Cry Woman

Colour, 35mm
China, Korea, France, 2002, 91 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Wang Guixiang left her native province, Guizhou, for a better life in Beijing. But all she does is sell pirate videos and DVDs on the streets, while her husband spends his days and nights playing mahjong. One day he gets involved in fight over a game and ends up in jail. Wang is deported by the police back to Guizhou, where she ends up with no money and huge debts – plus the abandoned child of her ex-neighbours. Wang does not know what to do, until her ex-boyfriend, now married, has an idea: she could earn a living as a professional mourner, a “cry woman”. Wang quickly learns how to cry and lament in the traditional manner and, with the help of her ex-boyfriend, who owns a funeral parlour and becomes her manager, she starts to build a business. Soon she finds herself very much in demand. But money does not automatically mean happiness… A bitterly true portrait of life in contemporary China, with all its contradictions, humour and cruel injustice.

About the director

Liu Bingjian (1963, Anhui, China) studied film at the Beijing Film Academy. In 1996 he directed Inkstone (Yan chuang) and in 1999 Men and Women (Nan nan nunu), also screened in Karlovy Vary. Cry Woman (2002) is his third film. All of them were banned in China.