EnglishTea4me (talk | contribs) →Plot: copyedit |
EnglishTea4me (talk | contribs) copyedit |
||
Line 42: | Line 42: | ||
The Joy Luck Club was formed by four women—Lindo Jong ([[Tsai Chin (actress)|Tsai Chin]]), Ying-Ying St. Clair ([[France Nuyen|France Nguyen]]), An-Mei Hsu ([[Lisa Lu]]), and Suyuan Woo ([[Kieu Chinh]])—in [[San Francisco]]. The members have mainly played [[mahjong]] and told each other's stories over the years. They immigrated from China, remarried, and gave birth to [[Chinese American|children in America]]. Suyuan's daughter June ([[Ming-Na Wen]]) replaced her when Suyuan died a year before the film's present time. Mothers have high hopes for their daughters' success, but the daughters struggled through "anxiet[ies,] feelings of inadequacy[,] and failure[s]." Throughout the film, mothers and daughters bond by understanding each other and overcoming conflicts.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gVbRZdvw9ZUC&lpg=PA51&dq=%22joy%20luck%20club%22%20(film%20OR%20movie)&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q=%22joy%20luck%20club%22%20(film%20OR%20movie)&f=false|title=Multicultural films: a reference guide|pages=50–51|authors=Janice R. Welsch, J. Q. Adams|year=2005|publisher=Greenwood Press}}</ref> |
The Joy Luck Club was formed by four women—Lindo Jong ([[Tsai Chin (actress)|Tsai Chin]]), Ying-Ying St. Clair ([[France Nuyen|France Nguyen]]), An-Mei Hsu ([[Lisa Lu]]), and Suyuan Woo ([[Kieu Chinh]])—in [[San Francisco]]. The members have mainly played [[mahjong]] and told each other's stories over the years. They immigrated from China, remarried, and gave birth to [[Chinese American|children in America]]. Suyuan's daughter June ([[Ming-Na Wen]]) replaced her when Suyuan died a year before the film's present time. Mothers have high hopes for their daughters' success, but the daughters struggled through "anxiet[ies,] feelings of inadequacy[,] and failure[s]." Throughout the film, mothers and daughters bond by understanding each other and overcoming conflicts.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gVbRZdvw9ZUC&lpg=PA51&dq=%22joy%20luck%20club%22%20(film%20OR%20movie)&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q=%22joy%20luck%20club%22%20(film%20OR%20movie)&f=false|title=Multicultural films: a reference guide|pages=50–51|authors=Janice R. Welsch, J. Q. Adams|year=2005|publisher=Greenwood Press}}</ref> |
||
The film begins with June's short narrative prologue about the swan feather in the opening credits and then her farewell surprise party in San Francisco for June's upcoming reunion with her long-lost twin sisters in China. Among the guests are members of The Joy Luck Club, their daughters, other relatives, and friends. The following characters below narrate their journeys to the audience while they reflect their pasts. |
The film begins with June's short narrative prologue about the swan feather in the opening credits and then her farewell surprise party in San Francisco for June's upcoming reunion with her long-lost twin sisters in China. Among the guests are members of The Joy Luck Club, their daughters, other relatives, and friends. The following characters below narrate their journeys to the audience while they reflect upon their pasts. |
||
===Lindo and Waverly=== |
===Lindo and Waverly=== |
||
In China, four-year-old Lindo (Ying Wu) is arranged by her mother (Xi Meijuan; 奚美娟) and the matchmaker to be married to Huang Tai Tai's son when she grows up. When Lindo |
In China, four-year-old Lindo (Ying Wu) is arranged by her mother (Xi Meijuan; 奚美娟) and the matchmaker to be married to Huang Tai Tai's son when she grows up. When Lindo turns fifteen ([[Irene Ng]]), her mother sends her to Huang Tai Tai, so Lindo marries Tai Tai's son, Tyan Hu, a pre-pubescent boy who never has interests in her, much to her chagrin. After four years of loveless marriage without children, she casts him as the father of the maid's unborn child, although the maid was impregnated by someone else, and blames the matchmaker for misfortunes brought upon everyone by arranging a bad marriage for greed. Therefore, Lindo's husband becomes the maid's husband and adopts her unborn child, and Lindo moves to [[Shanghai]]. |
||
Years later in America, Lindo has a new husband, a son, and a daughter named Waverly ([[Tamlyn Tomita]]). Six-to-nine-year-old (Mai Vu) Waverly has won [[chess]] rounds. Annoyed by Lindo's excessive praise and [[word of mouth]] to people, especially in the streets, Waverly decides to quit chess. When she tries to play it again, Waverly loses one chess round, prompting her to retire from chess. Years later, she has a daughter Shoshana from her Chinese ex-husband and is going to marry a [[White American|Caucasian fiancé]], Rich ([[Christopher Rich (actor)|Christopher Rich]]), much to Lindo's chagrin. In order to make Lindo like Rich, Waverly brings him to family dinner, but he ends up failing to impress them especially by improperly using chopsticks and marinating the dish with a sauce, humiliating Waverly. A while later, at the hair salon, Lindo retells her moments with her own mother, declares that she likes Rich very much, and then gives marital blessings to Waverly and Rich, prompting her and Waverly to reconcile each other. |
