Oct – Nov 2022 Film Calendar

85

The Joy Luck Club

Sat, Nov 26 | 7:30pm | TMT

In the history of Hollywood studio films, only a handful have centered on contemporary Chinese American characters and cast with mostly Asian actors: Flower Drum Song (1961), The Joy Luck Club (1993), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), The Farewell (2019), and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Based on Amy Tan’s novel about mother/daughter relation- ships, The Joy Luck Club was guided by Tan as co-producer and co-writer and Janet Yang as executive producer, with auteur Wayne Wang directing what became his pivot into main- stream studio filmmaking. Hiring white per- formers in yellowface was off-limits, and the film boasts an ensemble cast of trailblazing Asian American actors from two generations: veteran actresses Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, Lisa Lu, and France Nuyen portrayed the mothers, while Rosalind Chao, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, and Ming-Na Wen played the daughters.

DIRECTOR: Wayne Wang.

WRITTEN BY: Amy Tan, Ronald Bass.

CAST: Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, Lisa Lu, France Nuyen. 1993. 139 min. USA. Color. English, Mandarin, Cantonese. Rated R. DCP.

HOLLYWOOD CHINESE

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