The Last Dance: Anselm Chan Mau-Yin swaps rom coms for a sombre funeral drama

A sober exploration of tradition, grief, and mortality The Last Dance is an unexpected change of pace for Anselm Chan Mau-Yin, a director known for the rom coms Ready Or Knot (2021) and Ready Or Rot (2023). Chan’s latest reunites two of the biggest names in Hong Kong comedy with Dayo Wong and Michael Hui working together for the first time since The Magic Touch (1992). Hui ruled the Hong Kong box office in the 1970s and 1980s, directing and starring in a run of blockbuster comedies that reinvigorated Cantonese language cinema, and Dayo Wong came to fame as a stand-up in the 1990s before moving into acting. While Wong proved his dramatic credentials in the record-setting courtroom hit The Guilty Conscience (2023), this pairing of comedy legends presents an unlikely choice for Chan’s study of the business of death; fortunately, they rise to the occasion.  

After losing his wedding planner job during the pandemic, Dominic Ngai (Wong) accepts an offer from funeral director Ming (Paul Chun) to assume his share of a business conducting traditional Taoist ceremonies. The deal requires Dominic to work alongside Ming’s old partner Man (Hui), an austere Taoist Master for whom the role is less a job and more his life’s calling, an attitude that clashes with Dominic’s commercial approach. Hui brings considerable gravitas to his performance. Strict and demanding, Man is emotionally remote from his children. Eldest Ben (Tommy Chu) begrudgingly follows the family trade, although his wife wants him to convert to Catholicism, and daughter Yuet (Michelle Wai) resents her father’s insistence that women are forbidden to perform funeral rites because menstruation makes them unclean.  

There’s one moment of dark humour when Dominic makes a terrible gaffe at a funeral, but otherwise Chan maintains a serious, weighty tone. The pace is unhurried, if perhaps a little too carefully measured, and while Chu Wan-Pin’s score can be emotionally florid, the performances never veer into melodrama. The central dynamic between Man and Dominic follows a familiar arc – each has something to learn from the other – but the performances, rich in intimately observed details, elevate the material. Wong is terrific, mining unexpected depths from a character who initially appears so shallow, while Michelle Wai, a fixture in Chan’s films, expertly communicates the pathos and pain of the second child fighting for her father’s respect.  

The sombre mood may confound viewers expecting laughs from this director and cast, but amongst the clash of generations and values, Chan’s film captures Hong Kong’s unique funeral culture in all its ritualistic pageantry. Allowing two of the funniest actors in Cantonese cinema the opportunity to shine in a very different light, The Last Dance is moving, serious and yet stubbornly celebratory. 

► The Last Dance arrives in UK cinemas now.