Years later in America, Lindo has a new husband, a son, and a daughter named Waverly ([[Tamlyn Tomita]]). Six-to-nine-year-old (Mai Vu) Waverly has won [[chess]] rounds. Annoyed by Lindo's excessive praise and [[word of mouth]] to people, especially in the streets, Waverly decides to quit chess. When she tries to play it again, Waverly loses one chess round, prompting her to retire from chess. Years later, she has a daughter Shoshana from her Chinese ex-husband and is going to marry a [[White American|Caucasian fiancé]], Rich ([[Christopher Rich (actor)|Christopher Rich]]), much to Lindo's chagrin. In order to make Lindo like Rich, Waverly brings him to family dinner, but he ends up failing to impress them especially by improperly using chopsticks and marinating the dish with a sauce, humiliating Waverly. A while later, at the hair salon, Lindo retells her moments with her own mother, declares that she likes Rich very much, and then gives marital blessings to Waverly and Rich, prompting her and Waverly to reconcile with each other. |
||
===Ying-Ying and Lena=== |
===Ying-Ying and Lena=== |
||
In China, Ying-Ying St. Clair was faithfully married to Lin-Xiao ([[Russell Wong]]) with a baby boy in China until Lin-Xiao abused her and abandoned her for an opera singer. In retalliation, Ying-Ying drowned her baby son in the bathtub |
In China, Ying-Ying St. Clair was faithfully married to Lin-Xiao ([[Russell Wong]]) with a baby boy in China until Lin-Xiao abused her and abandoned her for an opera singer. In retalliation, Ying-Ying drowned her baby son in the bathtub. Years after she emigrated to America, she struggled through her traumatic past, frightening her new family, including her daughter Lena ([[Lauren Tom]]). After Ying-Ying finally resolved her years of trauma, Lena introduces Ying-Ying to her new apartment with her husband Harold ([[Michael Paul Chan]]. Before marriage, Harold was Lena's boss. He indulged in his own tastes like ice cream and male-oriented magazines, and pushed Lena's financial needs aside. Seeing that Lena is unhappy with her marriage, Ying-Ying bumps a table down to the floor in the bedroom and causes the vase to fall and break. When the noise was heard, Lena enters and is ordered by Ying-Ying to divorce Harold and to never return to him again unless he truly loves Lena. When the film ends, Lena has another fiancé and plans to go to [[Lake Tahoe]] with him. |
||
===An-Mei and Rose=== |
===An-Mei and Rose=== |
||
Nine-year-old An-Mei Hsu ([[Yi Ding]]) is reunited with her long-lost mother ([[Vivian Wu]]), who was disowned by the relatives for her "dalliance" with a wealthy |
Nine-year-old An-Mei Hsu ([[Yi Ding]]) is reunited with her long-lost mother ([[Vivian Wu]]), who was disowned by the relatives for her "dalliance" with a wealthy middle-aged man Wu-Tsing shortly after her husband's death, and who arrives to see her dying mother ([[Lucille Soong]]). In order to not lose her again, An-Mei moves out with her mother to Wu-Tsing's house. other two wives live. Later, she learns that the Second Wife ([[Elizabeth Sung]]) tricked An-Mei's mother into being raped and impregnated by Wu-Tsing. When the relatives did not believe An-Mei's mother and kicked her out, she reluctantly became [[Concubinage|the Fourth Wife]]. After she gave birth to a boy, the Second Wife took him away from her and claimed him as her own. One day, An-Mei's mother committed suicide by eating "[[Tangyuan (food)|sticky rice balls]]" laced with [[opium]]. Therefore, Wu-Tsing raised An-Mei and her half-brother as if they were his First Wife's children. |
||
Years later in America, An-Mei's daughter Rose ([[Rosalind Chao]]) dated her boyfriend Ted Jordan ([[Andrew McCarthy]]) since college. When he confronted his aristocratic mother ([[Diane Baker]]) for insulting Rose mainly due to her race, Rose |
Years later in America, An-Mei's daughter Rose ([[Rosalind Chao]]) dated her boyfriend Ted Jordan ([[Andrew McCarthy]]) since college. When he confronted his aristocratic mother ([[Diane Baker]]) for insulting Rose mainly due to her race, Rose was impressed and agreed to marry him. During marriage, however, Rose and Ted became distant from each other, and Rose was submissive to Ted. Having a daughter did not resolve their marital problems. To make matters worse, Ted cheated on her with another woman. An-Mei compares Rose to her own late mother. Therefore, Rose kicks Ted out of the house and takes custody of her daughter. |
