a masterclass in kung fu fighting (along with kung fu fighting filming). For it truly is no exaggeration to state that the man really did move in ways that were jaw-droppingly amazing.

At the risk of repeating myself, it's not just that he moved with pace or power but that he simultaneously did both. Something else that left a strong impression on me is the brutality of his fighting style. Put another way: this was a man whose characters had few qualms about killing the bad guys in any way that he could -- including strangulation as well as causing internal injuries -- but also directly attacking them where it would most hurt. Yet even while the fighting style may have been considered dirty as well as animal-like, there was a righteousness to his character and stance. And that, I believe, is a major factor as to why Bruce Lee remains admired and looked up to by a whole host of different and diverse people many years and even decades after his untimely death, and to this day.

My rating for the film: 7

Three more films viewed at the 2010 HKIFF

Kyoto Story's co-director Abe Tsutomo
and star Hana Ebise answer questions
at a HKIFF screening of their film

Before anything else: Here's thanking those of you who have been reading my HKIFF movie reviews. And I have to also say that it's surprised me somewhat to find that these entries have attracted comments from new visitors (or have you guys been lurking for a while?). May this situation continue -- though, of course, it's also very nice to get comments from "regulars"! And now on we go -- with three more movie reviews this time around:-

Tokyo Onlypic (Japan, 2008)
- From the Animation Unlimited programme
- Riichiro Mashima, chief director
- Starring Junichi Mogi and Shoko Nakagawa (but largely animated)

I'm one of those people who is in two minds about whether the Olympics should be taken seriously, as a close-to-sacred sporting event imbued with the Chariots of Fire spirit, or as something that is, at best, ripe for satire and parody. But it's clear enough that the makers of this largely animated anthology that opened in Japanese cinemas on the day that the 2008 Beijing Olympics began stand in the latter camp.

Evidence for this comes in the form of their work: a movie about the staging of an international sporting contest in Tokyo, complete with media coverage from serious commentators and nationalistic-minded anchors, and featuring events like a Race for Love (in which salivating, fleet-footed muscular men chase after a woman seated at the back of a heart-shaped vehicle like greyhounds in pursuit of a mechanical rabbit -- only they also have to show their romantic abilities to woo the woman in the bargain!), another called Independence Men (in which men compete to show that they can get away from their mothers by literally throwing them as far away as they can!) and a third involving 1000 Character SMSing (a phone text messaging competition that taxes the competitors so much that they react in eye-poppingly unbelievable ways)!

As is to be expected of an omnibus work with sections conceived and directed by different individuals, the results are somewhat uneven. To be sure, certain segments provoke more head-scratching than funny bone-tickling, others strain to impress and a few just plain fall flat. But others scale major creative and imaginative heights and really are laugh-out-loud funny.

And should anyone wonder: yes, national and cultural stereotyping and stereotypes abound. But the Political Correctness brigade should note that the filmmakers make as much fun of their own countrymen and -women as they do others. And as can be seen from the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony segments (featuring giant pigeons, huge movable pieces of sushi and a Kamakura Buddha look-a-like whose head bursts into flames!), the city of Tokyo and its environs is as ripe for making fun of as international sporting events like the Olympic Games.

My rating for this film: 7

White Material (France, 2009)
- From the Master Class programme
- Claire Denis, director
- Starring Isabelle Huppert, Nicholas Duvauchelle, Christophe Lambert

As can be seen in such as the HKIFF's inclusion of her latest film in its Master Class programme and the critical accolades she has received over the years, the main woman behind this work is an internationally respected filmmaker. But as the saying goes, nobody's perfect -- and while technically okay, this effort centering on a white woman loathe to leave her coffee plantation home despite multiple indications that the part of Africa it is in will very shortly descend into war, chaos and worse possesses way too many obvious narrative weaknesses and faults for my liking.

First and foremost, the story that gets told in this film is one that is so old that it has become beyond boring. Alternatively put: I am sick and tired of watching films about privileged white people who ultimately pay the price for being out of touch with the (non-white) society in which they mistakenly thought they could live in and off forever.

Granted that this is a lesson that may be personal for Denis (who lived as a child in colonial Africa). But if so, it's more than overdue then that she makes films in which African "Other"s are invested with some sign of humanity, not to mention three-dimensionality, rather than merely appear in roles whose types (e.g., "dangerous beings" or "other victims") are too easily pegged to bear much thought and care.

All this is particularly frustrating because there are enough hints in the film of Denis' awareness of the cultural as well as social and political complexity of Africa -- the inclusion of English-speakers in the ragtag rebel ranks despite the country in which the story is set being obviously Francophone. Also, while Isabelle Huppert and Christophe Lambert contribute star power to the work, it's Nicholas Duvauchelle's character who most intrigues -- because however "half baked" his actions are, one can see the identity crisis that spawned them and understand how certain attributes of his that would be a virtue elsewhere have become a curse in the part of the world he chose to consider as his native land.

