THREE: Going Home
What does death feel like? Is it really a long cold sleep into the unknown? "Three" attempts to explore how the human imagination works in life after death. Of the three movies, I really enjoyed the last one the most, called "Going Home," starring Leon Lai. Directed by Peter Chan, whose previous work includes, "Comrades, Almost a Love Affair (Tim Mutmut)." Some have even compared the two as eerily similar in romanticism and emotion. It is sad. The cinematography is unnervingly creepy. Leon plays a detached individual, and appears entirely devoid of emotion; yet, his character is very human and touching. The movie is set in an undisclosed time in a very poor section of Hong Kong. A policeman named Chan Wai (played by Eric Tsang) and his son, Ah Keung, are seen moving into a rundown and secluded apartment complex that is entirely empty, except for his neighbour Mr. Yu (Leon Lai) and his paralyzed- quadriplegic wife (Yuan Lai-Kai).
Ah Keung, who is only 8 years old, sees ghosts. He is constantly followed by a little girl wearing a red coat. The little girl seems to follow Mr. Yu as well, as she giggles with laughter when he takes his wife's wheelchair for rides within their damp little apartment room. Ah Keung doesn't seem to be aware of the spirit; in fact, when he tells his dad that he's scared of the little girl, Chan Wai screams back that little boys shouldn't be afraid of girls. One day, the little girl begs Ah Keung to play with her. Ah Keung relents and follows her into a photo studio across the street. Together they perish.
Chan Wai is a lowly cop who sleeps during the day, and works at night. When he woke up for work, he finds his son missing. He scours the city looking for Ah Keung, but he can't find him. Finally, he becomes suspicious of Mr. Yu, his neighbour. Each day around noontime, Mr. Yu carries bags and bags of garbage to the dumpsite. Yet, what exactly is inside? A stench of medicine keeps on spewing from the room. Something is very wrong. But what can it possibly be? Chan Wai decides to find out himself as he sneaks into the apartment. To his horror, he finds a naked woman submerged in a bathtub. She has been dead for almost three years. Before Chan Wai can conjure up another thought, he is knocked unconscious by Mr. Yu.
When he wakes up, he realizes that he's tied up and held hostage. Mr. Yu appears to be insane, as he communicates to the dead, wax-like woman through the reflection of the mirror. Chan Wai can't see the woman talking, but Mr. Yu can. It turns out that Mr. and Mrs. Yu were traditional Chinese doctors in mainland China. The bags of garbage that Mr. Yu takes out each day are herbs that he brews and cooks for his dead wife. He bathes her naked body and then submerges her in the homemade remedy. Chan Wai believes that Mr. Yu is thoroughly insane, for Mr. Yu dresses up his wife like a doll and pampers her like a real person. But from the finger marks and bruises on her neck, Chan Wai deduces that Mr. Yu had strangled her to death.
"She told me to," Mr. Yu explains. He tells Chan Wai that she will wake up any day now, because it is almost three years. The herbs that he has been bathing her in has cured her of her cancer. Once she revives, they will return to Changsha. Chan Wai sees that Mr. Yu loves his wife very much, and continues to playing old home videos of his wife when she was alive. One day, Mr. Yu believes it is time, and squatting in front her her wheelchair, waiting for his wife is to wake up. Once she is alive again, I will let you go, --wait! She's warm! I can feel her coming back now! he tells Chan Wai... But it is too late. Chan Wai's colleagues breaks into the apartment and rips Mr. Yu away from his wife. The camera quickly zooms in on her face, and we see that she blinks and a drop of tear drips down her face. But no one notices as and later she is carried away in a metal box, while Mr. Yu is taken to a police wagon.
But Mr. Yu escapes, and immediately chases after her wife's body. He runs across the street with the police chasing after him. Then he suddenly stops in the middle of the road, as he sees guns all pointed towards him. Before he has time to react, he gets run over by a car, and his body explodes into the air. As Chan Wai goes to inspect the two bodies in the hospital, he is told that although the woman has been dead for three years, her skin was still elastic. Her finger nails and hair were still growing.
The doctor also reveals that he had treated Mr. Yu's terminal cancer 6 years earlier. But the treatment was discontinued by Mr.Yu's wife. Chan Wai seems to be aware of the tragedy that he had provoked. In his damp little office, he replays the Mr. Yu's old homevideos. The videos documents Mrs. Yu's treatment of her deceased husband. She talks into the camera, and emotionally says that she has had a difficult three years. A weak woman is much luckier than a strong woman, because that means she has someone to rely on. Over the years, she has had to learn how to be independent. Even though the everyone thought she was insane, she is bittersweet to have saved her husband, but not long enough to enjoy it with him. But she is not afraid to die because it just like a long sleep; but to live with the deceased, the living suffers much more. The movie ends with a man taking the little girl's hand. Together, the family takes one last photo in the studio. Ah Keung waves good-bye and walks out. He sees that there it is not a studio at all; it has been closed for years.
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