The Joy Luck Club

Director Wayne Wang and screenwriter Ronald Bass effectively interweave sixteen mother-daughter tales in their silken film version of Amy Tan's best-selling novel about the clash between generations. The film takes place in present-day San Francisco, concentrating on a group of late-middle-aged ...more

This is a successful (if, at times, strenuously overstated) adaptation of Amy Tan's celebrated novel chronicling the generations of a family of Chinese women. Wayne Wang's tasteful direction goes a long way in providing interesting focal points for the viewer, and despite eight interweaving storylines, the film is never confusing or disjointed. One of the rare American movies of the 1990s that has a virtually across-the-board Asian cast, the actors all turn in strong performances, sometimes ...more