||
===Suyuan and June=== |
===Suyuan and June=== |
||
In [[World War II]], when [[Second Sino-Japanese War|the Japanese invaded China]], Suyuan Woo escaped the invasion with her twin baby daughters. When Suyuan became ill during her quest for refuge, the cart broke down, causing the babies to fall. Because she was nearly dying, Suyuan was unable to carry the babies herself and |
In [[World War II]], when [[Second Sino-Japanese War|the Japanese invaded China]], Suyuan Woo escaped the invasion with her twin baby daughters. When Suyuan became ill during her quest for refuge, the cart broke down, causing the babies to fall. Because she was nearly dying, Suyuan was unable to carry the babies herself and abandoned them along with her other possessions, including a photo of herself. Suyuan luckily survived the illness when the village locals picked her up, but she lost her twin daughters and did not know what happened to them. |
||
After she remarried in America, Suyuan had high hopes for her new daughter June, but June constantly |
After she remarried in America, Suyuan had high hopes for her new daughter June, but June constantly failed to succeed. She badly performed a piano in the recital at age nine (Melanie Chang), dropped out of college, and has neither a husband nor a successful long-term career. At one dinner feast from a year before Suyuan's passing, Waverly Jong, June's long-time archenemy and rival whom she is working for, turns down her business ideas, and Suyuan remarks about Waverly's and June's style. The following day, June berates Suyuan for such remarks. However, Suyuan gives her a [[Chinese jade|jade]] necklace as a good charm. To rationalize a such gift, Suyuan recaps that June gave her a good piece of crab and took a bad one last night. |
||
Last [[Easter]] before the farewell party, June received the news from the Club that the long-lost twins are alive. When June could not understand the twins' letter [[Chinese language|written in Chinese]], Lindo purportedly mistranslated the letter to make June believe that the twins "knew" Suyuan's death and their long-lost half-sister June. When the farewell party is over, Lindo confesses that she wrote letters to the twins and then signed [[Chinese name|Suyuan's name]]. June begs Lindo to correct her lies, but Lindo could not because her twin sisters are still expecting the late Suyuan. Because she did not fully know the whole story of Suyuan and her twins, June's father<!--remained unnamed in the film; do not use the name from the novel--> ([[Chao Li-Chi]]) retells it to her and gives her a swan feather that the family possessed for years. June arrives to China, meets her twin sisters, corrects Lindo's errors about the late Suyuan, and embraces the reunion. |
Last [[Easter]] before the farewell party, June received the news from the Club that the long-lost twins are alive. When June could not understand the twins' letter [[Chinese language|written in Chinese]], Lindo purportedly mistranslated the letter to make June believe that the twins "knew" Suyuan's death and their long-lost half-sister June. When the farewell party is over, Lindo confesses that she wrote letters to the twins and then signed [[Chinese name|Suyuan's name]]. June begs Lindo to correct her lies, but Lindo could not because her twin sisters are still expecting the late Suyuan. Because she did not fully know the whole story of Suyuan and her twins, June's father<!--remained unnamed in the film; do not use the name from the novel--> ([[Chao Li-Chi]]) retells it to her and gives her a swan feather that the family possessed for years. June arrives to China, meets her twin sisters, corrects Lindo's errors about the late Suyuan, and embraces the reunion. |
Revision as of 13:20, 23 June 2013
The Joy Luck Club | |
---|---|
Directed by | Wayne Wang |
Screenplay by | Amy Tan & Ronald Bass |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Amir Mokri |
Edited by | Maysie Hoy |
Music by | Rachel Portman |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 139 minutes |
Languages | English Mandarin |
Budget | $10.5 or $10.6 million |
Box office | $32,861,136 |
The Joy Luck Club (Chinese: (Traditional) 喜福會 (Simplified) 喜福会 pinyin: Xǐ Fú Huì) is a 1993 American film about the relationships between Chinese-American women and their Chinese mothers. It is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Amy Tan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bass. The film was produced by Ronald Bass, Amy Tan, Patrick Markey and Wayne Wang, who directed it.
