The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Please don't spend money on this.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The story is classic in San Francisco of Asian women with own daughters. This Is Us show had nailed the past or chronological times same as Joy Luck Club's chronologies times.

I saw The Joy Luck Club movie on the shelf at my library. I thought I had seen it years ago, wasn't sure, so decided to check it out. Well, from the moment the tape started I was mesmerized. Usually, I get up half a dozen times during a move, but I could not budge. My mother died 6 mos ago and it still hurts when I think of her. The Joy Luck Club made me aware of how much my mother meant to me, except I didn't know it while she was alive. The actress who portrayed the children's part were so lovely, especially Lindo when she was 4 years old. It is such a beautiful film, and it meant so much to me that I am going to watch it again before I return it. The characters' lives were all so interesting, and the mothers' love for their daughters was bittersweet. I only wish I had a daughter. When the movie was over, I was in tears and could not move for quite awhile just thinking about it. It just moved me so much, that I must put it on my top ten list of all time favorites.

If this flick can't make you cry, then you have no heart. I bought it for my wife a few years ago and we have watched it several times now. It's one of her faves. I think I can make reasonably critical remarks because I've been over the same territory so much. Let's get the criticism out of the way from the beginning. I have two main objections. One, this is a woman's movie that is unapologetically pro-female and seriously anti-male in character. When the men aren't being portrayed as egotistical, selfish, and cruel, they are annoying or clueless. It gets a bit tiresome. In fact, one is surprised that a couple of them make the cut over the long haul because these ladies don't think much of men, in general, that is, unless they are completely domesticated and worshipful. Second is Oliver Stone's unrelenting attack upon the viewer's emotional homeostasis. He comes at you again and again, dragging an emotional response out of you over and over without significant letup. In so doing, he goes over the top a bit, but most of the feeling generated is honest and genuinely acted. One definitely gets the sense that the Chinese (or at least this group of them) are very sentimental people, which doesn't quite jibe with their rather stern and inscrutable image in the world at large. One of my favorite scenes was the one at the beauty parlor between Auntie Lindo and her daughter Waverly, where Waverly confesses that even a look from her mother used to make her cry herself to sleep. Lindo's reaction to this otherwise troubling info was a simple, "Now you have made me happy." Then there's the scene in the kitchen after the dinner party between June and her Mom (who sad to say wasn't long for this world). That's where she tells June that for her she has, "only hope," assuring her that, "I see you." Both of these scenes are very touching. The finale, where June arrives in China to see her long lost half-sisters is a real tear-jerker, as well. Some of the scenes in this movie were rather troubling, however. At the top of the list would have to be the young Ying Ying's sacrifice of her infant son to "get back" at her selfish and cruel husband. He certainly deserved to be hurt, but to take it out on the baby boy? That I couldn't forgive her for. The same woman, in middle age, was understandably critical of her daughter's unbelievably cheap and pompous husband, but for her to judge him so harshly after the terrible thing she had done in her youth was hypocritical. An interesting sidelight is that this actress was the same young lady who played Leat, the beautiful native girl in the movie "South Pacific."Speaking of that, this flick was an exploration of the natural beauty of oriental women. Which one of them was the most alluring? It was quite a contest. I'd say the two most beautiful women in the cast (at least of the older generation) were the young Ying Ying and An Mei's mother, the lovely woman whom we first saw wearing a fashionable hat, who became a fourth wife and "didn't know her worth," and finally who committed suicide "for her daughter's sake." Less for their absolute beauty than their special appeal was Lindo's mother in China and June's mother in America. Among the daughters, it was a tossup. Probably either Waverly or Lena was the most attractive, but June had a sensuous quality and certainly gave them a run for the money. Rose, although somewhat less beautiful, was also appealing. You can't go wrong with "Joy Luck Club" if you appreciate the beauty of Chinese women. Just make sure you have something absorbent handy when you sit down to watch because you're going to need it.

On my first viewing, this film got a "fair" rating because there were not enough memorable roles and the story was confusing to me. I lost track of which person was telling their particular story at the moment. (There are eight stories woven into this two hour, 19 minute movie). I think it would be confusing to most one-time viewers to get confused here if you don't know the stories or the actors. It also got a little soap-opera-ish, too, but then again, this film was based on a best-selling book that was ready primarily by women.On the second viewing, almost two years later, I liked it a lot more and upgraded my "star" rating considerably. It's still a "chick flick" and a feminist one. The young women are that way, the Americanized women, while their mothers, those all born in China, are quite. The older ladies are a bit too strict and their daughters are a bit too liberal. That included general morals and language - a big difference between the two generations and cultures. The feminist angle I didn't like was that in almost every relationship the man is painted as the bad guy (the abuser, the non-loving type, etc.) That kind of story bias was too much.The more memorable of the stories turned out to be the ones with the older women, such as the one who left her two babies at the base of a tree, or the one who had to marry a young boy.For me, the best part of the film was the cinematography. There were some beautiful scenes and great colors: bright oranges, yellows, reds and browns. Some of the young women were beautiful, too. The lady narrating in the beginning, "June" (Melanie Chang as a nine-year- old and then Ming-Na as an adult) was very appealing and had a great voice. Her story is the one that begins and ends the film. That ending, by the way, is almost guaranteed to bring a few tears.Overall, a wonderful visual movie and a great venue for Chinese-American actresses, all of whom I found fascinating to watch.