A family's matriarch dies, leaving her descendants to re-evaluate one another and themselves during the lengthy funeral preparations and rites. Based on a "fairy tale"-style story, the film focuses on the central character of the matriarch's son, a novelist whose fame lures to the solemn ceremony a collection of provincial politicians, sycophants, curious onlookers, and media sharks who turn the funeral into a festival. Veteran director Im Kwon-Taek constructs a series of cinematic ironies and references that resonate between the spiritual and material worlds. At the funeral, grief and humor become one; sibling rivalries create rather than destroy bonds; spectacle and ritual are interchangeable; and the funeral becomes a celebration of life, not death.-Roger Garcia