Four older women, all Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco, meet regularly to play mahjong, eat, and tell stories. Each of these women has an adult Chinese-American daughter. The film reveals the hidden pasts of the older women and their daughter's lives shaped by the clash of Chinese and American cultures as they strive to understand their family bonds and one another.
Plot
The Joy Luck Club was formed by four women—Lindo Jong (Tsai Chin), Ying-Ying St. Clair (France Nguyen), An-Mei Hsu (Lisa Lu), and Suyuan Woo (Kieu Chinh)—in San Francisco. The members have mainly played mahjong and told each other's stories over the years. They immigrated from China, remarried, and gave birth to children in America. Suyuan's daughter June (Ming-Na Wen) replaced her when Suyuan died a year before the film's present time. Mothers have high hopes for their daughters' success, but the daughters struggled through "anxiet[ies,] feelings of inadequacy[,] and failure[s]." Throughout the film, mothers and daughters bond by understanding each other and overcoming conflicts.[1]
The film begins with June's short narrative prologue about the swan feather in the opening credits and then her farewell surprise party in San Francisco for June's upcoming reunion with her long-lost twin sisters in China. Among the guests are members of The Joy Luck Club, their daughters, other relatives, and friends. The following characters below narrate their journeys to the audience while they reflect upon their pasts.
Lindo and Waverly
In China, four-year-old Lindo (Ying Wu) is arranged by her mother (Xi Meijuan; 奚美娟) and the matchmaker to be married to Huang Tai Tai's son when she grows up. When Lindo turns fifteen (Irene Ng), her mother sends her to Huang Tai Tai, so Lindo marries Tai Tai's son, Tyan Hu, a pre-pubescent boy who never has interests in her, much to her chagrin. After four years of loveless marriage without children, she casts him as the father of the maid's unborn child, although the maid was impregnated by someone else, and blames the matchmaker for misfortunes brought upon everyone by arranging a bad marriage for greed. Therefore, Lindo's husband becomes the maid's husband and adopts her unborn child, and Lindo moves to Shanghai.
Years later in America, Lindo has a new husband, a son, and a daughter named Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita). Six-to-nine-year-old (Mai Vu) Waverly has won chess rounds. Annoyed by Lindo's excessive praise and word of mouth to people, especially in the streets, Waverly decides to quit chess. When she tries to play it again, Waverly loses one chess round, prompting her to retire from chess. Years later, she has a daughter Shoshana from her Chinese ex-husband and is going to marry a Caucasian fiancé, Rich (Christopher Rich), much to Lindo's chagrin. In order to make Lindo like Rich, Waverly brings him to family dinner, but he ends up failing to impress them especially by improperly using chopsticks and marinating the dish with a sauce, humiliating Waverly. A while later, at the hair salon, Lindo retells her moments with her own mother, declares that she likes Rich very much, and then gives marital blessings to Waverly and Rich, prompting her and Waverly to reconcile with each other.
Ying-Ying and Lena
In China, Ying-Ying St. Clair was faithfully married to Lin-Xiao (Russell Wong) with a baby boy in China until Lin-Xiao abused her and abandoned her for an opera singer. In retalliation, Ying-Ying drowned her baby son in the bathtub. Years after she emigrated to America, she struggled through her traumatic past, frightening her new family, including her daughter Lena (Lauren Tom). After Ying-Ying finally resolved her years of trauma, Lena introduces Ying-Ying to her new apartment with her husband Harold (Michael Paul Chan. Before marriage, Harold was Lena's boss. He indulged in his own tastes like ice cream and male-oriented magazines, and pushed Lena's financial needs aside. Seeing that Lena is unhappy with her marriage, Ying-Ying bumps a table down to the floor in the bedroom and causes the vase to fall and break. When the noise was heard, Lena enters and is ordered by Ying-Ying to divorce Harold and to never return to him again unless he truly loves Lena. When the film ends, Lena has another fiancé and plans to go to Lake Tahoe with him.
