Crying Ladies

The Philippines is the setting for our next movie Crying Ladies. Crying Ladies is about family, friends and new beginnings. The movie centers on the main character Stella, as she struggles with poverty and struggles to find happiness while living apart from her son, who lives with his father. Stella’s two friends are also stuck in ruts as one is dealing with martial affairs and the other deals with the fact that her movie career is probably over. One man brings the friends together when he needs funeral criers at his traditional funeral he is planning for his father. One thing is for certain these women had plenty to cry about from their personal lives. In being united, these friends find strength, hope and encouragement from one another and ultimately find happiness and success. In the end Stella finds success in the karaoke business and becomes an award winning actress in karaoke videos. While Stella’s friends find happiness with resurgence in their lives.

As we watch Crying Ladies we notice there is large Spanish and U.S. influence on the Philippines. This is because the Philippines were colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century and later became a United States territory in the early 20th century. The Philippines became independent in 1946 following World War II. One Spanish influence I saw was religion. Choleng’s church was Roman Catholic. According to Wikipedia about 90% of the Philippines are Christian. This film also shows us that the Philippines are very diverse. Looking at people in the film, there is not one distinct look of a Filipino. There are many different influences on the area.

We see quite a bit from Chinese culture when we get to see Wilson’s father’s funeral. This is a traditional look at a funeral. Funeral criers were hired in the past, but are a trend that has declined. Wanting to make it as traditional as possible Wilson hires Stella and here two friends to cry at the funeral. We notice a stark difference from American funerals. All of the mourners were dressed in white compared to black seen here in the U.S. We also see many similarities in this movie as we saw in Singapore Dreaming. Just like in Singapore Dreaming we see the traditional burning of the paper house. Although, I notice the funeral in Crying Ladies was taken more serious, which may have been due to the wealth of the family.

A small part I took from the film was the transportation. We see in the film many of these jeep looking cabs. These cabs are called jeepneys. According to Wikipedia, jeepneys are the most popular means of transportation in the Philippines. These are jeeps that were left over after World War II. The U.S. either gave or sold the surplus of them to Filipinos. With a little styling up these Army jeeps were turned into taxis. The picture on the left is an actual jeepney in the Philippines. Also in the film, cabs and public buses are present.

Crying Ladies was an excellent film that showed much of what the Philippines are like. You get a good idea of how diverse the country is and also you learn where they get a lot of their influences from. Many traditions are noticeable, which makes it easy to learn about their customs. I have gained a better understanding of this region by viewing this film.