My rating for this film: 4

Kyoto Story (Japan, 2010)
- From the Master Class programme
- Tsutomu Abe and Yoji Yamada, directors
- Starring Hana Ebise, USA, Sotaro Tanaka

This is one of those films that is filled with so much love that one's heart can't help but be warmed by it. But while this charmer of a movie's ostensible main storyline involves a young woman who is loved by two very different men (one of whom is an aspiring comedian who has difficulty getting laughs, the other a serious scholar whose actions often get one inadvertently laughing), it also is an open love letter to Kyoto -- in particular the section of the city that once was home to Shochiku's Kyoto studios and remains that of a close-knit community where "mom and pop" stores predominate and Risumeikan University (the alma mater of many of this movie's crew).

Before the screening of this film that I attended officially began, one of its directors (Tsutomu Abe) spoke briefly about the work and told the audience that he considered it an experimental work. At the Q&A session after the screening, he elaborated on this by disclosing that it is part documentary as well as fiction -- and that fact and fiction often mix. (For example, he disclosed, the film's main characters are based on real people. What's more, the laundry owner parents of the main female character are played by the real life owners of the laundry who actually do have a daughter who's the same age as the main female character; and the situation is similar with regards to the tofu-maker parents of one of her suitors being played by real-life tofu-makers who have a son who's the same age as that suitor character!)

At the same Q&A session, director Abe also stated that he was surprised that the audience reception to the movie had been as enthusiastic and warm as it was -- as he had thought that the film he had made would not be able to travel well at all. In a way, I can see what he meant by this -- because, among other things, this observably is a modest movie (whose crew reputedly numbers around 10 and has many students in its ranks) and also a very local one, with lots of specific details and touches. And yet, that very modesty and strong sense of the local (and community) also significantly contribute to this romantic comedy's charms.

In addition, fresh faced Kyoto native, Hana Ebise, is one of those young women one easily can understand men falling for. And even while his character's bumblings and fumblings get laughed at a lot, it's also clear that the actor who plays the scholar who is prone to feeling very deeply (about his work but also a woman who is kind to him) is a real winner as far as this lovely offering's audiences are concerned.

My rating for this film: 8

Three very different films viewed at the 2010 HKIFF

For many film fans, Bruce Lee remains
the big boss 37 years after his death

Time flies when you're having fun -- as well as busy with work. Although it feels like this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival had just begun, it officially will come to a close just two days from now. But while I have yet to feel like I've had my fill of HKIFF screenings, it's true enough that I've actually gone to my share -- and so much so that I'm way behind in my reviewing of films I've seen at the fest.

So, before I go and view a couple more movies at the HKIFF tomorrow, here are reviews of three very different films I viewed in the early part of this week:-

The Big Boss (Hong Kong, 1971)
- From the Bruce Lee 7010 programme
- Lo Wei, director
- Starring Bruce Lee, Han Ying Chieh, James Tien, Maria Yi

For a long time (in particular, when I was living in the US), I was pretty resentful that Bruce Lee movies were what many people thought I was watching when I told them I was a Hong Kong movie fan. In large part, this is because, as I have come to retrospectively realize, the movies that my Hong Kong cinema passion were being negatively judged by actually were Bruceploitation films rather than the real McCoy.

Post viewing Bruce Lee's first action movie (and the one often considered to be the rawest and least sophisticated) for the first time earlier this week, I got to thinking how sad this situation is. Put another way: I seriously feel that even those people who are prone to making fun of "chopsocky flicks" could and would not be anything but impressed and captivated by Lee's powerful screen presence and persona if they were to actually watch him in action.

In his role as a young Chinese villager who goes to Thailand in search of work and winds up at an ice factory owned by a Thai Chinese big boss, Lee does not fight for the first part of the film. (Whenever his character is tempted to, he fingers a jade pendant given by his mother that serves to remind him of her injunction against resorting to violence.) Instead, it's James Tien's character who is shown acting admirably as the big brother who seeks to make sure that his fellow workers and community members are protected against bullies and other evil.

But after Tien's character and a few others mysteriously disappear, a situation arises in which Lee is called into action. As he steps into the fray, it quickly becomes apparent that he is a fighter several levels above everyone else. And when I say "he", I mean Lee the action star as well as Lee's character -- for the sheer nimbleness, pace and power of the man's movements are truly deservedly the stuff of legend.

