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daughterofhecata · 2 years ago

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READING LIST 2022

Faye Kellerman: Die Schwingen des Todes [org. title: Stone Kiss]

Andreas Ruch: Die Drei ??? und die Geisterfrau

Austin Chant: Peter Darling

Christoph Dittert: Die Drei ??? und das kalte Auge

Faye Kellerman: Doch jeder tötet, was er liebt [org. title: Justice]

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? Eine schreckliche Bescherung

Jonathan L. Howard: Johannes Cabal #1. Seelenfänger. [org. title: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer]

Hendrik Buchna, Marco Sonnleitner, u.a.: Die Drei ??? und der Zeitgeist

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? Die Rache des Untoten

Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar

Jack Kerouac: On the Road

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? Der tote Mönch

Theodor Michael: Deutsch Sein und Schwarz Dazu. Erinnerungen eines Afro-Deutschen.

Don Winslow: Corruption [org. title: The Force]

Christoph Dittert: Die Drei ??? und die brennende Stadt

Jonathan Stroud: Bartimäus #1. Das Amulett von Samarkand. [org. title: The Bartimaeus Trilogy #1. The Amulet of Samarkand.] (reread)

Ben Nevis: Die Drei ??? Das düstere Vermächtnis

Anne Frank: Tagebuch der Anne Frank. 14. Juni 1942 bis 1. August 1944. [org. title: Het Achterhuis]

Franz Kafka: Das Urteil (reread)

Alexander Wolkow: Zauberland-Reihe #1. Der Zauberer der Smaragdenstadt. [org. title: Волшебник изумрудного города] (reread)

Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Jekatyerina Dunajeva: Re-Thinking Roma Resistance throughout History: Recounting Stories of Strength and Bravery.

Hendrik Buchna: Die Drei ??? Manuskript des Satans

André Marx: Die Drei ??? Im Wald der Gefahren

Jonathan Kellerman: City of the Dead. An Alex Delaware Novel.

Iny Lorentz: Die Feuerbraut (reread)

Don Winslow: Broken

Christina Henry: Lost Boy

Xiran Jay Zhao: Iron Widow

Kari Erlhoff: Die Drei ??? Im Netz der Lügen

Jiří Weil: Leben mit dem Stern [org. title: Život s hvězdou]

Jiří Weil: Klagegesang für 77297 Opfer [org. title: Žalozpěv za 77297 obětí]

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? und der Feuergeist

Václav Havel: Vernissage [org. title: Vernisáž]

Václav Havel: Protest

Luke Arnold: Fetch Phillips Archives #3. One Foot in the Fade.

K. Ancrum: Darling

Bożena Keff: Ein Stück über Mutter und Vaterland [org. title: Utwór o Matce i Ojczyźnie]

Tess Gerritsen: Die Chirurgin [org. title: The Surgeon]

Rainer Maria Rilke: Gedichte [herausgegeben vom Hamburger Lesehefte Verlag]

Tess Gerritsen: Der Meister [org. title: The Apprentice]

Jennifer Giesbrecht: The Monster of Elendhaven

Jonathan L. Howard: Johannes Cabal #2. Totenbeschwörer. [org. title: Johannes Cabal the Detective]

Justin Fenton: We Own This City. A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption.

Ben Nevis: Die Drei ??? Auf tödlichem Kurs

Maria Konopnicka: Der Danziger Mendel [org. title: Mendel Gdański]

Anne Stuart: Still Lake (reread)

Georg Trakl: Gedichte [Auswahl von Marie Luise Kaschnitz]

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? und das Tuch der Toten

Judith Butler: Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.

Jenny-Mai Nuyen: Heartware

Akram El-Bahay: Die Bibliothek der Flüsternden Schatten #1. Bücherstadt.

Christoph Dittert: Die Drei ??? Geheimnisvolle Botschaften

Jilliane Hoffman: Morpheus [org. title: Last Witness] (reread)

Leslie Feinberg: Stone Butch Blues

Kari Erlhoff: Die Drei ??? und die Gesetzlosen

Akram El-Bahay: Die Bibliothek der Flüsternden Schatten #2. Bücherkönig.

Marco Sonnleitner: Die Drei ??? und der Knochenmann

Akram El-Bahay: Die Bibliothek der Flüsternden Schatten #3. Bücherkrieg.

