# Big Shot's Funeral (大腕)
**Big Shot's Funeral** (大腕) is a 2001 Chinese comedy film directed by Feng Xiaogang, in which a cameraman stages an elaborate "comedy funeral" for a comatose Hollywood director and funds it by selling advertising rights. It was released in China on 21 December 2001, written by Feng Xiaogang, Li Xiaoming, and Shi Kang, and starring Ge You, Rosamund Kwan, Donald Sutherland, Ying Da, and [Paul Mazursky](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-mazursky).[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) The film was a China–United States co-production involving [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures) and [Huayi Brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/huayi-brothers), and it was Feng's fourth New Year film (贺岁片), the holiday blockbusters he is credited with establishing.[2](https://www.uscpfa.org/images/documents/USCR/BigShotFuneral%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%952001.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Chinese title | 大腕 (Dàwàn); English title Big Shot's Funeral; Japanese title ハッピー・フューネラル (Happy Funeral)[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) • [3](https://kungfutube.info/26099) |
| Release | 21 December 2001 (China); 21 March 2002 (United States); 26 April 2003 (Japan)[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) • [3](https://kungfutube.info/26099) |
| Director and writers | Feng Xiaogang; screenplay by Feng Xiaogang, Li Xiaoming, and Shi Kang[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) |
| Principal cast | Ge You (YoYo), Rosamund Kwan (Lucy), Donald Sutherland (Don Tyler), Ying Da (Louis), Paul Mazursky (Tony)[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_shots_funeral) |
| Runtime and languages | 100 minutes; Mandarin Chinese and English[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) |
| China box office | About 40 million yuan per Baidu's entry; a January 2002 report put earnings at 30 million yuan[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) • [5](https://www.chinanews.com/2002-01-21/26/156150.html) |
| Awards | 25th Hundred Flowers Award for Best Feature Film; nominated for the 22nd Hong Kong Film Award for Best Asian Film[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Don Tyler, a world-famous American director played by [Donald Sutherland](https://www.edgepedia.org/donald-sutherland), comes to Beijing to shoot a remake of *The Last Emperor* in the [Forbidden City](https://www.edgepedia.org/forbidden-city). He suffers a creative block, is fired by his producer Tony (Paul Mazursky), and falls into a coma. His last wish, entrusted to the Chinese cameraman YoYo (Ge You), who has been filming a making-of documentary, is a full-scale Chinese-style "comedy funeral," a reference to the celebratory funerals traditionally held for people who have lived long, full lives.[6](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2002/03/30/0000129834) • [3](https://kungfutube.info/26099)
YoYo and his promoter friend Louis Wang (Ying Da) discover that Tyler's production is near bankruptcy and that no budget exists for the ceremony, so they decide to sell advertising at the funeral. The event becomes a media spectacle and a bidding frenzy: an Italian furniture brand supplies the bed Tyler lies on, and sponsors place products on and around the supposedly dying man, including contact lenses for the corpse's eyes, a bottle of mineral water in his hand, running shoes at his feet, and a soft drink called Cozy Cola among the mourners.[6](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2002/03/30/0000129834) • [7](https://time.com/archive/6644818/neither-here-nor-there/) Tyler's assistant Lucy ([Rosamund Kwan](https://www.edgepedia.org/rosamund-kwan)), caught between her Chinese roots and Western upbringing, is skeptical of the whole enterprise. In the midst of the commercial free-for-all, Tyler secretly recovers.[6](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2002/03/30/0000129834)
## Production and writing
The screenplay went through three versions. Li Xiaoming wrote the first draft; when Feng Xiaogang found it unsatisfactory he brought in the writer Shi Kang to flesh out the story, and still not fully satisfied, Feng rewrote the script himself. The film that reached audiences was the third version.[5](https://www.chinanews.com/2002-01-21/26/156150.html) Feng described his creative approach for the film as "is, yet is not": a big shot that is not quite a big shot, a funeral that is not quite a funeral, with the comedy arising from transitions between states.[8](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/39045.html) The music was composed by San Bao, Feng's collaborator since *Be There or Be Square* (1998) and *Sorry Baby* (1999).[8](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/39045.html)
Feng, born in 1958 in Beijing, had launched the mainland [New Year](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-year) film tradition with *[The Dream Factory](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-dream-factory)* in 1997, making entertainment-oriented hits for domestic audiences rather than patriotic or festival-oriented cinema, and his films had been year-end box-office champions for five consecutive years by the time *Big Shot's Funeral* opened.[2](https://www.uscpfa.org/images/documents/USCR/BigShotFuneral%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%952001.pdf) • [5](https://www.chinanews.com/2002-01-21/26/156150.html) Baidu's entry reports that Feng suffered a serious heart attack during shooting, at one point in critical condition.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571)
