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Zhu Yilong is a mortician in new movie Lighting Up The Stars

Yang Enyou as Xiao Wen and Zhu Yilong as San Ge in Lighting Up The Stars. (Photo: Weibo/Shanghai Morning Post)
Yang Enyou as Xiao Wen and Zhu Yilong as San Ge in Lighting Up The Stars. (Photo: Weibo/Shanghai Morning Post)

Chinese movie Lighting Up The Stars recently dropped its first trailer, featuring Zhu Yilong as a mortician.

Zhu is known for his suave good looks and brilliant acting, starring in boys’ love series Guardian (2018), mystery drama Reunion: The Sound Of The Providence (2020), and more recently, disaster film Cloudy Mountain (2021).

In Lighting Up The Stars, Zhu plays the surprising and unprecedented role of a rugged but kind-hearted mortician San Ge.

The movie features heartwarming moments between San Ge and a young orphaned girl Xiao Wen, who he comes across after her grandmother passes away.

Despite the morbid theme of funeral services, the film seems to be a meaningful story that explores life and death through the eyes of a child. To San Ge, sending the dead off is merely his job. But to Xiao Wen, she has lost her only kin. The sudden realisation pushes him to rediscover what his profession entails.

“This job is actually not as cold-hearted as it looks. It can also make people feel warmth,” Zhu shared in a behind-the-scenes video.

Before filming started, Zhu had also visited a funeral parlour to learn more about mortuary makeup, dressing the dead and how to prepare for a funeral. Through the process, he gained more respect for death, a taboo subject that people tend to avoid but gets magnified and scrutinised in Lighting Up The Stars.

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