Seven Days in Heaven

The film tells the story of a woman returning to a farming village in central Taiwan within seven days of her father’s death. Upon her return, she again has to face the villagers’ rustic simplicity and ignorant superstition, while experiencing trite and minute complications that are the Taiwanese funeral ritual traditions. Amidst the busy schedule of religious ceremonial practice, grief and mourning only find time to appear in sporadic moments.

After the funeral, the woman packages and seals the sorrow of her loss and returns to the lively metropolis. While sitting in the airport smoking room in Hong Kong, however, thoughts of longing for her father suddenly overwhelm her. Through the impenetrable smoke, her father seems to appear sitting next to her. As if sharing a moment of cigarette break, her father seems to be telling her: get your emotions in order and move forward with your life!