Big Shot's Funeral (2001) User Reviews (37)

Big Shot's Funeral is commercialism run amok.

[evanhitc · 8/10 · 3 October 2003]

Years ago my high school economics teacher held up a tin toy car with wooden wheels. It was the typical Japanese product of its day. "Beware of people who can do this," he told us. The class did not understand his words until he turned the car over to reveal that it had been made from a Schlitz beer can. The rest of Japanese ingenuity and production is history.

The movie Da wan (Big Shot's Funeral) carries a similar message. Though they may be behind, the Chinese can catch on quickly, particularly to the world of Madison Avenue as illustrated by this hilarious movie where hype and commercialism run amok. This movie reminds me of the 50's si/fi novel "Space Merchants" (Gravy Planet) by Pohl and Kornbluth in which an ad agency gets the exclusive rights to advertise products on the planet Venus. The unconscionable excess on both Venus and in China say much about us as consumers who would rather be entertained than informed.

Sutherland, always good, is excellent here. I am confident the low rating for this film is because of its subtitles, but they are not a bother and are part of the humor.

Brilliant!

[milesyao-2 · 8/10 · 5 July 2002]

I don't know how anyone can fail to see - this satire is hip and wicked to the bone. Not at all a mainstream Chinese production you would expect!

The closest comparison for this baby would be to _Diva_, but for its viciously funny stab at dot-com money madness, there's no equal.

Within all the whirling satire, Donald Sutherland held down the movie's emotional anchor admirably. He made the movie more than just an average comedy. And the way director Feng used him showed me that China today can make films as sophisticated as any in the world. He made Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee look utterly out-of-date and irrelevent.

Absolutely brilliant satire!

[peanut_gallery · 7/10 · 4 June 2003]

"Da Wan" is an absolutely brilliant satire. It portrays the onslaught of Western and capitalist culture in China, movie studios' obsession with the bottom-line as opposed to artistic merit, the fun and foibles of cross-cultural exchange, and the often rough intersections of business and identity. Car chases, explosions, and slick martial arts fight scenes are not to be found in this gem of a film.

I highly recommend it!

A delightful comedy about a funeral

[Chrysanthepop · 29 July 2007]

'Da wan' is a charming Chinese (and sort of American) comedy that centres around a cameraman Yoyo (Yu Ge) who's assigned to arrange a funeral for a famous American director, Tyler and the director's assistant, Lucy (Rosamund Kwan) helps Yoyo to complete the task. With excellent cinematography and lighting, and beautiful set designs, it is quite a visually likable. The humour isn't slapstick or like the toilet humour so often seen in American films. It's part of the satirical screenplay and mingles well with the plot.

Yu Ge is fantastic and he's hilarious without appearing 'obviously' funny. He brings out the character's honesty and naivety with conviction and is both identifiable and lovable to the viewers. Rosamund Kwan is charming and lovely. She and Yu Ge share a fine chemistry. And of course Donald Sutherland is great as usual. His scenes with both Ge and Kwan are endearing and funny.

Anyone interested in light comedy can pick this one but I'm not sure whether it'll appeal to all as the plot is a little different from the regular comedy...but I loved it.

Funny stuff

[Niels-2 · 7/10 · 25 September 2002]

The brilliant actor Ge You is at his best as a simple photographer hired to film a documentary of a famous director (Sutherland). The story is simply crazy but the speed is on and everything is soon out of control for our small chinese hero. At times really funny with a lot of misunderstandings between chinese and american ...behavior as well as language.

I enjoyed it

[BlueVisor · 7/10 · 5 January 2003]

Obviously, to enjoy this movie, you'll have to understand both Chinese and English language. Approx. 1/5 of the dialog is in English, and the rest is in Chinese. The story itself isn't anything special, but overall good efforts, still better than most Chinese movies I've seen.

An funny and intelligent comedy!

[torvalde · 10/10 · 7 April 2003]

It you plan to see this movie because you love Hong Kong Action, you will probably be disappointed. When I saw it some young kids left the cinema in the middle of the movie, since no one had been killed or beaten up yet.

For me this movie is more related to the American independent movie scene. The script is well written, the actors are excellent and the movie comments our society and life/death in general. Most of all it is a really fun movie. Totally unpredictable, totally wild at times, deep and philosophical at times, all in all the best comedy I have seen for at least a year!

I recommend this movie to you!

Quite a satire.

[dy158 · 6/10 · 30 July 2006]

It was four years ago I saw this at school. I remembered my Chinese language teacher brought the DVD or something for the class to watch. I know some of my classmates at that time were not interested in watching.

