The Joy Luck Club

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The Joy Luck Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Directed by Wayne Wang
Produced by Oliver Stone
Written by Amy Tan (writer)
Starring Ming-Na
Rosalind Chao
Lauren Tom
France Nuyen
Tamlyn Tomita
Kieu Chinh
Lisa Lu
Tsai Chin
Release date(s) September 8, 1993
Language English/Mandarin/Cantonese

The Joy Luck Club is a 1993 American movie about the relationships between Chinese-American women and their Chinese mothers. It was based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Amy Tan.  The movie focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families who start a club known as "the Joy Luck Club."  They live in San Francisco, meet regularly to play mah-jong, eat, and tell stories. Each of these women have adult Chinese-American daughters.

The film reveals the hidden pasts of the older women and explores cultural conflict and the relationships between mothers and daughters. The film is structured as a series of vignettes told from the perspectives of the different women. The film was produced by Oliver Stone and directed by Wayne Wang. The cast is notable for consisting primarily of Asian American women.

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The Joy Luck Club

Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: [opening naration] The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. "This bird", boasted the market vendor, "was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose. And now look, it is too beautiful to eat!" Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of lei wide, stretching their necks toward America.

On her journey, she cooed to the swan, "In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow. She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan, a creature that became more than what was hoped for."

But when she arrived in the new country the immigration officials pulled the swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. For a long time now, the women had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her; "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions."

Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: I'm just sorry that you got stuck with such a loser, that I've always been so disappointing. Suyuan: What you mean disappoint? Piano?

Suyuan: Not expect anything! Never expect! Only hope! Only hoping best for you. That's not wrong, to hope.

Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: No? Well, it hurts, because every time you hoped for something I couldn't deliver, it hurt. It hurt me, Mommy. And no matter what you hope for, I'll never be more than what I am. And you never see that, what I really am.

Suyuan: That bad crab, only you tried to take it. Everybody else want best quality. You, your thinking different. Waverly took best-quality crab. You took worst, because you have best-quality heart. You have style no one can teach. Must be born this way.

The Joy Luck Club
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The Joy Luck Club


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The Joy Luck Club