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It’s too easy to say WRITTEN BY is a film about death and remembrance. On its face, it might seem that way: we’re introduced to the story with mortal struggle in every direction: a woman on a ledge, a car accident, a family in hopeless grief.

Quickly, though, it becomes clear that WRITTEN BY, both written and directed by longtime Johnnie To screenwriter Wai Ka-Fai, is a movie about wishes, dreams, delusion, and the desperate search for happiness in the face of utter loss.

Sound weepy? It is. WRITTEN BY isn’t an easy film. In turns gorgeous, funny, exhilarating and soul-wrenching, this meditation on love and family evokes strong feelings and tears both – which can be good for the soul, when done well.

And WRITTEN BY is masterfully done. Led by the incomparable Lau Ching-Wan, (who conveys more emotion simply sitting in a chair than most actors manage at full-pitch monologue), this is a story about stories. When a car crash leaves a family without a father, the blinded daughter begins a novel in which the father lives, and the remaining mother and siblings are ghosts, inhabiting his home. In turn, the grieving dad (now blind as well) writes his own story, where they live and he passes on.

Imagine a world where life’s tragedies can be literally rewritten, where ghosts cook your favorite meals, where love drives you to play the same song every night, and a dog isn’t a dog, but a lost child. Where a home, lost to sadness, can be transported – chairs, bed and all – to a new, bright location, flying on the power of dreams.

WRITTEN BY is more than a little bit magical, and deliberately blurs the lines of which “story” is real and which is imagined. In the end, it doesn’t matter. In a place where words are used to reinvent lives, to deny loss, and to reconnect with those who bring you joy – the only thing that matters is love.
Official Selection 2009 New York Asian Film Festival