Along with his eye-catching on screen performance, Lee's behind-the-camera input also cannot be help by noticed. By this I mean that the action choreography on display in the action scenes that involve the charismatic star -- which he is widely reported to have overseen himself -- really do feel like they belong in a different, better movie that much of the rest of The Big Boss. As it is, the fight scenes in which he is in the thick of the battle -- in particular those in which he has to fight several men at the same time -- elevate this offering to a really high plain; one in which the artistry as well as violent effectiveness of the martial arts as practiced by Lee can be appreciated and leave the movie's audience gasping in shock but also awe.

My rating for the film: 7.5

The Hunter (Iran, 2010)
- From the Auteurs programme
- Rafi Pitts, director
- Starring Rafi Pitts, Mitra Hajjar, Ali Nicksaulat

An ex-con who likes to go on solo hunting excursions in the woods, Ali also is a night watchman who would prefer to work days so that he could spend more quality time with the wife and young daughter he clearly loves. But when he puts this request, his boss not only turns it down flat but tells him that with his record, he should count himself lucky to have the job that he does.

Although he's not particularly happy about this, Ali goes about trying to make things work for his family and himself. And initially it all does seem to be going okay, only for his life to shatter and unravel when he returns home to an empty apartment and learns several hours later that his wife and daughter were fatally caught in the cross fire of a shoot out between police forces and anti-government individuals.

Angered and possessed of a death wish, he takes himself and a rifle up to a high spot to unleash his frustrations by doing such as shooting at the police. And if this development seems improbable, even more so is what follows -- including the incredibly swift conclusion reached by the police that he is the police killer and their equally fast tracking down of Ali despite his pretty immediately having gone on the run.

The first film from Iran I've viewed that is of a genre other than straight drama, The Hunter has an interesting premise that turned out to be badly executed. The result is a work that's far more boring than it could and should have been.

Honestly, until I saw this offering, I never would have thought that a film about a cop killer could be more boring than films from the same country with such as a Muslim convert (The Book of Law), a Muslim seminary student (Under the Moonlight) and a young girl, a female cyclist and an old woman (The Day I Became a Woman) as protagonists. But now I know far better -- and I hope that writing this review will help others to come to this realization too!

My rating for the film: 5

The Messenger (USA, 2009)
- From the Gala Presentation programme
- Oren Moverman, director
- Starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton

The two most recent American films I had viewed prior to checking out that which is the only fully English-language movie I'll be checking out at this year's HKIFF were The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air. So I'm wondering if it is a sign of the times -- or just a sign of my tendency to go for certain types of movies? -- that this film about military men whose jobs require them to be the bearers of bad news effectively combines the themes of those two films I had seen earlier.

In any event, and also like those other two films, The Messenger boasts very good performances by the lead actor and others who also have substantial time on screen, an intriguing premise and interesting perspectives. And it most certainly does have its moments -- including two (one early in the film, the other towards the end) contributed by Steve Buscemi in the role of a parent that Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson's characters are tasked with relaying the news of his son's death to.

Still, some elements seem to be missing from the movie that could make it really great rather than just okay-to-good. For example, although I applaud Woody Harrelson's inhabiting a character who is in many ways far removed from those others he essayed in such as Cheers and 2012, things might have worked better if his captain had been less quickly matey with Ben Foster's staff sergeant character. As it is, the less edgy both soldiers' came to act, the less edgy the film came to feel.

In addition, while I like that the film's makers sought to make the offering not just a straight drama, I just don't think its comedic and romantic elements worked all that well. Worse, they seemed to dilute the movie's overall emotional impact. This even while I did come away from the viewing with a strong sense of how being a messenger of this sort can psychologically wound an individual as much as being shot by real bullets can psychologically as well as physically destroy.

My rating for this film: 6.5

Sweet (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

As I'm sure many of my fellow Photo Hunters will agree, this week's Photo Hunt theme is one where we're spoiled for choices in terms of what direction to go and photos to put up. And yes, I easily could have been content to just put up the top-most photo in this blog entry and leave it at that -- but, as you can see from it, I often find it hard to be content with just one kind of thing (be it desserts at a very nice lunch buffet or photos for a Photo Hunt!).

Also, after seeing the sign featured in the second photo from the top -- whose message I like but whose creator's inclusion of a heart symbol really seals the deal on it sweetness -- I got to thinking of illustrating the sweet theme in more abstract ways. And with the help of a couple of artists who participated in the one-day-event last November that was Sculpture on Hong Kong Sea, I believe I have.

To elaborate a bit: I am one of those people who emotionally as well as intellectually responds to art ("even" modern art) -- and among the pieces on view that day that not only captured my attention but also got me thinking were sweet as well as cool were Wong Chung Wing's simple yet evocative Helping Each Other and Bill Chan Kwok Man's Walking Together (the latter of which also made me smile because of its probably inadvertent resemblance to Gumby!).

