Death Education -A moving and often neglected subject matter

Yuxan Ethan Wu delivers a deeply moving and often neglected subject matter—death, and everything that surrounds it.

As a parent myself, the opening scene nearly broke me. Watching a child placed onto the crematorium plate, the camera panning away but still catching the flickering flames in the metal reflection—it was an uneasy, gut-wrenching moment. The room was cold, empty, and the child was alone. Those first few minutes were devastating.

The documentary follows a group of students participating in a communal burial of unclaimed ashes on Tomb Sweeping Day, a traditional Chinese holiday dedicated to honoring the dead.

Death is something we tend to avoid talking about. Who wants to sit down and tell their kids about it? It’s not exactly a dinnertime conversation or a bedtime story. But it’s a subject that needs to be addressed, even though it can bring feelings of sadness, fear, and discomfort—especially for children.

By letting the students’ emotions and experiences guide the narrative, the film takes a unique approach to this difficult topic. It allows audiences to engage through raw, unfiltered perspectives, making the conversation about death feel deeply personal rather than distant or academic.

Yuxan Ethan Wu leads us through this documentary with a level of respect and decency that honors the dead and their memories. The story is told with a personal and philosophical lens, inspired by his own experiences of loss and the realization that most people are unprepared to face death. The inclusion of student diary entries as voiceovers adds an intimate, authentic dimension, making grief feel tangible rather than just an abstract concept.

This documentary is a powerful and necessary exploration of an often-ignored topic. It creates space for conversations about death, grief, and remembrance through the eyes of those who are rarely included in such discussions—young people.

It also raises difficult questions—why do ashes go unclaimed for decades? What does this say about abandonment, family, and our societal attitudes toward death?

This is a hard-hitting documentary, beautifully crafted, and impossible to shake. It leaves you thinking in an endless loop.

Worth watching for the self-education alone.