✦Elzary
Cinema·4 min read·👀 Watched 2022.10.22

Lighting Up the Stars

I walked in knowing nothing and got ambushed by a death in the opening scene — then a life story branched out from there.

2022 · Emotional Drama · Liu Jiangjiang · Netflix

Setting the scene

I actually hadn't read any synopsis before watching, so I walked into this film knowing nothing — which is why the grandmother dying right at the start startled me. Wasn't that a bit sudden?? Only later did I realize this was just the opening, and after it a whole life story, branching out from a single person, gets served up.

A few (few, few) thoughts

The lead, Mo Sanmei, is a bit of a punk who doesn't get along with his father. Through a twist of fate a little girl ends up staying at his home, and he gradually discovers he has a tender side too. When his father suddenly falls ill, they finally talk things out and their relationship slowly warms — and in the end he gives his father a funeral that's both spectacular and refreshingly no-fuss.

That's maybe the part that wowed me most in this film! And I realized: as long as a person has one thing they care about, one thing on their mind, life turns active — no more idling the days away.

The little girl, Xiaowen, plays a crucial role, like a lubricant. Without her, Sanmei would never have matured, never swallowed his pride, never found meaning and direction. Without her, he and his father would never have had that "peaceful" heart-to-heart. Without her, he wouldn't have tried so hard to become a good father, so earnestly wanting to accomplish certain things — all just to make one other person happy.

Some things can't be endorsed within the film, yet in modern times there are so many precedents — like those death-experience retreats up in the mountains I've read about. I think that's just how the times and mindsets shift. So I really agree with what the lead says: "Someone's got to set the precedent — I set it, so now there's a precedent, right?"

In conclusion

So many moments made tears come pouring out of me instantly — but whether by design or not, the very next scene would always make me snort with laughter. If you're up for crying and laughing at once, I highly recommend this one 🤣

  • It's hilarious how everyone, man or woman, refers to themselves as lǎozi ("your old man") 🤣
  • At first the accent was really hard to get used to — it could've been the accent I imagined, but the way the actors said it was always just a touch off, sometimes even mixed with a Taiwanese lilt (is it just me?), which really threw me. Thankfully I got used to it and stopped finding it strange 🤣
#movie#drama#family
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