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The Joy Luck ClubRating:
Release Date: 14 October, 2003 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $4.00! Cast: Complete Cast (9 total) |
The Joy Luck Club Reviews
Heartbreaking and Joyful Film Intertwines Past and Present
This film reveals the complex mother-daughter relationships of four Chinese families whose roots from the past intertwine within the present causing conflicts and misunderstandings in their lives. Once the stories from the past are told and understood within the context of ancient Chinese culture and values, the mother-daughter bonds of love become even stronger and indestructable.
The stories of the four mothers are told from the cultural viewpoint of the past as flashbacks throughout the film. The viewer learns boys are more revered than girls, a daughter is given in an arranged marriage to a boy from a wealthy family and she is expected to be obedient to her husband and servile to her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law expects a grandchild and blames the daughter-in-law for failing to produce offspring, not recognizing or accepting her son's part in the problem. This particular story was cleverly resolved and had a happy ending due to the creative efforts of the daughter-in-law who used superstition, religion, and cultural values to get out of this unhappy marriage. In another life story, a young attractive daughter is raped by a wealthy businessman, her parents disown her not believing this story. They thought she allowed herself to be seduced due to his wealth. To sustain herself, she became his fourth wife, a concubine but also produced a son, an heir ...whom the first wife took ownership of, as if he were her son. The real mother was not allowed near her own child. Eventually, she proved herself a worthy daughter by a sacrificial ceremony done for her dying mother. Later she reunitd with her first child, a daughter, whom she raised within the businessman's household where the mother enacted an even more heartbreaking sacrifice ...
All the stories from the past are connected in some way with the problems the Chinese daughter's are experiencing in their adult lives. Through flashbacks in time, each daughter recalls her own past and how she felt pushed to do things for her mother, trying to please her, yet feeling unworthy. The film blends the stories of all the characters in a very creative and unique manner helping the viewer understand how the context of Chinese culture became the foundation of love on which all their lives are based.
June one of the American-raised Chinese daughters begins telling her story and the relationhship and conflicts with her mother who had recently passed away. The roots of the misunderstandings become more clear as the viewer learns about June's mother's life in China ... June learns the expectations her mother had for her, the hopes and dreams for her American daughter were part of an unresolved loss her mother never spoke about to June. June learns about a very painful experience in her mother's life which forced her to make decisions no mother should have to make ... However, due to a letter written by Auntie Lindo to June's relatives in China, June is reunited with her mother's secret past. This is the point where everyone who views the film will need a handkerchief or tissues... Erika Borsos [pepper flower
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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