As a possible result of Covid-19, where just under 227,000 people are said to have died from it, attitudes towards death, and more specifically, how we bury our dead, has changed.

Since Covid, there has seen a rise in something called direct cremations; low cost-options of saying goodbye to loved ones, with little fuss or ceremony. They are often non-religious, which is also becoming a more popular send off.

But this trend hasn’t been followed everywhere, as this poignant film from Hong Kong shows.

Although a professional wedding planner, Covid made life difficult for Dominic (Dayo Wong), who now finds himself in a large amount of debt. His wife’s uncle throws him a lifeline, by letting him join his funeral business.

With weddings and funerals being quite similar in Dominic’s mind, he’s happy for the opportunity to work again.

One of the conditions is that he has a partner to work with, a Taoist priest known as Master Man (Michael Hui), who is dismissive of anything that isn’t traditional.

Dominic is keen on making money however, but also taking into the account the wishes of the families who bring their deceased to him, and some of those wishes aren’t exactly traditional, which brings more than a little friction between himself and Master Man.

In 2001 HBO premiered their show Six Feet Under, about the Fisher family that ran a funeral business. Writer and director Anselm Chan’s film could be considered a spiritual successor to that show, as it covers many of the same themes, mainly death and how the living deal with it.

It has a little more to it by featuring religion, and specifically the act of breaking the gates of hell, a ritual that can take place in Taoist funeral. This leads to the butting of heads between the traditional and the contemporary, in a post-Covid Hong Kong landscape.

And it’s this cultural clash between Master Man and Dominic that is at the heart of this film. It’s a classic scenario, but is handled superbly by Chan. Wong in particular is wonderful as the amiable Dominic, thrown into a new profession but keen to do a good job, even if it ticks Master Man off.

But it’s not just their relationship that is explored; there’s that of Man’s family, with his son Ben (Pak-Hong Chu) and daughter Yuet (Michelle Wai) keen to please their father, but both coming up short; Yuet especially, who is described as being “filthy” just for being a woman, because of having a menstrual cycle, which Taoist priests deem unclean.

And then there’s death itself, which is ever present, as loved ones bring their recently departed to Dominic. There’s just no escaping death, as is the case in life itself, as Dominic and his staff learn on the job how to handle the grief of others.

Chan shines a light on death, in quite a poetic and beautiful fashion, that will undoubtedly move you.

But just as it shows the darkness, Chan balances it with a fair amount of light, which shows itself often in gentle humour.

The result is a powerfully emotional wave that washes over you, facing death head on, and all the implications that come from it, making for a joyous, tearful and life-affirming experience.