[BOOK/MOVIE] The Joy Luck Club

[soapie]

(I searched the thread to make sure no one has posted this topic before. Its been MENTIONED in previous posts but not really discussed in depth. So let's discuss it further. You can choose to comment on the novel, film or both, but since I've only seen the movie, then I'll write about the film.)

This is one of my all time favorite movies, coming from a very personal perspective. I felt that this movie was a mirror reflection of my own life, and I could identify with various emotions that each of the characters felt. (but mainly i identify with the daughters: being a child of immigrants/refugees who fled their home of war/poverty/insecurity in order to come to America for a life of opportunity and hope, finding one's identity in a multicultural environment.)

One of the main reasons why the film really touched me is because I felt that it captured well the beauy and depth that lies in a mother-daughter relationship of two different cultures. It portrayed the struggles and triumphs between them, who both were searching for their own identities , searching for each other, searching for their belonging in society, and searching for their place in between or amongst the two cultures. I feel that this film did a good job of reflecting the the attitudes, thoughts, and values which I find in my own life and my mother's life, but many times I cannot adequately describe in words.

As you can see, my perspectives about this movie are quite sentimentally and emotionally based, but I encourage you to to express whatever commentary you feel about this film/book (objective/movie-critic/general commentary welcome).

[masterCP]

hi soapie, let me commend you on your thorough research on this topic before starting this thread :thumbsup:

I didn't read the book so I'll say something on the film. The story that struck me the most was the one with Joan Chen on it in which she was the 3rd wife(?) of an old rich man. It was really awful for both mother (she having to subject her child to experience such immorality) and child (she having to witness her mom be a maltreated concubine) to be in this situation. :cry:

But I also liked the part with Russel Wong--he was such a baddie in this film! :oops:

[babyxv]

i read the book and watched the movie in freshman lit class. i was really glad the movie matched the book well.. didn't change too many things around. honestly, i don't remember much about the movie or the book -___- but i remember NOT relating to the characters well, which i didn't expect. i thought, "ooo it's about chinese women growing up in america! i will totally relate to them", but i didn't.

[babyxv]

^ i agree! i remember feeling REALLY smart everytime i came across a chinese phrase in the book.. and the teacher would ask how to pronounce everything =D

[rachelle03]

I always wanted to finish the movie but to no avail. :oops: But I've read the book, and it started my preference for Amy Tan's books. Currently, I'm reading on The Bonesetter's Daughter. Recommended as well. :happy:

[luvsfroot]

i liked this book (& movie) because i feel like i can relate to the characters sometimes. i like amy tan's books. i've also read the kitchen god's wife, which was good too. did anyone read a thousand secret senses? what'd you think?

[Vicluva]

I haven't read the book but the movie really made me cry. I could really connect with the whole Chinese moving to a Western country and expecting their children to achieve the best and i could understand all the hopes the parents put on their kids. the stories were so touching and it was beautiful how it all worked out later and i cried so many times through it :cry: watching it just made me so proud to be chinese and my family is really close like that too. it's one of my favourite movies ever!

[msv]

I saw and read this book such a long time ago, maybe about 3 years ago? :oops: So my memory is a bit foggy, however I did love the movie. I thought they did an excellent portrayal of the book and really catching the whole "mother/daughter" motifs and themes. Especially when they'd have the flashbacks and showing the audience each side of the story and such. I actually read the book before I saw the movie and I guess that was better. There's just some "feelings" conveyed by words that actions can't express you can say.

About Amy Tan's books, a lot of them are very similar (chinese heritage and from the woman's persecptive). I read "a hundred secret senses" haha, I'm not sure if she intended it to be a "romantic" and "nostalgic" book or anything (I got the sense of that reading the book haha) but the idea of reincarnation and past things in life was nicely done. I can't really say much about the book since I can't remembered it well but if anyone is a newbie to Tan's books, I'd recommened reading "the joy Luck club" first. :wink2:

[zhy378]

i don't think i ever watched the end of the movie cuz it was kinda long plus sad but nice movie. and i think i was too young for it back then.hehe. got the book from some relative but didn't read it.

[trishee]

i never read the book, just saw the movie like 4 times.
really good movie...emotional, clever...a real good reflection on chinese heritage. i never knew it was that pressuring. each persons stoy is so compelling...kind of a heartbreak once you see it, in a good way though.
my house is thai so it isnt that strict, but we do have a diff set of rules. maybe i should do a movie about that. hmm..... :shifty:

[kewlpiggy88]

i liked the movie and the book, but i think amy tan's books are always very stereotypical...like a somewhat crazy mother who's into feng shui and spirits and everything. i mean, i know she's writing with an influence of her life, but after i read four of her books, i found that she has the similar mother-daughter relationship, and the only difference is the plot.

[luvsfroot]

oh you're right! i hadn't really thought it through, but someone who didn't really like amy tan said something similar to me, about her books being stereotypical, and all too similar with the relationships and immigration and adapting to u.s. and hardships and stuff. (i think that was part of the reason why i didn't read a hundred secret senses, when i was about to this similar. another friend had said that her books were too similar and since i'd read 2, i should try something different.)

[swtaznkandi]

i've read excerpts of the book in english and i've seen the movie. i think every young asian woman can identify with the characters amy tan has created, and this movie is also one of my favorites. i cry every time i watch it, and i also learn something new about myself, my culture, and my mother. i remember watching this and thinking "that is EXACTLY how i feel about playing the piano!" and realizing that i wasn't the only being incessantly compared to someone else.
however, i heard all of tan's books are similar, but that's ok if they're all good like this one :)

[oNEgumDRop]

watched the movie a gazillion times.. a fav of mine..
sadly.. i tried reading the book but it started to bore me..

[jessiesoon]

watch the movie 1st n then only read the book..
i like both the movie n book but seems like there's a lil bit difference..

[kaye21]

this movie made me appreciate "asian films"...started me on my journey of sorts...

i love how each story seems different but are essentially the same...about the struggles of a girl into a woman...

this is the part that i liked best...(dialogue) cribbed from IMDB

An-Mei: I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way. No, this cannot be, this not knowing what you're worth, this not begin with you. My mother not know her worth until too late - too late for her, but not for me. Now we will see if not too late for you, hmm?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rose: You're not taking my house, you're not taking my daughter, you're not taking any part of me, because you don't know who I am. I died sixty years ago. I ate opium and I died for my daughter's sake. Now get out of my house!

and of course who could forget andrew mccarthy...he was so out of place yet he seemed to be so made for the role...

[greenpea133]

I watched the movie so many times and finally in the 8th grade i found out it was orginally a book. The woman main character is/was from ER. I bought the book and i enjoyed it even more.

[sapphire_stone]

i loove this book and movie, I really thought it was interesting, although I didn't exactly relate to everything, the movie was done really well. Hah and Russell Wong was hot (he's probably an old man now). heehee.ummm..yeah i also like amy tan's books!! I read the bonesetter's daughter, it was good too.