The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Product Information
Product Details: The Joy Luck Club (1993)
- Edition:
- DVD . See other editions
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Release Date:
- 06/04/2002
- UPC:
- 786936182583
- Directed by:
- Wayne Wang
- Featuring:
- Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen. See all cast
Synopsis: The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Synopis: 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.Features: The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Features: 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
User Reviews: Joy Luck Club
-
Missing the point
, November 27, 2001Reviewer: duaimem - See all duaimem's reviews -
Re-enforcing stereotype
, August 14, 2007Reviewer: djljlsl - See all djljlsl's reviewsPros: Asian people on TV
Cons: RE-enforcing stereotype. Adapted for white audience. Doesn't do the Asian community justice. Equating white with independence.
The net effect of the Joy Luck Club -- which could more aptly have been titled Joyless, Luckless Club -- is to reinforce existing strereotypes in which Asian life is miserable and cheap and Asian women are plentiful and available in the absence of virile, sympathetic Asian males. What's more, it subtly supports the notion that the faults of white males are superficial, even cute, and easily correctible (i.e., learning to use chopsticks, learning not to slop soy sauce on the mother-in-law's culinary masterpiece) while Asian males are incorrigible sadists and hopeless geeks. An Asian girl -- or boy for that matter -- would likely come away from the movie thinking that anything is preferable to marrying an Asian and suffering unrelenting misery.
All this is made worse by the fact that the movie is directed by an Asian American though Tan's book was adapted for the screen by a veteran Hollywood screenwriter who probably had much to do with making the changes calculated to make the movie play to white audiences (like making the miserable tightwad, a White in the book, an Asian). Putting Wayne Wang's name on the thing as director says it's okay to look at Asians as a race of women without men. ...
Compare New Prices: Joy Luck Club
| Store | Price / Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| $9.99 |
Calculate Total Price
Price
+ Tax + Shipping
= Total Price
|
Go to Store
|
|
| $4.99 |
Go to Store
|
||
| ModernRock.com | $8.89 |
Go to Store
|
|
Compare Used and Refurb Prices: Joy Luck Club
| Store | Price / Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| $10.49 |
Calculate Total Price
Price
+ Tax + Shipping
= Total Price
|
Go to Store
|
|
After reading everyone else's reviews, I think many (though not all) have missed the message. The movie isn't about stereotypes of Asians. The movie is a story about the mother-daughter bond across generations and cultures. For those hung-up on the stereotype issue, I think the stereotype that you think you see is a negative view of men in general, and not specific to Asian men (the stereotype of the "dumb" American at the dinner table and the cheating American husband as well as the abusive Chinese men were part of this movie). Unfortunately there is some miniscule truth in stereotypes or else they wouldn't be stereotypes at all. ...