Christoph Dittert: Die Drei ??? Der gefiederte Schrecken

Konstantin Wecker: Auf der Suche nach dem Wunderbaren. Poesie ist Widerstand.

Ocean Vuong: On Earth We‘re Briefly Gorgeous

Evelyn Boyd: Die Drei ??? und die Gefängnisinsel

Angela Davis: Are Prisons Obsolete?

Konstantin Wecker: Jeder Augenblick ist ewig. Die Gedichte.

Scaachi Koul: One Day We‘ll All Be Dead And None Of This Will Matter.

Jonathan L. Howard: Johannes Cabal #3. Das Institut für Angst und Schrecken. [org. title: The Fear Institute]

Kristen Roupenian: Cat Person

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

Vincent Burmeister, David Schraven: Unter Krähen. Aus dem Inneren der Republik.

Elfriede Jelinek, Nicolas Mahler: Der fremde! störenfried der ruhe eines sommerabends der ruhe eines friedhofs.

Evelyn Boyd: Die Drei ??? Wüstenfieber

Alice Walker: Everyday Use

Jan Drda: Das höhere Prinzip [org. title: Vyšši princip]

Jerzy Andrzejewski: Warschauer Karwoche [org. title: Wielki tydzień]

Josef Bor: Theresienstädter Requiem [org. title: Terezínské Rekviem]

Sandra Cisneros: Never Marry a Mexican

Lydia Benecke: Sadisten. Tödliche Liebe – Geschichten aus dem wahren Leben.

Ben Nevis: Die Drei ??? und die Teufelsklippe

James Ellroy: L.A. Confidential. Stadt der Teufel. [org. title: L.A. Confidential]

Tadeusz Słobodzianek: Unsere Klasse. Eine Geschichte in XIV Lektionen. [org. title: Nasza klasa]

#end of 2022 #reading list #bookblr #readblr #one entry less than last year #but i cheated and added some short stories i read for american studies #don't have time rn for more analyses #most other end of the year stuff (my own fic list and end of the year fic rec list) will come some time early next year #i got absolutely no time for anything atm because we're visiting exended family and there's always something happening #anyway maybe someone's interested in this

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erla-film · 1 year ago

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#film #movie #a discovery of witches #1 évad 1 rész #teljes film magyarul #romantikus film magyarul #misztikus film magyarul

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tv-moments · 4 years ago

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Lupin

Season 1, “Chapter 1”

Director: Louis Leterrier

DoP: Christophe Nuyens

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lifeisacinemahall · 4 years ago

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‘Tandav’, ‘Lupin’, ‘Tribhanga’ reviews

Tandav Beneath a silk coiffure is a plot that’s essentially bald, shorn of ideas or character interests. That, unfortunately, is the truth about Tandav (a divine dance), the series that’s made headlines for reasons other than its quality. (That those reasons are absolutely the first nail in a budding OTT space’s coffin is cause for worry and another piece.) Saif Ali Khan plays Samar Pratap…

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whileiamdying · 2 years ago

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‘The Joy Luck Club,’ Groundbreaking Asian American Film, Is Getting a Sequel

Everett Collection

By Patrick Frater Oct 12, 2022 8:30am PT

Novelist Amy Tan and Oscar-winning “Rain Man” screenwriter Ron Bass are on board to deliver a sequel to “The Joy Luck Club,” the 1993 movie that broke new ground for Asian American representation.

The new film, “Joy Luck Club 2,” is set up at Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group, with Ashok and Priya Amritraj producing alongside Tan, Bass and Jeff Kleeman. A director hasn’t been announced yet.

The original “Joy Luck Club,” directed by Wayne Wang, was an epic, multigenerational saga of Chinese and Chinese-American mothers and daughters, whose histories, stories and lives interweave as they navigate life. Club members included characters played by Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lisa Lu and Kieu Chinh. The ensemble cast also included Tamlyn Tomita, Rosalind Chao and Russell Wong.

In “Joy Luck Club 2,” the mothers become grandmothers and the daughters become mothers in their own right, introducing a new generation exploring their own relationships with culture, heritage, love, womanhood and identity.

The original leading cast is in talks to return to their roles, as mothers and grandmothers of their families. The film will also offer significant casting opportunities for a new generation of Asian female-identifying actors, from the granddaughters to supporting roles.

The original film debuted in limited commercial release in September 1993 and also played at the Toronto International Film Festival. It grossed some $28 million in North America and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best adapted screenplay.