## Title and themes
The Chinese title 大腕 (dàwàn) literally means "big wrist," slang for a big-name star. According to the scholar Carolyn M. Bloomer, the term traditionally referred to popular skilled performers with considerable reputations, but by the 1990s it had come to distinguish successful high-level managers who operate as brokers among market forces in culture and commerce, foreign and domestic. The film plays on this ambiguity: the "big shot" of the title could be Tyler, YoYo, Louis Wang, or Feng himself, and what is brokered shifts from funeral rites to commercial products and worldwide broadcasts.[2](https://www.uscpfa.org/images/documents/USCR/BigShotFuneral%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%952001.pdf)
Scholarly readings treat the film as self-reflexive commentary on the industry that produced it. Qi Ai, writing in *Chinese Cinema: Identity, Power, and Globalization*, argues that the film was the first product of Feng's push toward Sino-foreign filmmaking collaboration after China's entry to the WTO, and that its reflexivity functions both as commentary on the film industry and as an annotation to the government-directed globalization process.[9](https://academic.oup.com/hong-kong-scholarship-online/book/45959/chapter-abstract/404387070) Reviewers likewise identified the satire's real target as China's newly unleashed commercialism; the co-production deal behind the film was itself a product of the same economic changes it mocked.[10](https://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/bigshot.html)
## Release and box office
The film opened in China on 21 December 2001 as a New Year release and earned roughly 30 to 40 million yuan domestically, depending on the report; the Chinanews interview credited it with extending Feng's run as box-office champion to five consecutive years.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571) • [5](https://www.chinanews.com/2002-01-21/26/156150.html) In Hong Kong it grossed HK$718,087, ranking 146th for the year.[3](https://kungfutube.info/26099) [Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures-classics) released it in the United States on 17 January 2003, where it grossed $529.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_shots_funeral) In Japan, distributed by [Sony Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures), it opened on 26 April 2003.[3](https://kungfutube.info/26099) • [11](https://eiga.com/movie/51882/) The Japanese press noted that in China it had been the year's number-one box-office earner, outperforming *Spider-Man*.[11](https://eiga.com/movie/51882/)
## Reception
Western critical reception was largely negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 20% Tomatometer from 15 reviews against a 71% audience score from more than 250 ratings.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_shots_funeral) Mick LaSalle of the *San Francisco Chronicle* called the satire, by American standards, about 50 years behind the times; the BBC's Jamie Russell wrote that the film fast disintegrates into a series of semi-coherent scenes; and Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* gave it one star, calling it a heavy-handed satire fatally uncertain in tone.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_shots_funeral) • [12](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/nov/15/artsfeatures10) *Time* was more mixed, calling it a comedic fable about the clash of cultures unlike anything seen before, praising Ge You's performance as the film's standout while finding the film not one of Feng's more coherent efforts.[7](https://time.com/archive/6644818/neither-here-nor-there/) Film Threat's Rich Cline found it oddly entertaining, praising its unpredictability and natural performances.[13](https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized/big-shots-funeral/) On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.7/10 from about 2,500 users.[14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287934)
In China the film was honored with the 25th Hundred Flowers Award for Best Feature Film, one of the country's major film prizes, and received a nomination for Best Asian Film at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards in 2003.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571)
## References
1. [《大腕》（2001年冯小刚执导的电影）, Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%95%E3%80%8B/9879571)
2. [Carolyn M. Bloomer, "Big Shot's Funeral 大腕 (2001)" study guide, USCPFA](https://www.uscpfa.org/images/documents/USCR/BigShotFuneral%E5%A4%A7%E8%85%952001.pdf)
3. [ハッピー・フューネラル／大腕（2001）, Kungfu Tube](https://kungfutube.info/26099)
4. [Big Shot's Funeral, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_shots_funeral)
5. [访谈：《大腕》背后的大腕, Chinanews (21 January 2002)](https://www.chinanews.com/2002-01-21/26/156150.html)
6. [Movie: Big Shot's Funeral, Taipei Times (30 March 2002)](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2002/03/30/0000129834)
7. [Neither Here Nor There, Time](https://time.com/archive/6644818/neither-here-nor-there/)
8. [冯小刚专访：走在是与不是之间, Sina Entertainment (8 April 2001)](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/c/39045.html)
9. [Qi Ai, "Big Shot's Funeral: Sino-Foreign Collaboration and Industrial Commercialization," in *Chinese Cinema: Identity, Power, and Globalization*, Hong Kong Scholarship Online](https://academic.oup.com/hong-kong-scholarship-online/book/45959/chapter-abstract/404387070)
10. [Big Shot's Funeral review, Neil Young's Film Lounge](https://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/bigshot.html)
11. [ハッピー・フューネラル：作品情報, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/51882/)
12. [Peter Bradshaw, Big Shot's Funeral review, The Guardian (14 November 2002)](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/nov/15/artsfeatures10)
13. [Rich Cline, BIG SHOT'S FUNERAL, Film Threat (15 January 2003)](https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized/big-shots-funeral/)
14. [Big Shot's Funeral (2001), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287934)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license