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

Release Year: 1993

Rating: 7.3/10 (9,209 voted)

Critic's Score: 84/100

Director: Wayne Wang

Stars: Tamlyn Tomita, Rosalind Chao, Kieu Chinh

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.

Writers: Amy Tan, Amy Tan

Cast:
Kieu Chinh - Suyuan - The Mother
Tsai Chin - Lindo - The Mother
France Nuyen - Ying-Ying - The Mother
Lisa Lu - An-Mei - The Mother
Ming-Na - June - The Daughter (as Ming-Na Wen)
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)

Release Date: 25 November 1993

Filming Locations: China

Box Office Details

Budget: $11,000,000 (estimated)

Gross: $32,861,136 (USA)

Runtime: 139 min

Trivia:
Towards the end of the movie, June can be seen showing an elderly couple out after the party. She bids farewell to them using their names, Daisy and T.C. Daisy is the American name of Amy Tan's (the author) mother and T.C. was the name of her mother's partner.

Goofs:
Factual errors: When Lindo is at the beauty parlor, her daughter tells the hairstylist to color and perm Lindo's hair. Most stylists will agree that these two procedures should never be done during the same visit.

Quotes:
Ying Ying: All around this house I see the signs. My daughter looks but she does not see. This is a house that will break into pieces. It's not too late. All my pains, my regrets, I will gather them together. My daughter will hear me calling, even though I've said no words...

Glorious Film making

Rating: 9/10

Every time I look back at movies through the years, I find myself wondering why The Joy Luck Club did not make a huge splash in the awards circle. The film is one of the BEST FILMS of my lifetime. It will always represent to me, the dream that is America.

I think it's because the emotions of the film are so universal, that I count it as one of my favorites. I am male, I am hispanic, I came to the United States when I was 13 years old. I felt alienated, lonely and hopeless, could anyone really understand all that I wanted to do, all that I wanted to become. How do you reconcile your cultural roots, with wanting to fit into the American Dream.

I try to watch The JOY LUCK CLUB as often as I try to read the book. Because it reminds me that we are all connected in so many ways. That our dreams and desires are not all together different. that Love reaches beyond race, beyond politics and beyond time.

when I saw this film I thought, The Academy of Arts and Sciences would gush over it. But it never reached the kind of acclaim it truly deserved. I think it's because most film makers field of personal experience limited in reaching and feeling. Most of the Academy comes from back grounds that didn't see struggle, that doesn't see the world in unison, but in carefully separated categories. This to them was not a human experience film, it was a film for a minority group. But, while The JOY LUCK CLUB is life affirming to some, to those who have lived the similarities, it is life changing.

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