Its significance, however, isn’t just limited to its breakout box office performance, or its critical acclaim, but also the way that it paved the way for Asian and female representation in other films and TV series. Just a year after its release, ABC launched Margaret Cho’s “All-American Girl,” which featured the first Asian American family to lead a primetime sitcom. In recent years, more strides have been made with the box office success of films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”

“Now more than ever it is important to share authentic stories about the Asian American experience, and we believe this film will speak to wide audiences with its narrative rooted in humanity and connection,” said Ashok Amritraj.

Tan and Bass added: “We are excited to be teaming with Hyde Park and Jeff Kleeman in bringing to life the next generation of these four families so close to our hearts.”

#Joy Luck Club #Tsai Chin #Kieu Chinh #Lisa Lu #France Nuyen #Rosalind Chao #Lauren Tom #Tamlyn Tomita #Ming-Na Wen #Michael Paul Chan #Andrew McCarthy #Christopher Rich #Russell Wong #Vivian Wu #Amy Tan

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erstwhile-punk-guerito · 2 years ago

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#the joy luck club #tsai chin #kieu chinh #lisa lu #france nuyen #rosalind chao #lauren tom #tamlyn tomita #ming-na wen #michael paul chan #andrew mccarthy #christopher rich #russell wong #vivian wu #wayne wang #1993

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dweemeister · 3 years ago

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The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Like Flower Drum Song (1961) before it and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) after it, The Joy Luck Club – based on Amy Tan’s 1989 novel of the same name, with a screenplay by Tan and Ronald Bass – was the first film to star a mostly Asian-American or East Asian-American cast in a generation. Its ensemble cast includes veterans who were a part of the end of Old Hollywood and newcomers who became, in their own ways, the standard bearers for Asian-American representation through the beginning of the current century. No small distinction – and something I do not wish on any individual to bear. In a strange twist of fate, Wayne Wang’s The Joy Luck Club was the first major studio American movie to make its theatrical debut within my lifetime*. For reasons that are selfish and have to do entirely with this now-nine-year-old blog’s focus on classic movies and contextualizing movies whenever or wherever they come from, that distinction seems fitting.

The Joy Luck Club retains much of its literary soul, and that is thanks to the partnership between Tan, Wang, and Bass. Bass, fresh off his screenwriting Academy Award win for Rain Man (1988), believed – unlike numerous Hollywood executives – that the particular structure of the novel could stay mostly intact, nevertheless requiring some sort of framing device to anchor the proceedings. The co-writers and Wang agreed to inject numerous voice-over narrations, something that could be off-putting in narrative art. These narrations, when they appear, usually are bereft of any semblance of exposition, instead providing glimpses into the feelings and mentality of the characters involved and saving long stretches of dialogue in the process. Though yours truly more often than not has trouble with narration in cinema, the narration here is too essential to the final product. With screenplay in hand, as the filmmakers pitched the project across Hollywood’s major studios, they found few takers. Eventually, interest and funding would come from Walt Disney Studios' now-defunct Hollywood Pictures and a (kept) promise of zero executive intervention from Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. Tan, who had been hesitant to make too many compromises in adapting The Joy Luck Club as a movie, found the creative process in filmmaking much less painful than she anticipated.

The Joy Luck Club is a mahjong club founded by four Chinese-American women who came to settle in San Francisco. In the order of when their flashbacks appear in this film: Lindo Jong (Tsai Chin), Ying-Ying St. Clair (France Nuyen), An-Mei Hsu (Lisa Lu), and Suyuan Woo (Kiều Chinh). Our entry into the events of the film is near the end, four months after Suyuan’s death at a farewell surprise party to celebrate her daughter, June (Ming-Na Wen). June is shortly about to travel to mainland China to meet her long-lost twin sisters for the first time, but not without – during quieter moments of the party – some reminiscing from herself, the other members of the Joy Luck Club, and their daughters. The Joy Luck Club then divides itself into four thematically connected, but narratively distinct, sections: Lindo and daughter Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita), Ying-Ying and daughter Lena (Lauren Tom), An-Mei and daughter Rose (Rosalind Chao), and the late Suyuan and June. These four sections are tales of spousal love and abuse, generational differences and intergenerational trauma, being Chinese in the United States, and the perceptions of intention between mothers and daughters.

