After the successful independent features about Chinese-American life DIM SUM and EAT A BOWL OF TEA, director Wayne Wang took on the daunting task of adapting Amy Tan's sprawling, multigenerational best-seller THE JOY LUCK CLUB. After her mother's death, June (Ming-Na Wen) is asked to take her place in a mahjong club. The three other members, like her mother, were all born in China before the 1949 revolution. When June learns that she has two half sisters in China, she plans a trip to meet them. With this catalyst, the women begin to tell stories, not just about but their own mothers and their lives in China, but also about their often strained relationships with their Americanized daughters. The flashbacks to China are dramatic, and the stories are heartbreaking. As the film progresses, June learns about a culture that's supposedly her own but that she can touch only through the commonality of the mother-daughter bond. It is this nexus that makes the movie work. There are multiple points of view, but they are always connected by the universal desire for one generation of women to pass on their hopes for a better life to their daughters. This feeling, without being cloying or overly sentimental, underlines the emotional tales in this moving, well-acted, and beautifully staged drama.
In THE JOY LUCK CLUB, based on the novel by Amy Tan, generational and cultural conflicts between a small group of traditional Chinese immigrant women and their more liberated Chinese-American daughters abound at a farewell party. The gathering provides an occasion for the older women to tell their stories of personal tragedy and sacrifice, while both generations attempt to reach reconciliation.
Novelist-screenwriter Amy Tan is well-known for her 1989 best-selling novel, THE JOY LUCK CLUB. With director Wayne Wang, she pulled off this large-scale studio undertaking very well, much to the surprise of some Hollywood folk who considered Tan's sprawling, multigenerational saga unfilmable and predicted the movie would be plagued with producation problems.
Kieu Chinh's acting career began when a producer asked her to play a Buddhist nun in a Vietnamese movie. The role launched her career, landing her a role on the hit series M.A.S.H. and finally a job as a TV talk show host. Wang was unaware of Chinh's acting expericence and talk show success of the 1960s and early 1970s when he cast her in the film.
Amy Tan appears briefly in the first party scene.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Surround - French
Dolby Surround - Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Trailers
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Source Writer
Amy Tan: Asian Novelist, THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Review 1:
"...Both sweeping and intimate, a lovely evocation of changing cultures and enduring family ties....The film is virtually stolen by Tsai Chin as the sly, acerbic Auntie Lindo..."
Source: New York Times
p.C15 09/08/1993
Review 2:
"...Often moving..." - Recommended
Source: Premiere
p.142 04/01/1994
Review 3:
"...A rich, multi-course movie..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.44-5 04/01/1994
Review 4:
"...Beautifully made and acted and emotionally moving....Visually, [the] film is splendid..."
Source: Variety
09/13/1993
Review 5:
"...In a screenplay remarkable for its complexity and force, THE JOY LUCK CLUB moves effortlessly between past and present, between what was, and how it became what is....One of the most touching and moving of the year's films..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.48 09/17/1993
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