bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Edmund Lee

4/5 stars
The intricacies of family ties and the burden of traditional customs weigh heavily on the protagonists of The Last Dance, a life-affirming gem of a film that is set around Hong Kong’s funeral trade and features two comedy icons, Dayo Wong Tze-wah and Michael Hui Koon-man, in purely dramatic roles.
Coming off starring roles in two of the highest-grossing Hong Kong films of all time, in Table for Six (2022) and A Guilty Conscience (2023), Wong may well pull off a box-office hat trick with his understated part as Dominic, an out-of-work wedding planner who has been in serious debt after his company was sunk by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Upon taking over the Hung Hom shop of a retiring funeral agent as a last resort to stay afloat, Dominic is not just unnerved by the morbid enterprise – which often involves handling the departed’s remains – but also struggles to win over his new business partner Master Man (Hui in great form), a stern Taoist priest in his eighties.


Dominic’s eagerness to meet all his clients’ wishes is initially greeted with contempt by Man – although the former’s resolve to satisfy a most unconventional request from a grieving mother (Rosa Maria Velasco) appears to have opened the old man’s eyes to the true value of their work: to comfort the living.
Meanwhile, Man’s relationships with his two children are strained. His married son Ben (Chu Pak-hong), who has long blamed Man for making him a Taoist priest, dreams of leaving the nest, while the younger child, daughter Yuet (Michelle Wai Sze-nga), a paramedic who once idolised her father, now numbs herself with casual sex.
When Anselm Chan Mou-yin made his directorial debut with 2021’s Ready or Knot, this reviewer was alarmed by its peddling of the worst gender clichés. It is thus with some amazement that I find The Last Dance, Chan’s third feature, to be one of the best women’s empowerment films Hong Kong cinema has seen.
This is partly helped by a career-best performance from Wai, whose conflicted character looks on as her brother enjoys all the attention of their fiercely traditional father, while having to live with Man’s culturally ingrained misogyny – “the ancestors said women are filthy”, he repeatedly declares.


The screenplay, co-written by Chan and Cheng Wai-kei, does an exquisite job of asking numerous existential questions, from the limits of family responsibility to the meaning of life itself, without ever sliding into outright sentimentality.
The film’s Chinese title, “Break Hell’s Gates”, refers to a Taoist funeral ritual meant to liberate the souls of the dead and help them achieve reincarnation. Chan has adopted it as a metaphor for the survivors’ need to find peace in life – a blunt message that is conveyed delicately throughout this engrossing drama.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


This forgotten border village shows Hong Kong’s history of change

Blossoms Under Somewhere movie review: Collar’s Marf Yau shines in lightweight youth drama

Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh says not being able to have kids ‘biggest sadness’ of her life

4 Hong Kong romance films from the 2000s that are out of the ordinary

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The Last Dance movie review: Dayo Wong, Michael Hui impress in exquisite funeral drama

Dayo Wong (left) and Michael Hui in a still from The Last Dance (category IIB; Cantonese), directed by Anselm Chan. Michelle Wai co-stars. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Michelle Wai in a still from The Last Dance. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Chu Pak-hong in a still from The Last Dance. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Cesium Fallout movie review: Andy Lau leads Hong Kong radiation disaster drama

Andy Lau in a still from Cesium Fallout. Photo: Edko Films.

Andy Lau (left) and Karen Mok in a still from Cesium Fallout (category IIB, Cantonese), directed by Anthony Pun. Bai Yu also stars. Photo: Edko Films.

Bai Yu in a still from Cesium Fallout. Photo: Edko Films

Possession Street movie review: grim Hong Kong zombie horror set in an old shopping mall

Philip Keung in a still from Possession Street. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment.

Philip Keung (left) and Candy Wong in a still from Possession Street (category IIB; Cantonese), a zombie horror film set in an old Hong Kong mall directed by Jack Lai. Yeung Wai-lun co-stars. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment

Yeung Wai-lun in a still from Possession Street. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment

Inexternal movie review: martial arts fantasy fails even to offer watchable fight scenes

Macy Ma (left) and Angus Yeung in a still from Inexternal. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Angus Yeung as Chet in a still from Inexternal 
(category IIB, Cantonese), directed by Yuen Kim-wai. Louis Cheung co-stars.

Louis Cheung as gang leader Dragon in a still from Inexternal.

How Hong Kong comedy legend Michael Hui and his films, such as The Private Eyes, made him the first local cinematic hero of post-war generation

Hong Kong comedy legend Michael Hui was part of the resurgence of Cantonese cinema in the 1970s, with films including The Private Eyes (above), Security Unlimited and The Contract. 

Michael Hui at an interview with the Post in 1988. Photo: SCMP

The Hui brothers, (from left) Sam Hui Koon-kit, Ricky Hui Koon-ying and Michael Hui Koon-man at a press conference for “Front Page” in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Michael Hui (left) and Ricky Hui in a still from “The Contract” (1978).

Michael Hui in a still from “The Private Eyes’.

Michael Hui receives the lifetime achievement award at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards in July 2022. Photo: Dickson Lee

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Comic actors excel in purely dramatic roles, but Michelle Wai steals the show in an engrossing film that champions female empowerment


Comic actors excel in purely dramatic roles, but Michelle Wai steals the show in an engrossing film that champions female empowerment.


Chinese language cinema

Asian cinema

Film reviews

Cinema

Hong Kong cinema

Asian cinema: Chinese films

Fame and celebrity

Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Hong Kong culture

Hong Kong entertainment

Comedians and comedy

What to do in Hong Kong

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

Review | The Last Dance movie review: Dayo Wong, Michael Hui impress in exquisite funeral drama

Comic actors excel in purely dramatic roles, but Michelle Wai steals the show in an engrossing film that champions female empowerment