An enormous ensemble cast surrounds the cast of mothers and daughters: Victor Wong as piano teacher Old Chong; Xi Meijuan as Lindo’s mother; Lucille Soong as An-Mei’s mother; Christopher Rich as Rich, Waverly’s husband; Russell Wong as Lin Xiao, Ying-Ying’s husband; Michael Paul Chan as Harold, Lena’s husband; Vivian Wu as An-Mei’s mother; and Andrew McCarthy as Ted, Rose’s husband.

As a deliberately-paced melodrama (my use of “melodrama” here has no negative connotations, only to invoke the most emotionally affecting Hollywood melodramas of the 1930s and ‘40s ) spread over 139 minutes, each of the four sections feels fully formed and structured. No one quarter of the film overwhelms the other, nor does one part feel noticeably inferior to the other three. They flow, in a minor miracle, seamlessly into the next. Again, credit must be placed with Wang, Tan, and Bass on the process they eventually came up with to steer all of their artistic decisions. According to Amy Tan in her memoir Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, she writes:

I was the arbiter of character questions… whether a scene seemed true to the heart and soul of what I felt about the characters as I knew them. Ron's hobbyhorse was overall structure and emotional truth... Wayne, we realized, had to be the final arbiter on everything, because he was, after all, the director, and had to feel that everything was as he wanted to see it on the screen.

For The Joy Luck Club, this means showcasing the novel’s emotional unrest on-screen. In the novel, the love between mother and child wafts between emotional intimacy and psychological hostilities. At times, in the novel and in this film, these two aspects are indistinguishable. This tug-of-war of parent-child love – with tension and tenderness juxtaposed closely and often – is a cultural conflict necessitating some kind of resolution (and not always achieving that). Though it appears in Tan’s novel and this film with a distinctly Chinese approach, many, but not all, facets of these relationships appear across differing ethnicities of Asian descent. The central tensions of The Joy Luck Club stem from the mothers’ stories of relations in a traditional Chinese family, far away from the more direct expressions of emotion found in American culture, almost frozen in the early twentieth century; it, too, originates from the daughters’ confusion of being and inhabiting a hyphenated existence in America.

That very American need for encouragement and obvious displays of unconditional love is antithetical to what the original members of the Joy Luck Club experienced in their childhoods and young adult years. Simultaneously, the daughters of the Joy Luck Club internalize more of their mothers’ personalities than they realize. How the actors on-screen is subtle, demanding repeat viewings of certain scenes to fully appreciate the outstanding performances from not only the main cast members (it is a particularly Hollywood-specific problem that Asian-American or Asian actors are so often seen in terms of an ensemble performance rather than as individually excellent, but I struggle to identify any one actress that gave a performance that stands above the rest), but various supporting actors and the numerous child actors in the film’s flashbacks. One can take a number of scenes that exemplify the novel’s and the movie’s central themes: Lindo’s silent scowl when a young Waverly decries her mother supposedly forcing her to play chess; parallels drawn between the failed marriages of a parent and the deteriorating marriage of their daughters; and the distant, attentive camera (cinematography by Amir Mokri of Wang’s 1989 film Eat a Bowl of Tea and two Transformers movies) and the relative lack of sound at the moment of two child deaths. You could pick any number of scenes from the framing device or any of the four sections that absorb not only Chinese-American or Asian-American pride, but the indignity that young Asian-Americans feel towards their parents and the twinges of shame of knowing you are Asian in America.

In the immediate aftermath of its release, these themes proved powerful in the moment. Thus, The Joy Luck Club became, to some extent, more of an emotional spectacle than a movie. Wang is so dedicated in retaining the integrity of the text that his direction is too straightforward at times, allowing the book’s themes to overpower his stylistic flourishes (certain decisions, such as a slow-motion vase-breaking scene, date the film squarely in the 1990s), occasionally plunging into heavy-handed messaging instead of trusting the audience to piece together their own interpretations. The emotional rawness in The Joy Luck Club became amplified by the film’s supporters and its detractors, in part due to its billing as the first film with an almost entirely Asian-American cast since Flower Drum Song. So when Hollywood’s major studios decided that it should take another twenty-five years for another film starring a majority Asian-American cast, the burden of representation fell, unfairly, on this film. Its centralization of women to its narrative should have been a point of praise – fifty of the sixty speaking roles are women – but, in time, casually misogynistic attitudes labeled this movie what in previous decades would be known as a “weepie” or a “woman’s picture”. Tan’s text is rife with, to put it mildly, secondhand embarrassments; Wang’s staging of these scenes make these moments rawer in their visualizations. For some Asian-Americans of a certain age, these tense moments became a point of ridicule, a somewhat exaggerated depiction of how their family relations might look like. Moreso than after Flower Drum Song, a revulsion towards American media stereotypically depicting Asian-Americans through the prisms of familial or generational relations.