An-Mei and Rose
Nine-year-old An-Mei Hsu (Yi Ding) is reunited with her long-lost mother (Vivian Wu), who was disowned by the relatives for her "dalliance" with a wealthy middle-aged man Wu-Tsing shortly after her husband's death, and who arrives to see her dying mother (Lucille Soong). In order to not lose her again, An-Mei moves out with her mother to Wu-Tsing's house. other two wives live. Later, she learns that the Second Wife (Elizabeth Sung) tricked An-Mei's mother into being raped and impregnated by Wu-Tsing. When the relatives did not believe An-Mei's mother and kicked her out, she reluctantly became the Fourth Wife. After she gave birth to a boy, the Second Wife took him away from her and claimed him as her own. One day, An-Mei's mother committed suicide by eating "sticky rice balls" laced with opium. Therefore, Wu-Tsing raised An-Mei and her half-brother as if they were his First Wife's children.
Years later in America, An-Mei's daughter Rose (Rosalind Chao) dated her boyfriend Ted Jordan (Andrew McCarthy) since college. When he confronted his aristocratic mother (Diane Baker) for insulting Rose mainly due to her race, Rose was impressed and agreed to marry him. During marriage, however, Rose and Ted became distant from each other, and Rose was submissive to Ted. Having a daughter did not resolve their marital problems. To make matters worse, Ted cheated on her with another woman. An-Mei compares Rose to her own late mother. Therefore, Rose kicks Ted out of the house and takes custody of her daughter.
Suyuan and June
In World War II, when the Japanese invaded China, Suyuan Woo escaped the invasion with her twin baby daughters. When Suyuan became ill during her quest for refuge, the cart broke down, causing the babies to fall. Because she was nearly dying, Suyuan was unable to carry the babies herself and abandoned them along with her other possessions, including a photo of herself. Suyuan luckily survived the illness when the village locals picked her up, but she lost her twin daughters and did not know what happened to them.
After she remarried in America, Suyuan had high hopes for her new daughter June, but June constantly failed to succeed. She badly performed a piano in the recital at age nine (Melanie Chang), dropped out of college, and has neither a husband nor a successful long-term career. At one dinner feast from a year before Suyuan's passing, Waverly Jong, June's long-time archenemy and rival whom she is working for, turns down her business ideas, and Suyuan remarks about Waverly's and June's style. The following day, June berates Suyuan for such remarks. However, Suyuan gives her a jade necklace as a good charm. To rationalize a such gift, Suyuan recaps that June gave her a good piece of crab and took a bad one last night.
Last Easter before the farewell party, June received the news from the Club that the long-lost twins are alive. When June could not understand the twins' letter written in Chinese, Lindo purportedly mistranslated the letter to make June believe that the twins "knew" Suyuan's death and their long-lost half-sister June. When the farewell party is over, Lindo confesses that she wrote letters to the twins and then signed Suyuan's name. June begs Lindo to correct her lies, but Lindo could not because her twin sisters are still expecting the late Suyuan. Because she did not fully know the whole story of Suyuan and her twins, June's father (Chao Li-Chi) retells it to her and gives her a swan feather that the family possessed for years. June arrives to China, meets her twin sisters, corrects Lindo's errors about the late Suyuan, and embraces the reunion.
