The Joy Luck Club (1993)

The life histories of four Asian women and their daughters reflect and guide each other.

Director:

Wayne Wang

Writers:

Amy Tan (novel), Amy Tan (screenplay)

Stars:

Tamlyn Tomita, Rosalind Chao, Kieu Chinh

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kieu Chinh	...	Suyuan - The Mother
Tsai Chin	...	Lindo - The Mother
France Nuyen	...	Ying-Ying - The Mother
Lisa Lu	...	An-Mei - The Mother
Ming-Na Wen	...	June - The Daughter
Tamlyn Tomita	...	Waverly - The Daughter
Lauren Tom	...	Lena - The Daughter
Rosalind Chao	...	Rose - The Daughter
Chao Li Chi	...	June's Father
Melanie Chang	...	June - Age 9
Victor Wong	...	Old Chong
Lisa Connolly	...	Singing Girl
Mai Vu	...	Waverly - Age 6-9 (as Vu Mai)
Ying Wu	...	Lindo - Age 4
Meijuan Xi	...	Lindo's Mother (as Mei Juan Xi)

Storyline

Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship.

---

Plot Keywords:

asian | chinese | flashback | china | woman | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong depiction of thematic material

Details

Country:

USA China

Language:

English Mandarin Cantonese

Release Date:

29 October 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

El club de la buena estrella

Filming Locations:

610 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$32,861,136

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hollywood Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 400 movies nominated for the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.

---

Goofs

June receives a letter from her half-sisters that is written in traditional Chinese layout: top-to-bottom, right-to-left. In the 1980s, a letter from mainland China would have been written using the Western writing layout.

---

Quotes

An-Mei: I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way. No, this cannot be, this not knowing what ...

---

Connections

Referenced in Siskel & Ebert: Assassins/Dead Presidents/How to Make an American Quilt/Strange Days/Persuasion (1995)

---

Soundtracks

Gamethon
Written and performed by Michael A. Lang
Courtesy of Michael A. Lang Enterprises, Inc.

User Reviews

A masterpiece in editing

The Joy Luck Club is one of the best edited movies I've ever seen. You know a film is well edited when the editing doesn't occur to you as you watch it. It takes a special film to go beyond that and call particular attention to how well it's all put together. But that's not only what makes this film great.

This film is more or less told as eight small vignettes. Usually in such a film, half to three quarters of them can be considered good. In this film, the stories of all eight women are great. They are well written, well acted, and tied perfectly into the frame of the story overall. They are funny, dramatic and shocking all at the same time. They are all interesting and very different from each other.

The films' only weakness, in my opinion, is the bookends. The story of the coming reunion of the three sisters. The "punch" that's so prevelant in all the vignettes is just not there in either the writing or the acting.

However, this is a great film, and one of the best of 1993. While I don't think any of the actresses could warrant any Oscar attention on their own, it certainly was a snub that the film itself wasn't nominated, and particularly Wayne Wang, the director. The Piano was a piece of garbage, and I cringe at the thought of it being mentioned in the same breath as Schindler's List and The Remains of the Day. And The Joy Luck Club.