Netflix kept recommending this movie and I kept skipping it as I assumed it would only make the audience cry given its plot. And it did but not in a bad way. As Lighting Up The Stars revolves around Mo Sanmei, a mortician, death and grief are inseparable parts of the story. That doesn’t mean it gets unbearable to watch.
Lighting Up The Stars, mainly is about a young kid, Wu Xiaowen, who loses the only guardian in her life, her grandmother. Being a mortician, Sanmei is called to carry out the woman’s final rituals. All that Xiowen knows now is that Sanmei has taken her grandmother to a place not known to her so she follows him everywhere threatening him to give her the grandmother’s details. As the grandmother and Xiowen’s only relative comes for the final rituals, he requests Sanmei and his partners to look after the kid for a while as he cannot accept her responsibility at this point. While Sanmei hesitates, his partners, who are also a couple, agree to look after her.
As events unfold, Xiowen’s stay with the morticians extend and as they start to live together, Sanmei and Xiowen develop a beautiful bond of a father and daughter. As her guardians totally reject her responsibility and suggest that Sanmei adopt her, he, without a second thought, tries to legally adopt the girl but being a single man, he is told that he legally cannot adopt the girl child, unless and until he is married. He then makes an attempt to marry his business partner but that is when he gets to know that his only partners have been seeing each other all this while and have also registered marriage. This couple, then, adopts Xiowen to secure her future and only so that they do not have to give her away to anyone.
The beauty of this story is that though this couple are also emotionally attached to Xiowen, they know that Sanmei is her father and that he will also be her primary caretaker. The scene where the couple is adopting this young girl and the way she looks at Sanmei because for her, he is her father, is truly beautiful. That is what cinema is all about – characters, emotions, and bonds that do not need dialogues for the audience to understand what the film is trying to portray.
Towards the end, the child’s biological mother returns and Sanmei agrees to return the child to her. What happens next is expected but yet makes the film truly heartwarming. The end where he even makes Xiowen’s mother a part of the clan so that she doesn’t lose all access to her only child is what makes this film what it is. Every single part of this story is handled so maturely that you cannot help but lose yourself in it. And the performances!!! As this movie ended, the first thing I did was watch the behind the scenes as I genuinely wanted to know whether Zhu Yilong, who played Mo Sanmei, is any way similar to Sanmein in terms of body language and the way he speaks or carries himself. And no, he is not the guy he’s played in the movie. So, hats off to Zhu Yilong for playing Sanmei so realistically. Writing, direction, and every element of this movie works in its favour but Zhu Yilong is what makes it truly stand out.
Language: Chinese
Where to Watch? Netflix