(Additionally, yes, I do feel that it's pretty sweet that this week's Photo Hunt theme has given me the opportunity to put up more photos of that event! ;b )

Two other films viewed last Sunday at the HKIFF

Oxhide II (and I)'s Liu Jiayin and her parents
in their apartment turned film set
(Picture from sensacine.com)

Once upon a time, I would happily watch up to five movies a day at film festivals. These days, I try to space out my film viewing more. But this past Sunday, I ended up watching three movies; with the first being Fei Mu's sublime Spring in a Small Town (which I wrote about here) and the two others being the following:-

Oxhide II (Mainland China, 2009)
- From the Asian Digital Competition programme
- Liu Jiayin, director
- Starring Liu Zaiping, Jia Huifen, Liu Jiayin

Before the screening of this 132 minute film, its director (and scriptwriter, cinematographer, sound engineer, editor and co-star!) said a few introductory words -- including cautionary ones to the effect that it required patience from its viewers. And the first ten to fifteen minutes of the work did indeed give some reason for thinking that -- not least since for most of that time, there was just one person in the frame and most of his person (including his face) was actually not visible to the audience.

In addition, if you consider that the basic elements of Oxhide II consist, in the words of the young woman behind it, of just "[o]ne table; three persons; one scene; nine shorts", there simply is no mistaking it for anything else other than a minimalist art house film. And this even without adding to the equation it being so that: "[t]he shooting place would be my home, the area is under 50 square meters, the only scene is an outer place of the house totaling fourteen square meter[s]"; and "father, mother and daughter would be acted by my parents and I, three of us would be the whole crew, and there is no extra person in the shooting scene, except three cats" (Liu Jiayin in the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival program catalog, 2010: 51)!

Yet, the further one gets into the film, the more enthralling it becomes -- and so much so that not only does one find oneself intensely interested with what's unfolding on screen (ostensibly the making and then consumption of seventy-three chive and meat dumplings, accompanied about conversation about the process but also matters like the father's ox hide bag business) but also the sounds that give you a clue of what's happening just outside the frame and the technicalities of how the film was made, including such as the precise camera positions and angles utilised.

But lest this all sound too serious, here's pointing out that there's quite a bit of comedy in the film -- to the extent that as oxymoronic as it may sound, this offering really works as a minimalist art house comedy! Also, watching three people attempt to eat 73 dumplings actually got me feeling incredibly hungry (and, of course, craving dumplings!)!

So it actually took a real effort to not immediately bolt out of the theater in search of food at the end of the screening. But am I glad I stayed for the Q&A session afterwards because hearing Liu Jiaying talk about the film was incredibly illuminating. And even though she spoke pretty matter of factly, I could not help but come away from that session in absolute awe at how much and thoroughly she had thought about things to create the amazing work that she has -- a masterfully crafted effort that is in many ways a tribute to craftspeople, be they crafting bags out of ox hide to sell or making dumplings by hand for a family meal.

My rating for the film: 9.5

Seven Days in Heaven (Taiwan, 2010)
- From the Asian Digital Competition programme
- Essay Liu and Wang Yu-lin, directors
- Starring Wang Li Wen, Wu Peng Fon (aka Wu Tai Po), Chen Cha Shiang and Tiger Chen

A confession: I was about 15 minutes late into the screening of this film that I attended -- this because after viewing Oxhide II, I absolutely had to (a) attend that other work's Q&A session and (b) go and eat something pretty substantial. Also, I know that my ability to appreciate this movie was negatively affected by how strongly Oxhide II had outright blown me away. Consequently, I watched much of this Taiwanese film from an emotional distance it really didn't deserve.

For all this, I do think that I did come away from the screening with something -- including a sense that its subject matter (complex traditional Taoist Taiwanese funerary rituals and practices) is one that as fascinating as it is unorthodox. Also, that this movie's makers had given it a surprisingly comical treatment at times -- so that one came to see humor in the daughter of the deceased being effectively asked to cry, if not seriously mourn, on cue and the Taoist priest in charge of funerary proceedings being into such as writing and declaiming foul mouthed poetry in his free time.

All in all, even while clearly a fictional feature, there also appear to be elements in the work that regular Taiwanese folks will recognise as genuine depicted elements and aspects of their culture and community. Additionally, the few scenes of expressed grief and flashbacks to precious moments shared between then younger child and still alive parent are recognizably strong sections of a film whose makers also do seem to want to convey the sense of loss that comes from a beloved father's demise along with the over-complexity -- and consequently inadvertent hilarity -- of a certain society and culture's traditional mourning customs.

My rating for this film: 6.5 (and with the sense that if viewed in other circumstances, it might have been as high 7.5, even 8.0)