Catherine Chau, Chu Pak Hong, Dayo Wong, drama, Kiki Cheung Hoi Kei, Michael Hui, Michelle Wai, movies, Paul Chun, reviews, The Last Dance
January 9, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Anselm Chan
Cantonese with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Hong Kong in 2020, the dramatic film “The Last Dance” features an all-Asian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A wedding planner becomes a funeral director and has to convince the Taoist mortuary owner that he is worthy of managing the business, as the owner’s children bicker over various issues.
Culture Audience: “The Last Dance” will appeal primarily to people who like to watch dramas that tackle serious and sometimes-controversial subjects with heartfelt relatability.
“The Last Dance” is a well-acted drama that adeptly balances complex issues about religion and gender equality. This story (about a wedding planner who becomes a funeral director) also has emotionally authentic perspectives of self-identity and reinvention. Although it’s a drama that addresses serious issues, there are many moments that have touches of comedy yet remain respectful of these issues.
Directed by Anselm Chan (who co-wrote “The Last Dance” screenplay with Cheng Wai-kei), “The Last Dance” takes place in Hong Kong in 2020, during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dominic Ngai (played by Dayo Wong) is a wedding planner whose business has significantly decreased because of the lockdowns. Dominic (who is in his early 50s) is in debt and needs money, so he decides to switch jobs and become a funeral director.
The opportunity for Dominic to become a funeral director happens when Dominic’s longtime girlfriend Jane (played by Catherine Chau), who’s about 10 younger than Dominic, tells Dominic that her uncle Ming (played by Paul Chun), who owns a funeral parlor/mortuary, is retiring and wants someone to take over the business. Dominic has no experience in this type of work, so he gets the job because of nepotism.
Dominic has to work with an elderly Taoist priest named Master “Hello” Man (played by Michael Hui), who is strict traditionalist. Master Man technically owns the funeral parlor, but Dominic is expected to be Master Man’s business partner after completing a period of training. Dominic is eager to try new things to bring in more business, such as sell merchandise or accommodate a unusual requests for mummification
You know where all of this is going, of course. Dominic and Master Man have conflicts because of their contrasting styles. Master Man is especially offended by mummification because he believes that the dead person’s soul cannot transition properly if the body is mummified. Sensitive viewers, be warned: There are a few graphic scenes in this movie that show the process of a body being prepared for a funeral.
Master Man has two adult children. Older child Ben (played by Chu Pak Hong) is a married father who is also a Taoist priest. Master Man expects Ben to be Master Man’s successor in this mortuary business. Ben is married to a woman named Mandy (played by Kiki Cheung Hoi Kei), and they have one son, who’s about 6 or 7 years old. Master Man’s younger child is Yuet (played by Michelle Wai), who works as a paramedic.
Master Man is very conservative when it comes to gender roles. He thinks that women can’t be Taoist priests because he believes that women’s menstrual periods make them “impure” and unfit to be Taoist priests. He also disapproves of Yuet being a paramedic because thinks that women shouldn’t be paramedics. Needless to say, Master Man adamantly refuses to let Yuet participate in the traditional funeral ritual Break Hell’s Gate because he believes only men can perform this ritual.
It’s later revealed that Mandy practices Catholicism because she thinks it will increase her son’s chance of getting into a Catholic school because she believes this school can provide te best education for him. In a conversation during a family dinner, Ben admits that he will only practice Catholicism if it’s useful to him. This is the type religious duplicity is something that Master Man would think is blasphemous because Ben is a Taoist priest.
“The Last Dance” shows the ups and downs that these characters experience as they, in their individual ways, assert themselves in what they believe to be the right things that need to be done. Ngai and Hui are the obvious standouts in their scenes of co-workers with opposite personalities, but the other cast members perform quite well too. The movie has themes about making decisions and facing moral dilemmas about honest when it’s for a self-serving purpose versus being deceptive if it’s for the benefit of other people. And when any tearjerker moments happen in “The Last Dance,” they are earned and might have a lingering impact long after the movie ends.
Emperor Motion Pictures released “The Last Dance” in select U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024. The movie was released in Hong Kong on November 9, 2024.