A Little Joy Luck Club And Some Richard Lui

In case you missed it.

Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Rosalind Chao and Lauren Tom, who play the daughters in the classic 1993 film “The Joy Luck Club,” sit down with NBC’s Richard Lui on TODAY to reflect on how the movie has bonded them over the years and encouraged more Asian stories and stars to shine in the spotlight.

Four Women Go Into A Room And Watch The Joy Luck Club...

Like I asked about in a previous post - is there a Joy Luck Club revival going on? I think there has to be, because more news, articles - and experiments keep on coming up:

Experiment: Take four Asian American women in 2008 who haven't seen The Joy Luck Club, and see what they think about it fifteen years after its original release.

The idea was partially inspired by David Henry Hwang's introduction to a new paperback edition of C.Y. Lee's novel Flower Drum Song. Rodger and Hammerstein's Broadway adaptation Flower Drum Song spawned the first ever Hollywood film to feature an all-Asian American cast, though it was criticized by many in the Asian American community for its representation of Chinatown and ethnicity. But in his 2002 essay, Hwang writes that, for him, seeing the film many decades later, there's something valuable and empowering in it that you could never have seen originally because everyone was blinded by the exotification debate.

Enter The Joy Luck Club. Different time period, similar stigmas.

Check out the article down at Asia Pacific Arts for the discussion and what each has to say on the film as it's pretty interesting - although I had to ask the question of why there weren't any men in the experiment, especially seeing as how part of the criticism of the movie came from Asian American males.

Are we just not that important to the discussion?

More Joy More Luck

Is it just me or is there a Joy Luck Club revival going on?

Last year the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre did a show and now the San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre is doing one too:

While some have criticized Tan for perpetuating fictions and stereotyped portrayals of Chinese and Chinese-Americans in "Joy Luck Club," in this production it’s white males that get the stereotype treatment, even if unintentionally. Waverly’s boyfriend, as portrayed by Robert Borzych, would be insufferable under any circumstances. But played for laughs, he’s the very picture of the culturally ignorant white American social doofus.

You already know some of my thoughts on the JLC (which shouldn't be a surprise because I do like the occasional Wonder Girls' track) - so I hope they're getting a good reception.

Check out more here.

Thanks to TCM and the JLC for making me weep

Last night I re-watched the movie The Joy Luck Club thanks to TCM, and a few things stuck out at me as I haven't seen it in forever since I was younger.

1. That movie is way old now.

2. Maybe I'm just a cream puff at heart but I couldn't help but breakdown like the blithering idiot I am, more than once going "That's just so..." - fill in big words like "sad", "great", "touching".

3. I know luminaries like Frank Chin couldn't stand the book or movie, but really - it was a good flick (see fiction) filled with some great flawed characters. And I love my flawed characters.

4. As an Asian American male I get it to a certain degree about the portrayals, but really, it just doesn't bother me. Maybe it's because I know it's fiction. Maybe because since then we've had so many representations of the Asian/Asian American male (although still lacking). I don't know - I'm kind of on a Mocha high right now so I'm rambling like a blithering idiot - but - it just doesn't bother me. Maybe I need to be more militant.

5. I really think I'm in touch with my sensitive side right now.

6. Sleep deprivation will do that, along with tons o' caffeine.

7. Just wanted to give a shout out to TCM for putting on some cool films. My favorite was the Anna May Wong retrospective Anna May Wong ~ Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life, Times and Legend.