The Joy Luck Club (1993)

The Joy Luck Club is based on the book by Amy Tan with the same name. The story is about four Chinese immigrant mothers and the relationships that they have with their daughters June, Waverly, Lena, and Rose. The mothers, Su Yuan, Lindo, Ying Ying, and An-Mei were all born and raised in China. Once a week they get together and play mahjong and drink tea in hopes to be lucky in their lives. The movie starts off where one of the mothers, Su Yuan, passed away. Her story is told by her daughter June. Various flashbacks occur in the film to give us an idea of the other women. When Su Yuan was in China when the Japanese invaded China, she got married and had twin baby girls with another man. She was forced to evacuate but she gets distracted and worries that if she dies, it will bring bad luck on her babies and they won't be rescued. She ends up leaving them on the side of the road with a note that asks the person that finds them to contact their father. Eventually, she winds up in America and remarries, and has her daughter June. Su Yuan has June play the piano in hopes that she has a gift and will be a child star. However, June doesn't want to do that. June doesn't really understand her mother at all. 

Lindo was given away by her mother when she was sixteen because of an arranged marriage to a boy who was sixteen as well. After problems with her husband and her marriage she escapes to America, remarries, has a daughter, Waverly, and becomes Su Yuan's best friend. The two women raise their children together, and Waverly and June grow up as rivals. Lindo makes Waverly into a chess champion, and has very high expectations for her. Waverly thinks her mom is using her for being a champion and draws attention to herself, so she quits chess and never plays again. Ying-ying grew up as the quiet one and suffered through an abusive relationship. In the film to get revenge, Ying-ying, drowns her own son. Her husband dies, and she goes to America with her new husband. They have a daughter, Lena, who grows up like her mother, quiet and unable to express herself. Lena has a husband who is financially stable but ends up divorcing him and meeting someone new. An-Mei's mother was raped and leaves An-Mei to be raised by her grandparents. An-Mei's mother commits suicide by eating opium before New Year's. When An-Mei moves to America, she marries and has a daughter, Rose. Rose marries a white man in spite of his racist mother. She is dependent on him and he makes all of the decisions in their relationship. However, he ends up losing interest in her and having an affair. Rose and he decide to split their property and custody of their daughter, until Rose learns to stand up for herself. All of these flashbacks occur during a farewell party for June, who will go to China to meet the lost twins, who are now grown women and want to meet their mother. However, they are unaware that their mother has died, so June must be the one to tell them. She goes to China and tells them that their mother has died, but that she came to take her mother's place. There are various themes in the film including: transformation, friendship, language and communication, family, women and femininity, and identity. 

What I liked about the film was that the entire cast was Asian American. There were very few white people in the film, despite the two husbands of Waverly and Rose. The Joy Luck Club has a talented cast whom are relatively unknown Asian-American women and it never loses sight of its plot and solid all the way through. It has a compelling story about love and family and moms and daughters. It came as a surprise as a viewer how emotional it is. Some terrible things happen in the film and you feel bad for the characters. What really got me was the scene when Ying-Ying drowns her son. You know deep down inside that she didn't want to do that. It was also hard to watch Su Yuan leave her twins on the side of the road.

Red Doors

Red Doors is about a family that have lost their emotional connections to each other. It deals with a  Chinese-American family where the parents and children cut off from each other and are struggling to reconnect. The title of the film symbolizes the doors of the family's home. In the Chinese culture, red doors are supposed to be lucky which makes this ironic because in the film the family is distant and unhappy. The story starts off with Ed Wong who has just retired and is planning to leave his wife and three grown daughters to get a sense of meaning in his life. His daughters are grown and no longer need him and he has grown old so his job doesn't need him either. Ed goes through depression and has attempted suicide numerous times but he always gets interrupted. 

The oldest daughter Samantha lives the American dream. She has a successful corporate job and is engaged to a prominent businessman, and they live in a beautiful house. When she reaches her 30th birthday she realizes how dissatisfied she is with her life. She seems to be on the wrong path. In the film she reconnects with her ex boyfriend from high school who is now a music teacher at the high school they went to. He reminds her of the dream she had to become a ballet dancer. At this point she is confused on whether she should continue to be successful but live an empty life, or take the fork in the road down the path not traveled. The middle daughter Julie has always been the shy and quiet one. She is in her 4th year of medical school, and takes ballroom dance lessons as her creative outlet. She is really focused on her work at the hospital and is too shy to make connections. She ends up meeting Mia Scarlett, who happens to be a famous actress. Julie is the only person who doesn't go crazy all over Mia, and when she helps Mia after the actress loses it watching a surgery they two become friends and then lovers. Mia tries to protect Julie from the media because she has to maintain her wild girl reputation who has a lot of lovers. She and Julie clash over the way Mia presents herself and Mia hides her relationship with Julie which she doesn't like. Kathy is the youngest daughter who is a senior in high school who is a hip hop dancer. She is rebellious and participates in a game of prank warfare with her crush Simon, her next door neighbor and sworn enemy. They are attracted to each other and instead of communicating their feelings, they engage in these pranks towards one another that get dangerous. Kathy, believes that her family doesn't care what she is doing because she is a hip hop dancer. 

The film moves us gracefully along through the story as each daughter faces their fears and issues. Sam tracks her father down at the upstate New York Buddhist monastery where he has been. Each of the Wongs will find their way, but how they get there, and the paths they take, are what makes Red Doors funny, warm and engaging. You don't have to be Asian-American to appreciate this film because it could be your family, or the family of anyone you know and that's what makes the film appealing to watch .The Wongs may be Chinese-American, but their problems are not, and that gives the Red Doors a universal appeal.