Crying Ladies

Philippines, the multi-island nation had been under the rule of the Spanish monarchy for over three centuries and as a result, the culture and language absorbed some Spanish features. Philippines were under the rule of United States following the Spanish-American War of 1898. So the country’s culture has infused Spanish, American and local customs together. Because of that reason, English is prominently used in the country and many Spanish words have made their place into the language. Because of the Spanish and American influence, almost 86% of the country’s populations belong to different sects of Christianity where majority of them are Roman Catholics.

“Crying Ladies” is a story of three working class women who get hired by the Chua Family to cry at the wake ceremony for the deceased. It is a Chinese ritual to bid farewell and they believe that the more people mourn for the deceased, the more the Gods will be pleased with that deceased. Stella, the lead character in the movie, is a second generation mourner and divorcee mother. Choleng is a character torn between her religious beliefs and her affair with her friend’s husband. Aling is a shopkeeper holding onto her fading memory of a movie career. As all three of them get hired by the Chu family, they all deal with their problems throughout the movie. Stella struggles to find a better job in order to keep her son close to her and weighs the pros and cons of keeping her son, Bong, with her rather than sending him away with his dad and step mom to another far away city. Choleng seeks refuge in confession in her church and tries to obtain peace of mind by doing charity. Aling seeks to make her daughter a model in order to hold on to her memory of movie fame.


The movie depicts that more and more people are moving away from their ancient beliefs and rituals in the society. When the Chua family starts looking for criers for the funeral, they face that situation. Once a prominent feature for families with Chinese heritage has now slowly faded away in the face of modern day lifestyle.
The movie addresses many social norms or activities people are involved in.

Gambling is a one such activity which people indulge in to try and win. The shop owner who sells caskets runs a gambling place behind the store and invites all his friends to gamble. It serves as a getaway for them for the reality and provides them with a sense of achievement.

Bribery is a norm people face every day in the society. Starting from small to big, everything involves bribe. Two scenes in the movie depict how people accept bribes to make jobs easier for people and at the same time earn some cash on the side. First, the traffic police stop a driver entering a one way street and then accept an “Oakley” sunglass as bribe and let the driver leaves without a ticket. Second, Wilson gives money to two different persons so that the funeral procession can take a shorter route on the streets and not face the difficulty of going all the way around couple blocks.

The radio, television and different agencies create and promote different game shows to attract people and most of the time, prey on people’s dreams. Reality shows and game shows attract huge number to participants and audiences. Hundreds of people show up to participate in the game shows to win or just appear on TV and some of these game shows are designed to embarrass the participants. The game show Stella decided to join asks them to appear in funny getups in order to just get into the audience. On the contrary, they also have some talent agencies which actually provide opportunities to people with talents.

Karaoke is a huge part of Philippine culture. Almost every bar or social gathering has a karaoke machine and people really enjoy karaoke. At the end of the movie, at every bar, club, party Stella appears on all the Karaoke channels or machines as she is the star of the karaoke videos.

The movie portrays basic principle that rather than pretending to be something else, it is much better to recognize your own potential. Also changing different behavioral aspects of own character can serve to create better opportunity for personal growth.