Watch The Joy Luck Club For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply Perfect

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The Joy Luck Club should be condemned, not praised!! These women are sell outs!! First of all, why is the film only about the women? What about the Asian men? There isn't a single leading Asian male character! This film portrays marriage to an Asian man so negatively, while the rich white husbands are portrayed so positively. This is shocking because the Asian men I know are not like this at all. They are much more caring, strong and masculine than this. In fact, I have heard of many white husbands in the news who get drunk and beat or even kill their Asian wives. The Asian men I know are worthy candidates for marriage and are never aggressive toward women.These Asian mothers toiled through sweat, tears and blood, surviving a brutal war to come to America. And what do their daughters do in return? They forget all the hardship their mothers endured and marry the first rich white man they meet!! Instead of working hard for their money like their mothers, they want to be pampered by their rich white husbands and live an easy life of luxury through marriage! These women basically sell their bodies, beautifying themselves according to Western standards of beauty, while trying to sound educated so they can enter upper class society. They basically use their sexuality as a tool to move upward in social class through marriage. This, my friends, is a form of PROSTITUTION!! Whether these women are doing this consciously or subconsciously, they are engaging in prostitution. Is that really all an Asian woman has to offer society?This is an absolute disgrace and an incredible insult to all the real, hard working Asian-Americans in the United States, many who struggle in poverty and have no real voice in society. Any dignified Asian woman should realize that this film is Westernized propaganda, teaching Asian- Americans that white is better, that Asian men are terrible lovers, and to look the other way as their heritage gradually erodes. Tell me, how many objects of Asian cultural heritage can you find in the homes of their white husbands, even after marrying their Asian wives? Can you find even one painting or vase?This film teaches Asian women to scorn their Asian men, even their own fathers, and to learn to "put up" with their mothers, who are an "obstacle" to be dealt with. This film does not empower Asian-Americans. Instead, this film brainwashes them to gradually despise themselves as they develop a crippling inferiority complex and a bitter sense of self- hatred. To make matters worse, The Joy Luck Club portrays the so-called "Asian-American experience" solely through the voices of women, while completely ignoring the male experience. This film is damaging and should be viewed as a negative scar that Asian-Americans must move away from.

Amy Tan's bestselling novel has been adapted for the big screen into a respectable but artless melodrama, tracing in a colorful anthology of flashbacks during a family reunion in San Francisco the often-tragic lives of four Chinese women and their adult daughters. The cultural differences separating each of the quartet of traditional Chinese elders from their modern American children give each episode a special poignancy, but while criss-crossing two hemispheres and three generations the film is forced to lean too heavily (out of necessity) on the crutch of constant voice-over narration, presumably quoted straight out of the book.It looks and sounds at times too much like a well-produced television drama (full screen VHS and DVD versions were 'formatted to fit your TV screen', to no real noticeable effect). In fact the film might have worked better had it actually been expanded into a mini-series. Each of the separate relationships deserves a full movie by itself, and cramming so many memorable biographies (by so many different narrators) into a single two-hour movie only dilutes the emotional impact of each story.

All this mystification expressed over why this flick wasn't considered for an Oscar is, in itself, a bit mystifying. While it wouldn't have been the first time Hollywood recognized what is essentially a tawdry melodrama in that fashion, let's not confuse a bloated, ineptly manipulative movie with great art.It LOOKS great, though. Very high production values with great costumes and beautiful period sets. And the cinematography is gorgeous. All at the service of... ? A convoluted story, put in the hands of people that seem to have no idea how to tell it. Some good actors involved, though, gamely trying to make something of execrable material.

If this flick can't make you cry, then you have no heart. I bought it for my wife a few years ago and we have watched it several times now. It's one of her faves. I think I can make reasonably critical remarks because I've been over the same territory so much. Let's get the criticism out of the way from the beginning. I have two main objections. One, this is a woman's movie that is unapologetically pro-female and seriously anti-male in character. When the men aren't being portrayed as egotistical, selfish, and cruel, they are annoying or clueless. It gets a bit tiresome. In fact, one is surprised that a couple of them make the cut over the long haul because these ladies don't think much of men, in general, that is, unless they are completely domesticated and worshipful. Second is Oliver Stone's unrelenting attack upon the viewer's emotional homeostasis. He comes at you again and again, dragging an emotional response out of you over and over without significant letup. In so doing, he goes over the top a bit, but most of the feeling generated is honest and genuinely acted. One definitely gets the sense that the Chinese (or at least this group of them) are very sentimental people, which doesn't quite jibe with their rather stern and inscrutable image in the world at large. One of my favorite scenes was the one at the beauty parlor between Auntie Lindo and her daughter Waverly, where Waverly confesses that even a look from her mother used to make her cry herself to sleep. Lindo's reaction to this otherwise troubling info was a simple, "Now you have made me happy." Then there's the scene in the kitchen after the dinner party between June and her Mom (who sad to say wasn't long for this world). That's where she tells June that for her she has, "only hope," assuring her that, "I see you." Both of these scenes are very touching. The finale, where June arrives in China to see her long lost half-sisters is a real tear-jerker, as well. Some of the scenes in this movie were rather troubling, however. At the top of the list would have to be the young Ying Ying's sacrifice of her infant son to "get back" at her selfish and cruel husband. He certainly deserved to be hurt, but to take it out on the baby boy? That I couldn't forgive her for. The same woman, in middle age, was understandably critical of her daughter's unbelievably cheap and pompous husband, but for her to judge him so harshly after the terrible thing she had done in her youth was hypocritical. An interesting sidelight is that this actress was the same young lady who played Leat, the beautiful native girl in the movie "South Pacific."Speaking of that, this flick was an exploration of the natural beauty of oriental women. Which one of them was the most alluring? It was quite a contest. I'd say the two most beautiful women in the cast (at least of the older generation) were the young Ying Ying and An Mei's mother, the lovely woman whom we first saw wearing a fashionable hat, who became a fourth wife and "didn't know her worth," and finally who committed suicide "for her daughter's sake." Less for their absolute beauty than their special appeal was Lindo's mother in China and June's mother in America. Among the daughters, it was a tossup. Probably either Waverly or Lena was the most attractive, but June had a sensuous quality and certainly gave them a run for the money. Rose, although somewhat less beautiful, was also appealing. You can't go wrong with "Joy Luck Club" if you appreciate the beauty of Chinese women. Just make sure you have something absorbent handy when you sit down to watch because you're going to need it.