Four years after her sister died, director LEE Pei-Yu began to document her family’s daily life. Year after year, life goes on with lingering grief. The family can only move forward, and learn to live with the fact that life cannot be lived without death.

This documentary is an intimate look at how LEE’s family copes with bereavement and turns a new page in life. Death powerfully permeates the entire film, and is particularly visualized through the family pets falling ill and dying. By intimately placing her camera at the pets’ eye level, LEE not only regards them as part of her family, but also aims to represent her sister’s last days through these recurring deaths. The unbearable weight of loss is lifted by a new-born baby, while the stylish cinematic language, and atmospheric backlighting provide a warm tone to counterbalance the heaviness of the subject. The editing is meticulous in showing life’s steadiness as well as its volatility, and the lesson learned by LEE: if death is inevitable, we all have to be prepared for the day we must say goodbye to the ones we love.

DVD source：Taiwan Cinema Toolkit, Ministry of Culture, R.O.C.