With four memorable songs, anti-bullying film Cry Me a Sad River 悲伤逆流成河 might have my favorite original song list for a film since  Tiny Times.

Don’t Cry by Sunnee is sung from the viewpoint of one survivor of bullying to another.   You can watch another version of the MV that shows victims of bullying taking off the names they were called.

“I’m sorry” takes seconds to say
but “It’s okay” may take forever

To mama by The Landlord’s Cat focuses on the main tearjerker for me in the book, the relationship between the protagonist and her mother.

God shattered the Tower of Babel,
and left the world one key*
her name is mama

*Not sure if my translation is correct because I read two meanings from this line.  In the Bible,  the Tower of Babel is a tower to the heavens that humans were trying to build.  To prevent the building of the tower, God split human language into many separate ones so they can’t communicate, so the line refers to the idea that mama/mom is one of the few common words in most languages.   It also suggest that the singer’s mother is her key to heaven.

Goodbye, Youth by Ren Suxi is a depressing eulogy to youth and a cover of the original song by Wang Feng.

I leave at dawn on a winter day,
with a past filled with rumors,
with the wilting of a once-blooming life –
I begin my journey at the shattering of dreams.

Like a River by Angela Zhang is probably the only non-depressing song of the group, a song about those who lend us a bit of warmth in the darkness. This song also has a cartoon MV about the heroes that helped those in need save themselves.

When the storm has passed
save me a snowflake
to remind me that hell froze over
but you were warm like a river