Maybe a clash of East meets West is at times...a little surreal and weird for some of us. To admit, I was one of those before the movie rolled in because given Mandarin is my mother tongue (and English is my first language), trying to watch it playing it out on Hollywood...is kind of funny for me. I mean, trying to watch people attempting to have Chinese accents in the movies especially the foreigners...I don't even know whether to laugh at them or shake my head.

But I saw it anyway. And I realised that satire is practically everywhere in the movie. Comedy is involved at the same time as well.

For someone like me who have to always brace herself for anything on the screen which may be a bit over the hill in terms of how others view the Chinese language except for those who had been exposed to the language throughout their entire lifetime (I am one of those), I can only say satire is all around in this movie.

surprisingly good and completely hilarious

[vero_600 · 9/10 · 3 December 2004]

I didn't believe the guy in the DVD shop down the street when he recommended this "black comedy", I'm generally not a big fan of Chinese humor. But he assured me that this was the first film of its kind in China, and so I bought it in spite of my reservations. After watching Big Shot's Funeral I'm really glad that I gave it a chance.

This movie was so much funnier than i thought it would be! First of all, it stars one of the best comic actors out there, You Ge (YoYo). He's got the deadpan delivery down pat. Second, the whole scenario of Sutherland's character as a director staging a new version of The Last Emperor was hilarious, from the eroticized woman ostensibly giving birth, to the child actor drinking his cola - subversively funny commentary on Orientalism and commercialism. Then we get to watch as YoYo completely immerses himself in planning a ridiculously extravagant funeral for a guy who a) he barely knows, and b) isn't dead yet! Seriously, that's a great comic premise in any language.

My main complaint about this film is Rosamund Kwan's character (Lucy). She just didn't seem to fit, and about halfway through the film I started to get really annoyed with her as her actions didn't seem to make any sense at all.

Not that this movie is really supposed to make sense, it's just that in the farcical scheme of things Lucy seemed to kill all the fun. The other thing is that the last 10 or 15 minutes of the film didn't really work at all; it's almost like the director couldn't figure out how to wrap things up so he just threw together a bizarre collection of scenes without bothering to relate them to the rest of the film. But these kinds of problems aren't a big deal in a movie that's not to be taken seriously in the first place. I would especially recommend it to foreign viewers who are only used to stuff by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige; Big Shot's Funeral is a nice contrast to all those Very Serious movies set in the Very Distant past.

Funny, Well Acted & Entertaining!

[Movie-Misfit · 7/10 · 3 July 2020]

Starring Hollywood legend Donald Sutherland, Hong Kong starlet Rosamund Kwan and Feng Xiao Gang regular, Ge You, Big Shot's Funeral takes its viewers on a wild ride in a tale about Hollywood film director Tyler (Sutherland) who puts a challenge on the shoulders of his new best friend, documentary cameraman YoYo (Ge You), to give him a comedy funeral. A simple premise that quickly comes to fruition as Sutherland falls into a coma just after being fired from his latest film production taking place in China's amazing, Forbidden City. From here on in, YoYo makes it his mission to give his new friend the funeral he wanted!

Saturated in black comedy, sprinkled with slapstick and often hilarious, Big Shot's Funeral is a brilliant satirical clash of East meets West, taking on the problem of China's commercial culture in particular and how Western capitalism has made its mark. This is further highlighted as YoYo begins selling off advertising space for every square inch of the funeral; a brilliantly funny take on things as his funeral costs mount up and things get out of hand. It also shows just how a celebrity funeral (or event as such) can be turned into an unapologetic, money-making farce with product placement and advertisements in the entertainment industry. The trouble is,Tyler has now woken up, and watches the events unfold from behind the scenes - something that puts YoYo's plans into a bit of a spin...

Feng Xiao Gang delivers a film akin to an independent feature. It totally steps aside from the regular film formula, and works because it does so with its absurd plot. The performances from all involved are just wonderful, with Ge You impressing once again as one of China's finest actors, and Sutherland himself proving to be just brilliant. I loved seeing Rosamund Kwan in this role; charming and funny as always, and although it seemed that she delivered her English lines perfectly, it looks like she was dubbed to have more of an American accent.

The dialogue jumps flawlessly between Mandarin and English thanks to such a well-written script, the acting and of course, direction. Part of the comedy comes from situations lost in translation, as well as the misspoken delivery of lines which is often quite funny. Feng also works in a look at issues surrounding Sino-US relations without upsetting the cart either side. The ending for me seems to trip over itself a little, or perhaps I just missed the point, but it was hardly enough to put me off. I liked Big Shot's Funeral. It was something a little different and another great film from the wonderful, Feng Xiao Gang!

