The Joy Luck Club | Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin

The Joy Luck Club | Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin | A Movie Remembered After 13 Years

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The Joy Luck Club

	The Joy Luck Club Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin Walt Disney Video, 1995 average customer review:based on 151 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Everytime I watch i cry!

Being first generation in an Asian American family, my sisters and i can really relate to this movie. We watch it about once a year with our mom (who is Chinese) and we always laugh and cry. My favorite part is the scene with Waverly bringing home her boyfriend to meet the family and how the cultures clash. We made our boyfriends (who are all white) watch that scene especially so they know how to act. The part that always brings the most tears is the scene with June and her mom after the crab leg supper. Very typical of Asian American families espcially if you are the first born of immigrants. Recommended for all mothers and daughters to watch.

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A Movie Remembered After 13 Years

The Joy Luck Club had stayed with me all these years even when I examine my own personal life in the current time. I had read the book when I was in the seventh grade and had a remarkable teacher. She was Mrs. Lattimer (and yes, she was white), a Harvard graduate teaching at an impoverished neighborhood from where I used to grow up. Sometimes, I wondered why she never taught at one of the more prestige middle schools even right now. Still, it was a book that we middle school students had to read and analyze. The class was actually an advance seminar class. Even to this day, I am surprised that we middle school students got a chance to watch a rated "R" movie. It was a "never" to watch a rated "R" movie. The only movies that I can remember watching that were rated "R" were movies in my former AP english literature class-Othello (which actually contained nudity). It's funny because from what I recall, I had couple of friends from the regular classes and they have never seen a rated "R" movie shown in an educational setting. Perhaps being in a gifted class really did come with all the special privileges(even though I was never identified as "gifted"; I was recommended). It just seemed that every book my classmates and I read in AP english could never resist incorporating some kind of sexual element. Indeed, the literary works were very great. And of course, sex is also shown in this movie.

Besides the entertainment value of this movie as well as the complex relationships between the mothers and the daughters, it was certainly a movie about survival. Presently, as I sit in my comfortable room, I could only relate to the need to survive and live a fulfilling life, a life that is so wonderful and full of bliss. Life is about survival. The word "survival" will always vibrate and echoe inside my ears and in my mind. It is a word that summarizes the very essence of life. When you're child or an adolescent, it is about surviving through school. Once you graduate from high school, a new level of survival comes into play; and that is to make a living. Let's face it. Life really does center around making a living. We all need and want to live a life free from having to live a low standard of living like poverty and shortages of healthy food and crapy material possessions. Virtually everyone desires to have a career and be financially stable. In times where the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer, insecure feelings arise and stays in tact somewhere in our minds. The desire to be married to wonderful wife or husband, the desire to feel safe living in a dream home, the desire to not feel frieghtened when you are heavily sick, the desire to give your children and your grandchildren the best possible life, and the list can go on forever...-Indeed, let's face it, MONEY MAY NOT BE EVERYTHING, BUT IT IS CERTAINLY SOMETHING WE ALL STRIVE TO OBTAIN IN ITS VARIOUS FORMS. Money does have its value contrary to the popular belief that you hear about how money isn't everything or how money can't buy love. Like the feather of the swan-This feather may look like any other feather and seem worthless, but "it comes from a far away distance and contains all of my good intentions."

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Amy Tan's Wonderful Work brought to life

This movie has stayed with me since I first saw it almost 8 years ago. I'm very happy to have found it to add to my collection. This movie explores the complex relationship between mother and daughter. And though the story focuses on Chinese mothers and their American daughters, the struggles are timeless and so is the love.

A Great Movie, BUT...........!

This movie is a beautiful story about four Chinese women and their four American-born daughters. The stories deal with identity, survival, sacrifice, love, respect, pride, and forgiveness. I cried at the end of this film because this movie stresses the importance of mother and daughter relationship. We carry the spirits of our fore mothers and it dictates what we do with our lives.

I have one negative comment to make and it involves the image of Asian men. After drying my tears from watching this movie, something struck me hard because I felt this movie made Asian men look bad. Yes, there were two positive Asian male characters in this movie. There was the stereotypical Asian father who played June's father (one of the daughters). Then there was Lena's second husband, but he came across as a token. It felt like the producers threw him in to keep the Asian community from getting upset, because there was no story development about him and Lena's life and their love, but you knew EXACTLY what happened with Waverly, Rose, and their white husbands.

The one character that really bugged me was Rose. Her husband cheated on her because she was too much of an Asian wife. She put her husband's needs before hers and as a result, he wanted to leave her, which she tries to stop. It is not until she learned the story of her grandmother that she understands her "worth". After learning her worth, she and her husband stays together. The movie is blaming HER and her culture for why her husband cheated, but blames Asian men when they do the same thing (am I the only one that sees this?).

I am a black female (how odd for a black woman to be defending Asian men) and I have studied the Asia culture, so I know this movie is bias. What strikes me as wrong is this movie is often compared to "The Color Purple". At least the black men (like Mister) are allowed to change to become better men and the women did not rely on men (of any race) for their happiness as this movie does. There is nothing wrong with finding happiness with a man (I am a traditionalist in that perspective), but Rose needs to dig deeper to find out why she is so needy. If you want a more balanced portrayal of Asian women and men, check out the movies from Asia. However, this movie is still a MUST SEE!

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A wonderfull heartbreaking and joyfull film

I was told to watch this film after I told someone I loved Memoris of a Geisha and I really liked this one. Told through mostly flashbacks the film tells the story of 4 elederly chinese women as they look back on there lives in China and then when they live in the us, the story then goes on to there children and they show how they live there lives. The film shows how the mothers are all in there children and then show the heartbreak and joyfullness of family. The story is wonderfull and will get you hooked from begging to end. The acting is great from each actress but the flawe is the film is long and I was ready for it to end. But overall it's agreat film to be watch by everyone.

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