AllMovie

Director Liu Bingjian's comedy features Beijing Opera star (and first-time movie actress) Liao Qin as Guixiang, a young woman who ekes out a living by selling pirated DVD's on the streets of Beijing. Her husband, Changgeng, is a worthless gambler with a quick temper that soon gets them both into trouble. All in one extremely bad day, Guixiang is caught by the police and forced to give up her merchandise, Changgeng is arrested for blinding a gambling buddy, and their neighbor abandons her child, whom she left with Guixiang for the day. With the child in tow, Guixiang is forced to return to her native town where, thanks to a chance encounter with a local funeral arranger, she discovers her natural talent for crying. She soon becomes both his business partner and lover, hiring herself out as a professional mourner, and acquiring a very peculiar kind of fame along the way.