Funeral March (2001)
Reviewed by: mejones on 2002-03-22
Summary: One of the best movies of 2001!
This is a great movie for anyone who's into the romatic tear jerkers! Really, I don't think I've seen such a great HK film in a long time! Eason plays a funeral director, and this girl, played by Charlene Choi, comes to him and asks him to plan her funeral. She picks him after kind of "crashing" several funerals and watching the proceedings. She notices how Eason handles all of the details with great care and figures he's the right man for the job. You see, she has colon cancer and refuses to have a surgery that might save her life b/c of some family problems (the details are revealed very gradually). Over the course of time Eason slowly and quietly gets her to take her meds, find small reasons to keep living till she finally agrees to have the surgery. It's a HK film, so it has some unexpected twists and turns, but no huge melodrama which frequently ruins a character driven story like this. It's directed by Joe Ma, who did the Feel 100% movies, but I think it's the writing and the performances of the two leads that really make the movie. Ma wrote some fantastic films, like The Golden Girls, Big Bullet, War Named Desire, as well as producing such GREATs as Bullets Over Summer, Juliet in Love and Horror Hotline. Eason Chan, who fequently plays kind of wacky characters (Lavender, Comic King) turns in an excellent performance as a very kind, gentle, and compassionate person. I believe this is only Charlene Choi's second film, but if her perfomance hadn't been good, the film wouldn't have worked. Did I mention how much I cried? a LOT! I HIGHLY recommend it!