Little Big Women (Mandarin: 孤味) is a movie released in November 2020 on Netflix. The Taiwanese film is directed by Joseph Chen-Chieh Hsu. It is labeled as a drama and the film synopsis online describes Little Big Women as a movie that entails "Family members grapple with the passing of their estranged father and the remnants of the life he led during his absence" (IMBd).
Overall, the movie was quite enjoyable for me personally. The movie follows the storyline of a family of three women and their mother. At the beginning of the plot, the audience learns that they father/husband lived in another city in Taiwan with his mistress/partner for over 10 years and had limited contact with his children and wife. However, the longest daughter seemingly had the most communication out of the children with her father and was actually present at the hospital when he passed away. The tropes of this movie are redundant and the movie, in my opinion, offers nothing new thematical or cinematically. But I didn't watch the movie to be impressed by the storyline or the ideas presented--this movie is a strictly nostalgia, let me be in my feelings sort of movie (which honestly, a lot of Taiwanese movies are for me). Even though the storyline is quite sad and can be frustrating for viewers to see the main characters deal with loss, marriage infidelity, and disconnection--the small scenes for me were quite enjoyable to watch. The cultural representation in this movie is quite rich, showing many scenes of Taiwan (primarily Tainan) and also depictions of cultural rituals for funeral arrangements. One of the most significant scenes for me was when there was dialogue between Taoist and Buddhist funeral rituals for the father. It was really interesting to see the contrasting beliefs of the wife and the mistress (via the youngest daughter) and how culturally, that's probably representative of the country on a smaller scale. It is interesting since the movie is available on Netflix, meaning it is somewhat catering to a "western" audience of sorts.
The movie was actually quite an emotional and enriching watch for me personally. The main character, Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳), who plays the mother/wife really reminded me of my own āmā 阿嬤. I am not sure if it's the haircut, or the stature, or the outfits, but her overall representation throughout the movie was very emotional for me. I am sure that if any of my family members are reading this, they would say that the actress physically looks nothing like my āmā 阿嬤--but I really think the familiarity comes from her representative qualities and demeanor. The scene towards the beginning where she is in the kitchen and setting up the table really reminded me of scenes of my childhood. Even though I am very far from a cinematic nerd and barely understand the language that is used to describe camera angles--I think some of the scenes where Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳) is viewed from "looking up" (again, I don't even know how to phrase it correctly) in a way that makes her look taller--really made me feel more connected to her. When my āmā 阿嬤 was alive, I was less than 8 years old so I only ever saw her as taller than me, which now I know she was quite a small statured person. I often wonder what it would look like to stand above her simply because I outgrew her.
Anyways, the scenes with Chen Shu-fang (陳淑芳) were very impactful for me and really carried the movie. She is a phenomenal (and award winning) actress, so there's really no surprise there. Even though the concept of the movie was not very complicated, I think the emotions the actresses demonstrated were very complex and authentic. From a cultural and language-learning perspective--the movie was very Taiwanese. I watched the movie with English subtitles and had to rewind several scenes (primarily scenes in the hospitals and regarding the funeral) since the words were complicated but also highly emotional. Now reflecting on the movie, it makes sense that emotional scenes are harder to understand from a language-learning perspective since the actresses are enthralled in showcasing the raw emotion rather than focusing on enunciation and clarity. For the most part, Taiwanese is pretty much the only language spoken in the movie, with a few expectations from the granddaughter (and scenes with the granddaughter). I couldn't find any confirming information, but I would probably guess that the actress who plays the granddaughter, Buffy Chen (陈妍霏) is not too familiar and/or comfortable with speaking Taiwanese. I think this further showcases the generational gap in Taiwanese language-learning since the actress is 21 years old (closest to me in age). This gap in Taiwanese makes me feel both comforted, because the same thing is arguably happening to communities who actually live in Taiwan and not just those in the diaspora, and also sad since the loss of language is really happening on a global scale. The scenes where Buffy is be spoken to in Taiwanese but only replies in Mandarin-Chinese, really remind me of my own family and cousins as well. Also, it's interesting to note that the entire family (mother, father, daughter) who play Buffy and her parents make up a majority of the scenes in Mandarin-Chinese. When the parents are not with the mother/grandmother or the other sister (who pretty much only speak Taiwanese in scenes) they converse in Mandarin-Chinese to each other. This is particularly interesting because both of those actors play characters who are doctors and highly educated. It would be interesting to draw conclusions about prescribed education levels and the use/speaking of Taiwanese.
Arguably you can say I learned a lot of words since watching this movie provided the most exposure I had to hearing Taiwanese is a very long while (since I live away from my family now). Some highly respective words that stuck with me throughout the movie included:
Father
Doctor
Wife
As a language-learning bonus(!) I was able to find the movie soundtrack online, which features a few songs sung in Taiwanese. The end of the movie is also quite emotional and features this song, which is also sung in Taiwanese. Overall, it was a great first movie to get (re)acquainted with Taiwanese culture and language. I am quite excited to continue this journey to learn more! Thanks for tuning in!
平安
---朱自立