Overall: Worth the watch, Big Shot's Funeral is funny and sweet, with great performances from all involved...

Very funny...for Chinese living in modern time.

[terrazzoyen · 5/10 · 12 October 2002]

Even there're so many people in the world can't understand what this movie will present, I still think it's a n amazing movie this century. Not every Chinese knows Kung-Fu, but every Chinese knows when to laugh loud in this movie. It's a brilliant comedy for everyone who knows Chinese culture well!!

As usual great satire comes without belly aches

[Brainpiercing · 10/10 · 14 March 2003]

This film won't give you belly aches, but it is still thoroughly amusing. The acting is great on the most part, not overdone, simple and to the point. Kwan is the only character to do some more exaggerated acting, the others have no need for it.

The nice thing about this movie is that it seems to hover lightly over serious matters, and only wants to point out some of the insanity in modern day business. It actually comes off as not seeming very critical, you may come to your own conclusions. The satire remains friendly, the criticism is presented without the moral pointers. You've got the love the moment when Yo Yo snaps out one of the glasses from the shades the body is to wear, and puts a contact lens on the puppet's eye.

I won't dwell on the witty language, my grasp of Chinese is way too poor for that, trust the Chinese comments on that. I must say that while Chinese comedy is quickly approaching a standard of western stupidity (Marry a Rich Man, Chinese Odissey, etc.) this film stands out as witty and intelligent, and in no way deserves the poor scores it has received here.

The Loved One moves to Peking

[ian_ison-226-637529 · 7/10 · 26 January 2012]

My take on this film is that like "Lost in Translation" it turns an Oriental mirror on Western Capitalism - with a deliberately and crassly exaggerated lack of common decencies under the system. Evelyn Waugh's black comedy "The Loved One" (set in the Californian funeral industry) came to mind as a possible inspiration for the author. It is an intelligent (even intellectual) look at our expectations of each other in times of crisis - and our ultimate needs therein, too. Our hero, YoYo, is a cinematographer engaged by the beautiful Chinese-American personal assistant to a famous, ageing U.S. international director for the "making-of ..." puff piece to the main film - a remake of "The Last Emperor" without the sympathetic vibe toward the central character Bertolucci put into his film. Despite her best attempts to keep YoYo under thumb and at arm's length from his subject, the two men strike up a philosophical rapport which has its catharsis when YoYo is present and his camera rolling as the big shot has a severe collapse. It is agreed by those around him that he has been designated to organise a comedic funeral by the soon-to-be deceased. What ensues - especially when it becomes clear that the estate is bankrupt - is a peculiarly Chinese Modern social comedy funeral which is strung out in the press for entertainment value - much to the amusement of the recovering big shot.

Loses something in the translation.........

[merklekranz · 5/10 · 9 September 2009]

"Big Shot's Funeral" doesn't quite add up. First, if you dislike subtitles, look elsewhere, because 80% of the film is in Mandarin. Unfortunately, with Donald Sutherland featured on the DVD jacket, you could easily be mislead into thinking this was not a foreign film. The idea of a "sponsored funeral" is a good one, but unfortunately is beaten to death for 100 minutes, which is way too long for a one joke movie. I can't say I didn't laugh, but it was a real chore to keep up with the rapidly changing subtitles. Definitely has very limited re-watch value, and because of the language barrier, loses something in the translation. - MERK

entertaining and works on many levels.

[john_s_tsien · 16 June 2004]

I feel that this movie was successful on many levels, not least of which being the natural movement in and out of Chinese and English - a tribute to the bi-lingual and bi-cultural understanding of the writers and actors. As a native speaker of both English and Mandarin, I never felt the dialogue to be stilted and, I felt it was well written in both languages. In fact, the writers and crew really brought to life the cultural clashes of when East meets West in more obvious and subtle ways to count. It would take a careful viewing with some very culturally fluent Chinese viewers to pick out many of the inside jokes.

Da Wan also succeeds in weaving together many different comedic forms. Not only is there clever use of slapstick and physical comedy, the film wittily integrates satire, irony, farce and a very Chinese brand of buddy comedy. Here, You Ge shines as straight man to Da Ying. Likewise Rosamund Kwan brings a real subtlety to her role as a Chinese American falling slowly for You Ge's Chinese, Chinese character. Though the movie doesn't hit you over the head with this, it is yet another way in which the movie subtly brings in an East meets West conflict.