Cast
- Mothers
- Kieu Chinh as Suyuan Woo
- Tsai Chin as Lindo Jong
- Age 4: Ying Wu
- Age 15: Irene Ng
- France Nuyen as Ying-Ying St. Clair
- Age 16–25: Yu Feihong (俞飛鴻)
- Lisa Lu as An-Mei Hsu
- Age 4: Emmy Yu
- Age 9: Yi Ding
- Daughters
- Ming-Na Wen as June Woo
- Age 9: Melanie Chang
- Tamlyn Tomita as Waverly Jong
- Age 6–9: Mai Vu
- Lauren Tom as Lena St. Clair
- Rosalind Chao as Rose Hsu Jordan
- Other characters
- Michael Paul Chan as Harold, Lena's Husband
- Andrew McCarthy as Ted Jordan
- Christopher Rich as Rich
- Russell Wong as Lin Xiao
- Xi Meijuan (奚美娟) as Lindo's Mother
- Vivian Wu as An-Mei's Mother
- Chao-Li Chi as June's Father (in the novel, Canning Woo)
- Victor Wong as Old Chong the Piano Teacher
Production
Amy Tan and Academy Award winner Ronald Bass were the screenwriters of the film adaptation. Wayne Wang, who made prior films about Chinese Americans, like his first film Chan Is Missing, was the director.[2] Wang, Tan, Bass, and Patrick Markey were the producers.[3] Oliver Stone and Janet Yang were the executive producers.[4] The production designer was Don Burt.[5] Maysie Hoy was the film editor.[6]
When the novel The Joy Luck Club was released in 1989, Wayne Wangintroduced Amy Tan, the novel's author, at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco, requested by Wang's agent, to the idea of adapting the novel that he admired into the film.[2] Wang and Tan grew concerned about transforming it into a film, and Wang was almost reluctant to make another film about Chinese Americans since Eat a Bowl of Tea.[2][7] There were no known Hollywood movies with an all-Asian cast at the time,[2] and attracting a film about main Chinese characters was risky especially because Asian actors were not well known to the mainstream audiences.[7] Ronald Bass, with whom Wang and Tan teamed up since their meeting at the Hotel Bel-Air in January 1990, analyzed the novel[8] and outlined how to bring it to the screen, like "no single lead character."[9] Because many studios found the novel's "characters and plot [...] too internal and complex" to adapt into a film, Bass added two additional changes without changing the main plot: June Woo's farewell party as mainly the film's present setting and the first-person narration in addition to voiceovers to compress the film's storytelling.[2]
A lot of executives and producers are afraid of voiceovers because they say it distances the audience from the action. I felt differently. It allowed you into the inner heart of the narrator [and] to understand their feelings in a way you could never do in dialogue.[2]
— Ronald Bass
Wayne Wang, Amy Tan, and Ronald Bass teamed up with Ixtlan Corporation, including its staff members, Oliver Stone and Janet Yang, who was the company's vice president and took deep interests in the project.[4] Before the project, Stone and Wang disagreed with each other about their own portrayals of Chinese people.[10] Wang gave Stone's thriller Year of the Dragon a negative word of mouth for portraying Chinese characters as "[mobsters], gangsters, and prostitutes." Stone responded by calling Wang's Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart "boring" for lacking action. When they were able to work together, Stone and Wang reconciled their differences and finally agreed to produce the film together[4] along with other producers.
Carolco Pictures initially agreed to help the project in spring 1990, but the company had fiscal problems, and the filmmakers turned down the contract six months later in fall 1990 over not receiving creative control that they demanded.[9][4] Therefore, Tan, Wang, and Bass themselves outlined the screenplay "in a narrative format" for three days in January 1991.[9] Tan and Bass completed the first draft between August and November 1991.[9] When they returned to Ixtlan on March 1992,[9][4] Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, approved the project, proposed by Stone and Yang, and gave full creative control to the filmmakers.[11][9] In spring 1992, the Hollywood Pictures agreed to assist production and distribute the film.[9][10]
Other studios indicated interest, but Disney was the only one to step up to the line. We were surprised at first but, in retrospect, it makes sense. Joy Luck fits in with Disney's agenda--taking a chance on low-budget projects not dependent on star power. And, since the studio didn't know the subject matter and isn't known for 'character-driven' movies, it was less hands-on than usual. There's no formula into which you can stick this material. This was totally off the map.[4]
— Janet Yang
The filming began at San Francisco in October 1992[9][10] and then at China in February 1993.[9] Amy Tan did not participate in mostly casting, even though Tan's mother, aunts, and four-year-old niece were extras in the movie, as well as Janet Yang's parents.[5] The filming was completed in March 1993.[9] The film's budget totaled to $10.5–10.6 million.[2][7]
Reception
Critical response
Reviews of The Joy Luck Club are mixed. Critic Gene Siskel, who singled out the script and performances, praised the film for presenting images of Asian-Americans outside the narrow range of childhood violinists and spelling bee winners, opining that its main accomplishments were its depiction of how the brutal lives of women in China could continue to influence the lives of their American daughters, and its ability to allow audiences to relate to a large group of Chinese-Americans as individuals.[12][13] Siskel picked it as the seventh of the top ten movies of 1993, while Roger Ebert picked it as the fifth of his own top ten movies of 1993.[14][15]
