Joy Luck Club

Director: Wayne Wang

1993 / 139min / DCP

Amy Tan’s bestselling novel, tracking the intergenerational passage of aspirations and expectations between four immigrant Chinese women and their American daughters, found its ideal interpreter in Wang, who lent the material an emotional grandeur, allowing every member of his peerless ensemble cast—including Kieu Chinh, France Nuyen, Lisa Lu, Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, and Lauren Tom—to shine in turn. The last Hollywood studio film to feature an all-Asian cast for 25 years, and a landmark work that finds epic scope in the most everyday of circumstances, by exploring the inner lives and cherished hopes of a San Francisco mahjong group.