On J List of Movie Reviews
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The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
11/16
11/16:
The Joy Luck Club.
Should it be called The Bad Luck Club? All I've heard from the adult women is melodramatic sob stories about
their fucked-up lives in China. So, I guess the message of the film is: "China sucks, and don't even think about living there."
On the other hand, the daughters' lives are shown to be somewhat better, and one part of the equation is a couple of
them are married to white guys. So, I guess the second message is: "America is great, and always marry
a white guy, as long as he's rich, but stay away from Asian men because they're evil."
The trouble with the film is there are too many characters. I can't tell who's who, what their names are, and which story goes
to which character. Because most Asians look the same to me, I'm lost, and I don't care about the "cross-race effect."
Also, the high amount of Asian stereotypes is overwhelming. Just stick with one character or two and make them the
central focus. There's no reason to introduce a bunch of random characters which makes it hard to connect in
a short amount of time; it's best to reassign the idea to a miniseries. Plus, the string of overdramatized life events is
unnecessary. I don't feel sorry for anyone. Some of their problems are silly and trivial. In fact, they aren't uncontrollable.
The Chinese woman with Andrew McCarthy's character, they're supposed to be divorced. Then the next minute, they're
together. So, what happened? There's no explanation.
All in all, take a pass on The Bad Luck Club, and go with Yin shi nan nu aka
Eat Man Drink Woman.