It was voted a favorite film of 1993 among 1,297 readers of The Arizona Daily Star, resulting to no. 14 out of 253 films of 1993.[16] However, when the film premiered in the United Kingdom, "some British critics found it more schmaltzy than sour-sweet."[17] It was one of 400 nominated movies as of 1998 to be listed as part AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies,[18] but it failed to be listed in both the 1998 list[19] and the 2007 list.[20]
Ty Burr from Entertainment Weekly graded this movie a C+ with ambivalence, writing that the film, which "covers primal issues of abandonment, infanticide, mother love, and self-respect[,] pounds you with pathos [and] is extremely faithful to the novel[.]" Burr found the story "exhausting" and preachy, dissed the "cringingly bald, full of self-help blather" dialogue, and deemed male characters as "perfidies". However, he found the acting "generous [and] intelligent", and picked the segment of Rosalind Chao and Lisa Lu as "the only one that feels genuinely cinematic [yet] too late to save the movie[.]"[21]
David Denby from The New Yorker called the film "a superb achievement" with the director's "impressive visual skills". However, Denby criticized the film by writing, "[I]ts tone is relentlessly earnest, its meanings limited or wanly inspirational, and my emotions, rather than well[ed] up, remained small." Moreover, he deemed men in the film as "caricatures" and the mothers' attempts to "teach [their daughters] the lesson of self-worth" as inadequate and pretentious.[22]
Film critic Emanuel Levy graded this film a B+, calling it "emotionally heart-rending study of generational gap–but also continuity–between Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters" and a visually well-done propaganda for "cultural diversity". However, he also found it too long with "too many stories and [..] flashbacks" and too mainstream and broad to be an art film, especially when it was screened in "prestigious film festivals."[23] Matt Hinrichs from DVD Talk rated this film four and a half stars out of five, commenting, "Despite the cultural and gender-specific nature of the story, [..] there are a lot of overriding themes explored here (such as the daughters fearing that they're repeating their moms' mistakes) that have a universal scope and appeal."[24]
Pre-release and box office
In April 1993, Amy Tan watched the rough cut of The Joy Luck Club and gave praise, considering it an emotional tear-jerker.[6] It was thereafter screened to a more sophisticated audience in mid-May, to a broader audience a few weeks later,[10] to the Asian American Journalists Association on the week of August 16, at the Telluride Film Festival on the Labor Day weekend, and at the Toronto Film Festival in mid-September.[25] The film opened to theatres at limited release in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in September. It slowly expanded to several hundred theatres by October.[25] The film earned nearly $33 million in the United States.[26]
Awards and nominations
Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|
BAFTA Award, 1995 | Best Screenplay, Adapted | Amy Tan, Ronald Bass | Nominated | [27] |
Casting Society of America, 1994 | Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama | Risa Bramon Garcia, Heidi Levitt | Won | |
National Board of Review, 1993 | Top Ten Film | Won | ||
USC Scripter Award, 1994 | Amy Tan, Ronald Bass | Nominated | [28] | |
Writers Guild of America, 1994 | Best Screenplay | Amy Tan, Ronald Bass | Nominated | [29] |
Young Artist Award, 1994 | Best Actress Under Ten | Melanie Chang | Nominated | [30] |
Best Actress Under Ten | Mai Vu | Nominated | ||
Best Youth Actress | Irene Ng | Nominated |
Crew
- Directed by: Wayne Wang
- Screenplay by: Amy Tan & Ronald Bass
- Produced by: Patrick Markey, Wayne Wang, Amy Tan, & Ronald Bass
Soundtrack
The Joy Luck Club: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a soundtrack album of the film, released by Hollywood Records on September 28, 1993. The soundtrack was composed and produced by Rachel Portman, co-orchestrated by Portman and John Neufeld, conducted by J. A. C. Redford.[31] Chinese instruments were used as well as Western music. Filmtracks website and Jason Ankeny from Allmusic gave the soundtrack four stars out of five.[31][32] Filmtracks found the music cues not as "oustanding" as Portman's "other singular achievements in her career[,]" but the website noted that the whole album "never becomes too repetitive to enjoy[,]" even when the music cues lack diversity from each other.[31]
All tracks are composed by Rachel Portman, unless otherwise noted. Durations are in courtesy of Allmusic:[32]
- The Story of the Swan — 2:30
- Escape from Guilin — 5:35
- Lindo's Story — 1:50
- Best Quality Heart — 2:27
- Upturned Chairs — 1:58
- June Meets Her Twin Sisters — 2:58
- His Little Spirit Had Flown Away — 4:33
- An-Mei's Mother Returns — 1:50
- Most Important Sacrifice — 2:44
- Tiger in the Trees — 3:23
- Lindo's Last Night — 3:32
- The Babies — 3:57
- An-Mei's New Home — 2:38
- Swan Feather — 0:51
- End Titles — 3:15 (David Arnold / Marvin Hamlisch / Rachel Portman)
Notes
- ^ Multicultural films: a reference guide. Greenwood Press. 2005. pp. 50–51.
