"Incense and Cigarettes follows the story of two half-sisters meet each other for the first time in their grandma’s wake. The older sister Shanshan was born and raised in her home city by her grandma, while the younger one, Chen Yu, grew up in Beijing after their father divorced his first wife and moved to the capital city to earn a living.

However, the first encounter of the two sisters was interrupted by their father’s decision of delegating Chen Yu to write a memorial speech for their grandma before the funeral. Despite the fact that Yu is a screenwriter on the rise, she found it hard to start writing as she knew nothing about her grandma, who she only met for once in her entire life. Holding this difficult task in hand, Yu thought about turning to her sister for help; however, she hesitated to do so as she sensed some sort of elusive hostility from Shanshan.

Both of the two girls hold their secret thoughts over the night. They refuse to express their feelings directly despite the fact that they only have one night to know each other. The night is going to pass and the dawn is coming – their grandma’s funeral is about to begin……
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