“Something of a maverick… In turns absurdly funny, borderline sentimental, and emotionally astute, Wang and Liu (who also wrote the screenplay) find the validity in every kind of response to death anyone could possibly have.”

“Between the comic detours and jumping through the hoops of the mourning rituals is a recognition of the process as way to cope with the emotional stress and come to terms with the loss.”

“a mature, distanced observation of traditional funerary rites in the Taiwanese countryside, the cross-generational dialogue and understanding established between traditional and modern, rural and urban, values.…captures those moments of intense ambivalence, when the pain of loss is numbed by the ridiculousness of ceremony. The yoking together of contrary ideas here results in an ironically pleasant, somewhat discordant harmony in which hushed emotions and a subdued, dark charm glimmer through the roaring drama and jest.”

“…avoids both exoticism and the usual funeral-film cliches (family rows etc.) and lets the contradictions between tradition and modernism creep up on the viewer in an undramatic, almost semi-documentary way...the performance by Wang Liwen as the daughter stays in the memory, growing from nothing to a fully-fledged character whose buried grief so realistically surfaces long after the official mourning process.”

“It’s actually refreshing to see this most difficult and sullen of times presented with humor, especially when looking at an ancient religious ritual…They are joined by a hilarious Daoist priest and a professional mourning weeper (she gets the funniest moments), and (literally) wackiness ensues.”

“a complex and insightful examination of the grieving process.”