{{cite book}}
: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=
(help) - ^ a b c d e f g Weinraub 1993, p. 1 [1]
- ^ Tan 1993, p. 4 [2]
- ^ a b c d e f Dutka 1993, p. 1 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDutka1993 (help) [3]
- ^ a b Tan 1993, p. 7 [4]
- ^ a b Tan 1993, p. 8 [5]
- ^ a b c Liu 2000, p. 95 [6]
- ^ Tan 1993, p. 2 [7]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tan 1993, p. 3 [8]
- ^ a b c d Dutka, Elaine (June 27, 1993). "A look at Hollywood and the movies: Mr. Stone, Meet Mr. Wang: The Joy Luck Club Gets Backing from a Very Unexpected Source". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Weinraub 1993, p. 2 [9]
- ^ Siskel, Gene (January 25, 1997). "The Joy of Watching 'The Joy Luck Club'". TV Guide. p. 18.
- ^ Siskel, Gene (February 14, 1997). "A culture, et cetera: Beyond Stereotypes". The Washington Times. p. A2. Record no. M00170020139.
- ^ "'Siskel and Ebert' Top Ten Films (1980-1998): 1993". Gene Siskel: The Official Site. Estate of Gene Siskel.
- ^ Greig, Jane S. (February 25, 1994). "List tops list of Siskel-Ebert". Austin American-Statesman. p. F1. Record no. AAS280292.
- ^ "Readers pick the year's best in film". The Arizona Daily Star. p. 1E. Record no. arch_8568
- ^ Johnson, Sheila (11 March 1994). "The tears of living dangerously: Wayne Wang called Oliver Stone's films evil; Stone called Wang's boring. The novelist Amy Tan brought them together". The Independent.
- ^ Kuklenski, Valerie (November 20, 1997). "Hollywood's Greatest - AFI to List 100 Best Films". Daily News of Los Angeles. p. N1. Record no. 9711200004. See complete list
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (1998)". American Film Institute.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition (2007)". American Film Institute. See complete nominations list of 2007
- ^ Burr, Ty (September 17, 1993). "Movie Review: The Joy Luck Club (1993)". Entertainment Weekly. No. 188.
- ^ Denby, David (September 20, 1993). The Good Enough Mother. pp. 64–65.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ Levy, Emanuel. "Joy Luck Club, The". Emanuel Levy: Cinema 24/7.
- ^ Hinrichs, Matt (December 21, 2012). "The Joy Luck Club (Blu-ray)".
- ^ a b Dutka 1993, p. 2 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDutka1993 (help) [10]
- ^ Liu 2000, p. 96 [11]
- ^ "BAFTA Film Awards: Adapted Screenplay in 1995". Britsh Academy of Film and Television Arts.
- ^ Washburn, Lisa, ed. (January 12, 1994). "Scripter given to Schindler's List". Daily Trojan. Vol. 122, no. 2. University of Southern California.
- ^ "Joy Luck Club, The: Awards". Writers Guild Foundation.
- ^ "Fifteenth Annual Youth in Film Awards: 1992-1993". Young Artist Awards.
- ^ a b c "The Joy Luck Club review". FilmTracks. April 23, 2004.
- ^ a b Ankeny, Jason. "The Joy Luck Club [Original Soundtrack]". Allmusic.
References
- Dutka, Elaine (August 31, 1993). "Joy Luck: A New Challenge in Disney's World". Los Angeles Times.
{{cite news}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Liu, Sandra (2000). "Negotiating the Meaning of Access: Wayne Wang's Contingent Film Practice". Countervisions: Asian-American Film Criticism. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-775-8.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) For paperback: ISBN 1-56639-776-6. - Weinraub, Bernard (September 5, 1993). "FILM; 'I Didn't Want To Do Another Chinese Movie'". The New York Times.
{{cite news}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Tan, Amy (September 5, 1993). "COVER STORY: Joy, Luck and Hollywood". Los Angeles Times.
{{cite news}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)