There are plenty of films about working class figures made in France, Germany, the US and elsewhere, but most are opportunist, exploitive. The directors either sneer at their characters and situations or make use of them as a means of getting at something else, usually something about their own tedious and inconsequential lives. Darkness and Light , on the other hand, pays attention to Kang-Yi and Ah Ping and their friends and family. Precisely because of the utter seriousness with which the film treats the fleeting, the banal, the details of everyday life, it passes through them and comes out the other side, so to speak, as something universal. The film talks about matters that are so essential one is almost embarrassed to mention them.
Life is difficult.
There is extraordinary goodness in the world and extraordinary corruption. People are under great economic and psychological pressure. They are largely blind to their own needs. In spite of all the problems, people try to make contact with each other. The society weighs down on them, crippling some, disappointing others.