I read Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club in high school and on my leisure time, and became one of my favorites. It is a combination of fantastic stories about four young Chinese women learning the walks of life from their mothers, whose life stories of love, hate, sacrifices, honor and war are retold in the novel and powerfully depicted in this movie, which are acted out through a series of flashbacks from the daughters' present day lives to their mothers' past in feudal China.
Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom and Rosalind Chao play the four daughters and each gave a powerful and realistic performance in their respective roles. The same goes with their on-screen mothers, played wonderfully by Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen and Lisa Lu. Their mother-daughter and friend-friend chemistry together were inspiring and a joy to watch and experience.
This movie made me appreciate my Chinese heritage as it delves upon another's struggles and perseverance through the culture's past, present and future, and explore how one can cement his/her relationship with one's child or parent and learn from each other to better their lives. The scene where Kieu Chieh's character Suyuan flees China from the Japanese occupation, pushing a cart with her newborn twin daughters and a handful of her belongings in it was such a strong scene that it put tears to my eyes. The cart collapsing with her daughters and belongings spilling out furthered the emotion. Then, the following part where Suyuan had to make the difficult decision to leave her daughters behind, knowing she couldn't care for them, and putting some jewelry and a black & white picture of herself with the baby bundle finally sent me crying my eyes out (I have never had this much years in any of the movies I've seen).
Kudos to Amy Tan for writing such a powerful novel and kudos to Director Wayne Wang for directing such a beautiful movie and cast. I enjoyed every minute of it and I highly recommend it to anyone.
Grade A
Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom and Rosalind Chao play the four daughters and each gave a powerful and realistic performance in their respective roles. The same goes with their on-screen mothers, played wonderfully by Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen and Lisa Lu. Their mother-daughter and friend-friend chemistry together were inspiring and a joy to watch and experience.
This movie made me appreciate my Chinese heritage as it delves upon another's struggles and perseverance through the culture's past, present and future, and explore how one can cement his/her relationship with one's child or parent and learn from each other to better their lives. The scene where Kieu Chieh's character Suyuan flees China from the Japanese occupation, pushing a cart with her newborn twin daughters and a handful of her belongings in it was such a strong scene that it put tears to my eyes. The cart collapsing with her daughters and belongings spilling out furthered the emotion. Then, the following part where Suyuan had to make the difficult decision to leave her daughters behind, knowing she couldn't care for them, and putting some jewelry and a black & white picture of herself with the baby bundle finally sent me crying my eyes out (I have never had this much years in any of the movies I've seen).
Kudos to Amy Tan for writing such a powerful novel and kudos to Director Wayne Wang for directing such a beautiful movie and cast. I enjoyed every minute of it and I highly recommend it to anyone.
Grade A