This sort of backlash within underrepresented minorities towards people or films purporting to represent them has been present throughout American movie history, exacerbated due to chronic underrepresentation or poor representation. Singer/dancer/actress Carmen Miranda (1940’s Down Argentine Way, 1943’s The Gang’s All Here), so often bedecked in tropical fruits in her musical films while under contract at 20th Century Fox, was initially a source of pride in her native Brazil for her Hollywood features. But, over time, as she became more popular abroad than in her home country for popularizing samba music, criticisms came Miranda’s way for exotifying Brazil and Latin America at large. Specifically to the United States, the likes of Sidney Poitier, Hattie McDaniel, Juano Hernandez, Louise Beavers, and others were all criticized at some point for playing Uncle Toms, mammy characters, or joyous singing black people. Nancy Kwan, who appeared in Flower Drum Song, was slated to star as one of the mothers in The Joy Luck Club. After the filmmakers denied her request to expunge a line that deemed The World of Suzie Wong (1960; Kwan’s cinematic debut and a role she remains honored to be associated with to this day) a “horrible” and “racist” movie, she declined the role‡. In time, these fires cool, but they do not completely abate. As it has been for The Joy Luck Club.

The film will mostly satiate those who read the book; for those who have not, go into your viewing ready to give your full attention and lower your emotive drawbridges. Such as Flower Drum Song years before, it would take decades to make clearer the legacy of The Joy Luck Club – immediately, it was a torch-passing between Asian-American actresses who began their career at the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age to those who ushered in the twenty-first century. It is a history not conclusively written yet (and will not be for as long as its younger cast members remain active in the industry). Of its main cast, the actresses who played the daughters, with the notable exception of Ming-Na Wen, have had limited mainstream roles though rather consistent work in the years since the film’s release. Now, as is Flower Drum Song, The Joy Luck Club is part of the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry as part of its class of 2020.

In the years following The Joy Luck Club, Wayne Wang went on to direct Smoke (1995; his most critically acclaimed film other than The Joy Luck Club) and Because of Winn-Dixie (2005). It has been a diverse career for the Hong Kong-American director named after John Wayne (his father’s favorite actor), but there have been notable obstacles. As he related in a New York Times article in 2018: “‘I would always say, ‘I know this character wasn’t written for an Asian, but why can’t we take a good Asian actor or actress and put them in that role?... and that would always be a fight that I couldn’t win.’”

With the likes of Minari (2020), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) all following Crazy Rich Asians, there is considerable hope in the near-future that no American movie or cast ever again has to shoulder the weight of expectations that those working on Flower Drum Song and The Joy Luck Club bore, with echoes emanating even from the silent era. Throughout, The Joy Luck Club is conscious, though not self-conscious, of that history. As any film centering on time’s fickleness, displacement, and unspoken love should be.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

* There are a few movies that are closer to my date and time of birth, but they occurred before I was born.

‡ This writer has not yet seen The World of Suzie Wong, so no judgments will be passed on that movie (yet). This passage is here to illustrate that the production of The Joy Luck Club itself was not immune to these inter-community frustrations found in American cinema.

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tesstress · 4 years ago

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A Bit Late but no less Sincere- Shatner 90th Birthday Collage!

Hi Everyone! I know I promised this last week, but life happens (I had a nasty fall last week, but I’m fine now) and I finally finished this today. (Working on a belated Nimoy 90th tribute too) Happy Belated 90th Birthday to Bill Shatner – what a life! I think I’ve captured a moment from all nine decades you’ve been around. If you look closely, you’ll see pictures with a few couplings of Bill…

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dannyreviews · 3 years ago

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The Joy Luck Club (1993)

For the last 4-5 years, the number of films from Asia or American made Asian films have been popping up in American theaters and streaming devices. One such film, “Parasite”, stunned the world by winning Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards. But this modern wave is a slow one, built upon the success of another Best Picture winner, “The Last Emperor” (1987) and led to the success of films like “Raise the Red Lantern” and “Farewell My Concubine”. Wayne Wang’s 1993 breakthrough film “The Joy Luck Club”, from the bestselling novel by Amy Tan, is the first American made big budgeted film to feature a predominantly Asian cast and what a pioneering masterpiece it has evolved into.

