Cry of Women: A quiet ache that lingers

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that let a room sit in silence for a solid minute while someone stares at a wall, you'll love this. If you need a plot that moves at the speed of a jet engine, you are going to hate it. It's a slow burn, almost to the point of disappearing, but it hits hard if you're in the right mood.

Honestly, watching Cry of Women felt like a bit of a challenge. It doesn't hold your hand. It just drops you right into the middle of these lives.

The quiet parts

There's this one scene where a character is just folding laundry. It goes on forever. I kept waiting for a reveal or a sudden explosion of emotion, but it just stayed there, folded, quiet. It’s weird how oddly hypnotic it becomes.

Ying Wang carries so much weight in her face without really saying anything. It reminded me a bit of the heavy, unspoken tension you see in The Bigamist. Not that they are the same story, but they share that same cold, grounded feeling.

Random notes from my notebook:

• The lighting in the kitchen looks like a rainy Tuesday afternoon.
• I think I heard a bird chirping for like three minutes straight while nothing happened on screen.
• The costumes feel lived-in, not like they just came off a rack.

Sometimes the movie gets a little too self-serious. You can almost feel the director nudging you, saying, "Hey, look at how sad this is." It’s unnecessary. The sadness is already there, baked into the floorboards.

There were moments where the camera just lingered on a doorway. I found myself looking for a reason, but maybe there wasn't one. Maybe it was just a doorway. I like that, actually.

Compared to the frantic energy of something like KoKo the Kop, this is basically a funeral march. It’s the opposite of a comedy. Don't go in expecting a pick-me-up. Go in expecting to feel a bit drained by the end of it.

The pacing is… uneven? Yeah, let’s go with uneven. It drags in the middle, then suddenly jumps forward. It’s jarring, but maybe life is just like that too. Sometimes you’re stuck in a loop, and then suddenly, everything changes. 🌫️

If you have the patience, it’s worth a look. If not, maybe skip it and save your evening for something a bit less heavy. Either way, it’s not a movie you just "watch." You kind of endure it with them.