The Joy Luck Club (1993) on Netflix
Four Chinese immigrant women in San Francisco meet to play mahjong. Their American daughters, among them June, prepare for a farewell party before she leaves for China to meet twin sisters.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.7/1019,863 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Four Chinese immigrant women in San Francisco form the Joy Luck Club, gathering to play mahjong and swap stories. Lindo Jong, Ying-Ying St. Clair, An-Mei Hsu, and Suyuan Woo each raised an American-born daughter. Suyuan has died, and her daughter June has taken her place at the table. The mothers hold high hopes for their daughters, who wrestle with doubt and a sense of falling short. The present-day action centers on a farewell party for June, who is preparing to travel to China and meet twin sisters she has never known. The club's members, their daughters, relatives, and friends attend, and the women narrate their pasts in flashbacks.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Hsu Ying Li, who played the matchmaker and also served as the production's culture consultant, was killed in a car accident in Oakland shortly after filming wrapped, and the finished film was dedicated to her memory.
- This was only the second film with a majority Asian cast telling a contemporary Asian-American story, coming a third of a century after Flower Drum Song in 1961; the third, Crazy Rich Asians, arrived a quarter-century later in 2018.
- Before working together, director Wayne Wang had panned Oliver Stone's Year of the Dragon for portraying Chinese characters as mobsters and prostitutes, and Stone hit back by calling Wang's own film Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart boring.
- In 2020, more than a quarter-century after release, the film was formally recognized by the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant enough for preservation in the National Film Registry.
- Producer Janet Yang said several studios were interested but Disney was the only one to step up to the line, calling the film a fit for Disney's taste for low-budget projects not dependent on star power.
