The Joy Luck Club Produced by Hollywood Pictures. Directed by Wayne Wang. Starring Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lisa Lu, and Tamlyn Tomita. Runtime: 1:39. Reviewed by Michael Turton.
What a heap of limping, lurching cliches. This tear-jerker, well-recieved in the US, is a terrible movie which depends for its freshness on the Asian faces and cliches with which US audiences are unfamiliar.
Many critics have already skewered this film, but I won't let that stop me from piling it on. Not only does this movie portray certain stereotypes which others have pointed out, in some ways depends on the racism of Westerners in order to work. For example, most westerners can not/do not discriminate between Asians of different ethnic origin, thus, for most viewers, the use of actresses of Japanese and Vietnamese origin to portray Chinese women was a success.
This film has come under much criticism for its allegedly "sterotyped" portrayals of Chinese men. As one who lives in Taiwan and is married to a Taiwanese, I disagree. It is relatively faithful in its portrayal of Chinese men (women and children are still sold in China and Taiwan even today), where it errs is in its relentless depiction of Chinese women as saints put upon by males. The behavior of the various mothers toward their children is not overshadowed by the authoritarian patterns of dominance and control which mark even the most well-intentioned interpersonal relationships in Chinese society, but always by some dark secret in the past. The mystifying behavior (from the mother's point-of-view) of the daughters, which in real life would be a struggle to move beyond this control, in the movie are generally depicted as a mere cultural/generational clash. This is the sort of white-washing one sees daily in soap operas on Taiwanese TV.
The acting is excellent, the directing competent, but the storyline is so riddled with triteness nothing can save it. The individual stories of the aunties will be recognized by anyone familiar with romances, soap operas and TV dramas in Asia. The use of flashbacks is a good idea, but the pace is too slow at times.
The film's strongest point lies in its depiction of Asians as people too. It's refreshing to see so many faces, marginalized in other films, stand tall here. If only they'd been given something to really sink their teeth into. 1.5 out of 5.
Copyright 1998 by Michael A. Turton
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