The only part I find overtly questionable is the ending - at points, it feels contrived, though I still feel that it is competently executed. Perhaps just a bit too conventional for a movie that I feel otherwise seems fresh and uncliched.

The film is not without its flaws. The aforementioned ending is an example.

Also, Donald Sutherland's role near the end leaves something to be desired.

The character doesn't quite behave believably. However, overall, I would highly recommend this film. Clever, witty and culturally intelligent, it's surprisingly good.

A very unique comedy film

[TheCinemaGator · 7/10 · 4 May 2022]

This movie is actually one of the most unique comedy movies I have ever seen. This movie takes the theme of Western capitalism and stretches it to be so outrageous that you can't help but chuckle a little bit. Just the premise of a whole corporatized show being formed due to the death of a big artistic figure is extremely absurd but with the amount of commercialization in the world today, it might not be too far off. This film is a satire on the shallowness of the exploits of capitalism, and how creativity is being stifled to raise the profits for those on top. It is very direct with this message and I think that is what makes it so unique. I definitely recommend this movie if you are looking for a unique and ridiculous comedy film to watch in your spare time.

Filmmaker's Purpose

[gentendo · 6/10 · 30 November 2007]

I believe the director's purpose in making this film was to portray a satire on the commercial capitalist culture—in particular, how Western capitalism has invaded modern China in ridiculous proportions. To heighten the stories theme, the director juxtaposes a variety of concepts that contradict each other to help demonstrate the clash between both Western and Eastern worlds.

After the uninspired and disillusioned film director Don Tyler suffers a health break down and slips into a coma, his documentary cameraman, Yo-Yo, arranges a comedy funeral at his request. The arrangement of this funeral presents one of the first contradictory concepts into the story. When one considers a funeral, comedy is usually the last thing they think of. However, the idea behind this particular funeral seems to suggest a commentary on how even a celebrity's death (particularly an American celebrity) can be changed into an insatiable money-market hoax. It seemed to be poking fun at how far venture-capitalists will go in creating their fortune castles of greed, corruption and indolence—even if it be at the cost of disrespecting the dead.

The funeral is orchestrated with the help from a blonde Chinese concert promoter who turns to product placement to help fund the funeral. Quick camera edits and pans are used to help create an MTV-type feel of the mergence of both West and East worlds colliding together. The color scheme throughout the film (particularly in the preparations for the funeral hall) is vibrant and full of celebrity flash. The element of production design also helps demonstrate the stories theme when each major-world corporation claims their portion of space at the funeral to post their product; even to the point where the body itself is tagged with absurd promotions and sponsorships.

Another idea of concept juxtaposition is the language barriers that exist between Tyler who doesn't speak very good Chinese, and Yo-Yo who doesn't speak very good English. Despite this segregated barrier, both are actually quite fond of each other and demonstrate their love in affectionate ways. The director seemed to be showing that despite the perverse nature of corporate greed on national levels, there does however exist diverse individuals on personal levels that transcend the corporate corruptions and focus on what people live for—human love and friendships. This idea helped merge both Western and Eastern worlds into an understated, yet still apparent, mode of commonality.

It is not a bad movie. What do you expect? Oscar?

[jiaoniang · 8/10 · 10 January 2005]

This movie was supposed to show before Chinese new year, a typical movie category which is win laugh of audiences. The bottom line is to let people have a happy new year.

So, it might not have much of elements we'd like to see in Oscars. Nevertheless, it is worth watching ... if you can understand Chinese well. Most of the dialog can't be translated to English without losing its real meaning. Some laughters even can't be understand without really live in China in recent years. After all, it is a Chinese movie.

I've seen much worse Hollywood movies. After watching it, you basically forget what you've just seen. I sleep over some 'famous' ones as well. At least for this movie, you will remember several of its dialogs, at least within Chinese society.

Definitely not as good as Bethune (both)

[zzmale · 10/10 · 30 November 2003]

But still deserve a ten for Sutherland's performance in saving a film that can be described as Totally worthless. Similarly, Ge You also deserves a ten for his heroic effort in saving the film from getting a negative score, just like the sacrifice Sutherland had made.

In doing films relates to China, Sutherland's portray of Dr. Norman Bethune for both times, first in 1977 and then in 1990 are far better for the result of the movie as a hole, his performance is equally good but the bad story of the film mitigate his and others' performance.

Could have been better.

[jeffreyd-1 · 3/10 · 4 October 2005]

The basic setup is there - You Ge plays a likable cameraman given the funny task of creating a cross-cultural comedy funeral. It's not anything world-breaking but it should be enough to carry a comedy.

