Director Wayne Wang and screenwriter Ronald Bass effectively interweave sixteen mother-daughter tales in their silken film version of Amy Tan's best-selling novel about the clash between generations. The film takes place in present-day San Francisco, concentrating on a group of late-middle-aged Chinese women. Ever since arriving in the United States after World War II, the women have gathered weekly to play mah-jongg and to tell stories, regaling each other with tales of their children and
grandchildren, giving each other a sense of hope and renewal in the midst of poverty and hardship. The Joy Luck Club is made up of four women -- Suyuan (Kieu Chinh), Lindo (Tsai Chin), Ying Ying (France Nuyen), and An Mei (Lisa Lu). But when Suyuan dies, the three surviving members invite Suyuan's daughter June (Ming-Na Wen) to take her place. Along with the daughters of the other members -- Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita), Lena (Lauren Tom), and Rose (Rosalind Chao) -- June is a Chinese-American with only a passing interest in her rich cultural heritage. But through vignettes that switch back and forth in time, the daughters begin to appreciate the struggles of their mothers to start their families in the optimistic promise of the United States. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
Four different actresses play the aunties in their youth, which sometimes keeps us struggling to keep the stories straight. That we do is a tribute to the power of Tan's theme about the miscommunication that separates one generation from another.
At the end of the press screening, Disney's publicists handed out Kleenex to the critics, an effective marketing tool but one that trivilaize the picture, relegating it to the status of a three-handkerchief women's melodrama.
A very long movie about 4 Chinese Women, one who is dead and the other 3 who were best friends, also stories about each one's daughters telling of events in there lives and there daughters. It's enjoyable and interesting. 4 Stars
January 14, 2011
Bruce Bruce
Super Reviewer
Brilliant ensemble cast with seamless representation of intertwining stories. I know that as a Chinese-American, I should find these stories identifiable - and I do to some extent - but I also think they end melodramatically for a happy effect. I don't share the same catharsis.
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