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.

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.

I read here how hillarious was this movie, but I don't share this opinion at all. It had some nice scenes, but that was it. Maybe people who say if you're not Chinese you won't understand this are right. Well for me, this movie didn't have any plot, any content and any sense. It was contentless. It looked to me like some low budged european movie. I'm talking for myself here, and I need to tell I was fairly disappointed, because this comedy wasn't funny to me even for a single moment.

"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!