Penitentiary Angel (1996)

This is a story about seven female prisoners each with different backgrounds, living within the one prison. At the beginning of the story, a new inmate Ding Qing Er arrives with tears streaming down her face, but told that it's too late to cry. The story continues to slowly reveal the lives of the female prisoners, and each of their struggles to have ended up where they are today. There's the mother who's husband keeps giving false promises of taking her and her child to America; the prostitute who was raped; the lesbian who was given up and betrayed by the Red Army; among others, and there's also Qing Er, who is in jail for theft after stealing costly medicine from the hospital for her dying husband. Through the lead of each other and also the kind hearted guards, they learn to form an unbreakable bond, and a way of dignity.