Little Big Women

Joseph Chen-chieh Hsu illustrates an important message about the importance of moving on against the luscious beauty that is Tainan, Taiwan. Unfortunately poor pacing and under whelming drama prevents the film from hitting hard.

On her 70th Birthday, Lin Xiuying (Played by Shu-Fang Chen) makes grand birthday celebrations that quickly transform into funeral plans when her estranged husband who she has not seen in over a decade passes away. Without hesitation as a traditional Hoklo woman, she plans her husbands mourning and funeral grudgingly. The rest delves into her emotions over her husband and the reality of her actual feelings.

To my understanding, this is Hsu's debut feature film which went on to be last year's highest grossing film in Taiwan, which for a regional language film is surprising. You feel the deep passionate love for his country, especially Tainan. Temples, streets, markets, seashores, restaurants are all vividly displayed with their colors complimenting them on screen. The audio, while appearing rather minimally, usually knows how to hit the emotions just right. Much of the natural sounds like deep-frying, traffic, and the clicking of heels on the floor, provide a rather pleasant experience on the ears, almost transporting you there.

I applaud the cast a lot, its rare to see a film almost exclusively led by women, that to directed by a man. Everyone's acting most notably Shu-Fang Chen and Ying-Hsuan Hsieh were extremely well done.

Sadly what didn't work for the film was the lack of overall connectivity, and the lack of backstory that could have help me connect with Lin and why it was so hard to let go. There is a lack of heart wrenching emotional events that make us want to strongly empathize with her or her daughters.

Overall, its not a terrible film. Hsu has an essay about the importance of letting go that becomes apparent in the end. Unfortunately, it could have been amplified with better on screen management of events, possibly more focus on the matriarchy and less of the daughters.

As another reviewer already stated, there are certain universal truths that ring true to everyone, no matter where you are from or how you lived. Well for most that is - because family and the relationships therein are always complicated. There is always love of course (at least a little bit of that), but there is also a lot of regret ... how and where you go when one of the pieces go missing (expires/dies, however you want to put it).

It may confuse a little bit, but the drama is worth it. This is for everyone who likes things to be "real life" and feel as real as possible. Secrets get revealed, passions exposed and other things that were under the surface. Now while that might sound exciting and powerful - it is, but not in a strong fast way, but rather a slow paced burning ... if you can dig that, you'll love the movie. If not ... well it's obvious isn't it.

The movie did its job to hold a big concern with the mother for over 2 hours, & unfold smoothly at the end, & close nicely, revealing beautiful personas of each character, even the farther. What they did are just to carry out their responsibilities as a member in the family, a mother, a husband, a daughter & sisters, with all the love they have got, in their own way. There would be better solution for each situation that was draw out in the story, yet, all their fragile actions make the movie so emotional & warm.

I love the movie & how it was told.

With the tradition and Chinese culture this movie performed it impeccably. Taiwan is one of the countries with strong family value and love surround between people. Mainland China cannot make this kind of movie as their product is always overdramatic, hk and Singapore won't have this background support and will become lame for this topic and always commercial kind. This movie just so natural and telling a story in a woman family. It just full of love and tears from this movie, if you have connection with any Taiwanese and been in their culture, you will like it.

I have to wholeheartedly compliment reviewer blaze32646 February 2021 for his/her "A slow moving film about letting go" review; a rare great in-depth analysis of how it should have been done more properly and why it's a huge miss of making this movie a greater and better movie.

The movie didn't completely tell the backstory of why that husband/father had become estranged to his wife/daughters, why the wife/mother still gave a damn to her betrayed/estranged husband and as a husband/father. it also failed to show us how this woman had been forced into a single parent mother, how his betrayal, his heartless cruelty impact the family he left behind. What's the reason he betrayed his wife/daughters? An adulterer for another woman? If so, can you believe this wife-by-marriage would forgive him? Schopenhauer On "Woman" claimed that Woman in Love is far weaker than woman in Hate; a woman in love and hate is far barbaric than most men. There's no way to correct such fact that this Mamma San in particular had evolved and transcended to a kinder and more generous female.

Therefore, once her persistence of carrying out the farewell ritual to her husband is quite obscure and argumentatively controversial, this movie could only have achieved a small part of a bigger picture. But nonetheless, still a not so bad nor so great or so unique movie.