Little Big Women

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.

Keeps you on your toes...remembering names...who is related to who...married to who. But, well worth watching. All families are confronted with the same issues...no matter the culture or nationality.

When an absent father dies, his daughters clash with their mother.

A family drama in Taiwan, far from the canons we're used to by Hollywood studios.

I am more and more attracted to slow-burners like this one, where we are treated, little by little, with the elements that build the narrative, in a very intelligent way.

The way it's structured allows the viewer to change their opinion about the developments that they see on screen, and to root for different characters, as the story unfolds.

It's mainly about reflection, morality and rigidity of tradition, and being at peace, on a personal level, and then with others, and letting life take the course it is supposed to.

The recurring flashbacks can be confusing sometimes, without the proper context.

There's no jaw-dropping twists, just surprises, that I personally liked. The final scenes are undoubtedly the highlight of the film, and well worth the wait.

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.

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.