However, the follow-through just isn't funny. It drags and never goes in any direction but the most obvious, until the vaguely amusing end. I found myself extremely bored with this movie. All the main actors are likable, or I probably would have stopped it halfway through.

For all the people talking about how you need to speak Mandarin to understand this movie, or you need to understand that China has commercialism to understand this movie, or you need to understand that people like comedies to like this movie, these comments are more-or-less groundless. Probably most useful would be to understand the Mainland Chinese art cinema world, where the artistic movies about Chinese history receive all the foreign attention and acclaim, and domestically popular pictures such as Feng Xiaogang's don't. It won't actually improve your movie experience, it will just give some of the boring speeches at the beginning some context.

Laughable materials cannot always be translated

[sunnyyen · 10/10 · 9 July 2003]

As someone already said, you cannot totally appreciate it if you're not Chinese, as many materials need knowledge of Chinese culture, current status of the capitalizing China, and of course, Chinese language.

If you translate a comedian's jokes into another language, even the translation is perpect (I highly doubt how that can be done), will the audiance in another language laugh as hard as you do? In most cases, they just don't get it. When I watch the "Friends", I cannot get some jokes although I understand what they said literally.

If you know the craziness in China of making big money just by doing (in many cases, misleading or even cheating) advertisements, by imitating famous brands, not to say by pirate copying, then you'll understand more of the point of this movie.

Don't expect any laughs, this is a horrible Chinese comedy.

[silkroadfilms · 4/10 · 31 January 2004]

I can understand both Chinese and English and trust me the reason why you aren't laughing has nothing to do with language barriers. Most of the movie drags on and on with pointless dialogue. I was dying for just one funny scene to justify watching this stinker for 2 hours and the moment never comes. If you want funny Chinese comedies stick with Stephen Chow films, this one is so below par.

A satire on film making worth watching

[jaenichenkoepp · 11 February 2002]

Puzzled?

Do you like to be puzzled? Do you like movies having a surprise ending?

Then it is a must to watch " Big Shot's Funeral" - a film about the difficult matter of making films. Sounds serious- but it isn't, in fact it is pretty funny.

Film within a Film

A documentary cameraman Yo-Yo(Ge You)is hired to document the way a fabulously successful director Don Tyler (Donald Sutherland) is remaking Bertulucci's movie "The Last Emperor". During the process of work the director feels more and more uninspired, if not disillusioned.

When understanding comes without Language

Lucy (Rosamund Kwan), his personal assistant tries hard to keep him going, but in a strange way Yo-Yo having no command of English touches him and arouses his interest. Due to a misunderstanding ( Lucy is trying to mediate between the two men) Tyler catches the idea that in China even a funeral is a comical event and asks Yo-Yo to arrange something like that for him just in case of his death.

To Be or Not to Be

When the director goes into coma, Yo-Yo starts immediately to arrange the whole thing. He approaches King ( Ying Da), a blond Chinese concert promoter, to make up the event as a gigantic media spectacle. How to finance such a comedy funeral? No big deal - product placement will help. When all space is sold - Tyler recovers, which clearly means that Yo-Yo is in big trouble and the film has to come to an end. The puzzle is solved in a surprising way - go and find out yourself.

As You Like It

For sure you won't regret going to the movies although you will not learn so much about China or Chinese culture and life styles. This film turns out to be a satire on media, commercialism and "Big Shots". And for all those who don't want to do without love - you do not have to.

Written by: Eva Behrendt, Dorothea Maurer, Martina Koepp, Karin Schmidt-

participants of the Berlinale- film - workshop "At the Movies",2002

I like this movie

[flyingsnow · 10/10 · 13 January 2003]

I think this is a quite excellent black comedy.

The conversation and the culture are keys for this movie. I like the sarcastic and irony tone of the movie. It reflects some of the businessmen of modern Beijing. Things can get crazy in that city.

Jargon and slang may hard for some people to understand.

Learning Chinese watching great movies!

[micaela-andrich · 9/10 · 8 October 2010]

I am a Chinese language learning and watched this movie during my third semester at university.

I would suggest to watch this movie to "all language learners from all over the world". it contains useful language patterns easily understandable for language learners of elementary levels: brand names lèhāhā mineral water or the parody of other brands like kěxiàokělè (instead of kěkǒukělè) and many others. it offers an intro in the dynamics of the Chinese advertisement and cinematography. it is hilarious and the parody of a blockbuster of the 80ies.

witty movie.