Mei Heung (Sylvia Chang) loses her husband refusing to follow a proper way to heal her sorrow but stubbornly indulges herself in missing him by lingering in an amusement arcade with coins feeding the slot machines night by night. She cannot but enjoys being there when she can recall a lot of memories of her late husband, Bill (Simon Yam) playing slot machines there, with her once winning a lot of coins. She relishes reliving it by constantly recalling those memories because they contain a lot of huge laughter of them. Perceptibly, Mei Heung is a very simple and happy person fond of playing, and a person who likes bustling and fears loneliness.

One day, Mei Heung discovers that Bill has kept a workshop where she, afterward, accidentally runs into his young apprentice Leo (Henick Chou). Since then, she gains a new lease of life, by knowing from Leo that Bill has a final wish, despite not being easy or smooth to realize it. A small hope can ignite a seemingly motiveless life, Anastasia Tsang, the director of the film, has delivered such a precious message to us in ‘A Light Never Goes Out’, letting us know life is eventually worth living with glee if we know to move on with meaning.

Neon lights are the main theme in ‘A Light Never Goes Out’, it brings us to Mei Heung, and vice versa. Of yore, Hong Kong was decorated with more than a hundred thousand neon lights conspicuously shining on it rendering it a prosperous city; of late, there are just less than two hundred of them struggling to survive the Ordinance. In the movie, there is no shortage of scenes that appear old Hong Kong making it redolent of not a little nostalgia. Yeah, in those days, the neon light had made Hong Kong look more thriving than it was. Today, we have been living in an era of LED light rendering us unable to depend on the dazzling neon color to boast our prosperity. Still, the Hong Kong people have worked exceptionally hard to maintain this place’s prosperity, making it prosperous with humbleness and cleanliness.

Mei Heung’s daughter, Rainbow (Cecilia Choi) in ‘A Light Never Goes Out’ appears indifferent to her father’s passing on the surface; being sad and missing him very much deep down. Some conservations of hers appear too cold or even harsh to hear when she talks about her feelings about the loss of her father. In one scene, she asks her boyfriend if it is a law that one must cry when one’s loved one is dead. Yeah, such a statement is more than apathetic with coldness. Anastasia Tsang has deliberately created Rainbow in such a baffling character, we can also see there is a lot of discord between her and Mei Heung without reason, about dealing with the sorrow of the loss of the dead, and Tsang has not provided us with enough proof to support such a chasm standing in their way, say, there are serious conflicts or even grudges between them in the past, no, there are not.

However; I want to make some explanations about the reason for Rainbow’s seemingly coldness in expression about her father’s passing, it can stem from the life stages. Rainbow is in the prime of her life when she faces her father’s passing. Finishing university, having a career, owning a steady boyfriend ready to marry, and preparing to emigrate to Australia to explore a new chapter of life with challenges, all these make Rainbow full of hope and development in her life unlike her mother, Mei Heung, who is in the sunset of her life devoid of variety but wholly relies on her late husband’s memories for her happiness and welfare. It can explain why Mei Heung will invariably appear so sorrowful but Rainbow doesn’t when the two are also facing the death of their loved one. ‘A Light Never Goes Out’ does tell us life stages are somehow like neon lights, they would have their most shining moment and the dimmest one. With it, we can make sense of Mei Heung’s sadness, misery, and odd behavior and comprehend Rainbow’s ostensible indifference but deep down solicitude. When my grandpa passed away, I was in my early twenties, I had not appeared as sad as I should have been, and I didn’t feel anything wrong with me then. Time elapses, I grow mature, and when I recall my childhood that was to including my grandpa, I feel happy and sad and miss him very much.

Bill has dedicated his whole life to neon lights and the family without having an extramarital affair – that – we are, in some ways, more afraid of him having one than Mei Heung is. It is because we cannot bear to see Mei Heung hurt and embarrassed – when – she loves her husband so much and so innocently. Thanks to Tsang’s kindness and ability to read our minds to exclude an affair in the story, making Bill so good and decent a man, being worth Mei Heung to remember and miss for the rest of her life as a light never goes out.