The funeral as a moment of reconciliation and revelation is a common theme in cinema, an accessible and enlightening way to explore ethnicity and tradition. Sitting Shiva and Irish wakes are regular features in films centered on the displaced or marginalized among us, but Anna Chi uses the seven-day Chinese funeral as the jumping off point for a film about self-discovery and understanding among a firmly middle-class family. After the domineering, manipulative, imperious matriarch of a sprawling, squabbling brood dies, her wish to have a traditional Chinese funeral is carried out, drawing her four distrustful, competitive, angry children to the family home for the event. When they come together, they inadvertently reach a new understanding to their mother and each other after years of distance. And of course, they come to a new understanding of what it means to be Chinese.