The film opens in the present time with June (Mina-Na Wen), who just lost her mother Suyaan (Kieu Chinh) and has discovered that she has twin half sisters that were abandoned by Suyaan during the Japanese invasion of China in WWII. During a party to celebrate the milestone, June narrates of her mother’s inner circle of Mahjong playing friends known as “The Joy Luck Club”; Lindo (Tsai Chin), An-Mei (Lisa Lu) and Ying Ying (France Nuyen) and their respective daughters Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita), Lena (Rosalind Chao) and Rose (Lauren Tom). The bulk of the film is comprised of flashbacks of the older generation growing up in China under a male-oriented system of arranged marriages, abuse, and separation and how those experiences are carried down to the next generation in America.

“The Joy Luck Club” is mistakenly thought of as just being a schmaltzy chick flick, but it is so much more than that. The wonderful adaptation by Tan and Ronald Bass treats its protagonists as human beings that overcame the worst possible living conditions to make it in the land of the free. They aren’t plastic in the sense that it’s some cheap dime store novel, but rich in character and beauty. The flashback sequences are edited in a way that the intergenerational stories can be easily deciphered, even as there are flashbacks within flashbacks. Only one other film was able to master this screenwriting art and that was Fred Schepisi’s adaptation of Graham Swift’s “Last Orders”. Whereas “Last Orders” was one story with many components, “The Joy Luck Club” is four mini stories fused in a fictionalized anthropological study and that’s the bigger challenge. It’s screenplays such as “The Joy Luck Club” that should easily win Oscars, but are pushed aside because of stiff competition.

At the time of this film’s release, none of the main actors were among the top percentile of household names and yet somehow, their amazing performances won over audiences and shifted their names into the forefront of American film and television. It’s strange to think that Ming-Na Wen was an unknown but after this breakthrough role, she was in “ER”, then voiced Mulan and today, she’s on the “Mandalorian“. You can tell by watching her on screen and listening to her narration that there was a star in the making. Even someone like Rosalind Chao, whose only other major role before this was in the final episodes of MASH as Soon-Li, Klinger’s fiancée/wife, shows that she was more than an actress of smaller parts. Her monologue in the rain is one of heartbreak and emotion as she regains her Chinese identity. She would later be known for “Star Trek: Deep State Nine”, but this role was a great foot in the door.

The two best performances in “The Joy Luck Club” belonged to Tsai Chin and Tamlyn Tomita as Mother and Daughter Lindo and Waverly. It was their story that had the most layers and the clearest parallel between the generations. Young Lindo (Irene Ng) was in an arranged marriage which she got herself out of through a concocted story about a vision. Years later, her daughter Waverly is trying to convince her mother that a white man named Rich (Christopher Rich) is the love of her life. The younger Lindo would’ve said “go for it”, but as she got older, she took on her mother’s traditional ways and has now become that strict, overbearing parent with high standards. Tsai Chin’s performance as Lindo is the film’s highlight and the scene where she gives Waverly her blessing to marry Rich is worth several Oscars. Tomita is excellent in channeling her character’s bitchiness and taking up the acerbic tongue of her mother. It’s when you look at the comparison in personalities between the mothers and daughters, in particular Lindo and Waverly, that reinforce the idea that “The Joy Luck Club” is not a chick flick, but a solid character study on top of an epic.

If “The Joy Luck Club” was released today, it would have stacked up at least 10 Oscar nominations and won awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Tsai Chin. Being released in 1993 was a drawback in that regard, but it gave the film a head start in highlighting Asian actors in an American made film, which is now becoming the norm with films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Farewell”. The mixture of Anime and Manga rivaling with Disney and American Comic Books in popularity and a bump in the Asian population in America, the cultures of China, Korea, Japan, India etc... will be more dominant as the years go on and it’s great to see where it all started with “The Joy Luck Club”.

9/10

#dannyreviews #the joy luck club #amy tan #ming na wen #kieu cinhn #tsai chin #lisa lu #france nuyen #tamlyn tomita #rosalind chao #lauren tom #ronald bass #irene ng #christopher rich #china #asian film #wayne wang

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