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.