Vox Nova at the Movies: The Joy Luck Club
I thought I would take a little break from politics to talk about one of my favorite movies of all time, the adaptation of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. This might seem a strange choice, especially for someone notoriously averse to breezy romantic movies and other productions that get dubbed with the rather dubious title “chick flick”. Nor am I given to displays of emotion, and yet I can say sincerely that I have not yet watched this movie without it inducing a tear or two. Put simply, it is one of the most sensitive and beautiful movies ever made. The dialogue is simply serene. And although it cannot be really regarded as a Christian movie, I would argue that is suffused with themes of hope, grace, and redemption.
The story is straightforward, almost too convenient in its set up. It is about the relationship between four close friends, Chinese immigrants to the United States, and their daughters. As the movie progresses, we learn more about the lives of the women before they left China. They all suffered immensely, having lived through some of the great upheavals in China during the early twentieth century. And they came to America, passing much of this “baggage” (to use a convenient but slightly unsatisfactory term) to their daughters. The core of the movie is how about how the younger generation, especially June –the main protagonist– overcome this rupture, ultimately deriving strength from their families. The movie ends with June returning to China to meet her half-sisters she believed her mother had callously abandoned as infants at the side of the road. At the end of the day, it is really about family.
The scene below is the famous “best quality” sequence. It is quite long, but the first half is mostly set up. The center of the scene is a Chinese New Year’s dinner, hosted by June’s mother. During the conversation, June is humiliated by her more successful friend Waverly, who is told she is not good enough to make it in their publishing business. June’s self-worth is given a further blow when her mother seems to side with Waverly, saying that June simply doesn’t have much style and “must be born that way.” On one level, this seems like an affirmation of the very traditional Chinese concepts of fate and destiny that cannot be altered. But then comes the follow up, in the kitchen after the dinner as June confronts her mother for her perceived treachery. Listen to the rest. Listen to how the word “hope” is used. And listen to how June’s mother re-uses the “must be born this way”. Beautiful.
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MM – Are you familiar with the films of Yasujiro Ozu? His films are some of the greatest ever made in Japan – in fact, some of the greatest, period. I sense you would like his films.
“Late Spring” is highly recommended.
Matt– no, but thanks for the recommendation.
Just don’t tell any Asian-American that you liked the Joy Luck Club. That book and movie set Asian-Americans back at least a decade in terms of white America’s willingness to accept Asians as Americans rather than exotic superstitious misogynists.
“I thought I would take a little break from politics…”
Try a looooooooong break, as it obviously holds too strong an attraction for you.
Sorry, RR, but I married into a fantastic Asian-American family who don’t have these silly hang ups.
MM, not surprised at all. I’m sure they don’t mind being called “oriental” either. These “silly hang ups” are more common among the more activist Asian-Americans. Denounce them if you wish.
Well, aside from my family, I know plenty of Asians (American and otherwise) and not a single person has a problem. They don’t necessary like it- they often deem with overly sentimental, but that is a matter if taste. For me, the movie is less about Asian culture than about family relationships and the role of grace.
Liberal activists, I mean. Not the Michelle Malkin types who think, as you do, that minorities are too hung up on this sort of stuff.
http://modelminority.com/article753.html
BTW, I’m not being critical of the movie as a movie though I didn’t particularly care for it. But I, and others, object to certain cultural aspects of it.
MM
I’ve known many Asian-Americans who liked it, but I can also understand why others would not. I think it depends upon how one takes things.
Have you read Tan’s books? I’ve known some people really into them (including hapas).
I just finished reading Amy Tan’s “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” last weekend. I enjoyed it. But I can see how some Chinese Americans would see her work the same way as some Greek Americans perceived the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (which I also liked). Henry is right, it depends on the person. I think most of us realize that not all immigrant families are alike, or have the same issues, any more than the rest of us.
As a general rule, I find that if the only people who are upset about something are “activists,” it’s probably not a big deal (or shouldn’t be, at any rate).
Blackadder– that I can agree with.
MM
I have the movie at home and can never finish it so devastating an effect it has on me and I am married into a Chinese family. The young woman causing the other young woman to lose face unncessarily before others in your selection is awful in terms of Chinese face.
I believe your family is Vietnamese who may not have these hangups which have a lot to do with the Chinese humiliation of the past two hundred years…a proud very large country who thought others to be barbarians finding themselves being picked apart in the 19th century by Christian nations one of whom…England…. forced the opium trade on them. In the middle of that century, France being the spokesmen for the Catholic Church and also forcing herself on China forced China within a treaty with China to honor the right of Catholic Bishops to have a sedan chair carried by coolies, the umbrella of honor held by a coolie and to wear Mandarin buttons…thus furthering the humiliation of the Chinese by foreigners becoming Mandarin equals. Benedict should study such detail before writing the Chinese that he does not seek to over turn governments but simply to have a place in rational discussion.
It is in the context of this humiliation that Chinese sometimes flee into the opposite….into power of the criticizing woman in your piece….or into the unrealistic power icon often seen in the movies as the one man who can defeat hundreds of men in battle….or as in “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”….women and men who can fly as they fight. All of this is a compensation for humiliation heaped on a proud country whose Boxer Rebellion was founded on incantations that would protect them from the Euro’s bullets and did not. And the Boxers had promised the Emperess dowager that 8 million spirit soldiers would join them against the Euro’s and she believed them and the spirit soldiers never arrived. Li Huang-Chang had warned the Emperess that both the Sung and the Han dynasties had fallen due to such belief in the miraculous powers of martial artist secret societies but she did not listen and ended up fleeing to Sian after the Boxers fell before bullets that they thought were rendered harmless by their incantations.
Feel weak……act invulnerable…..act powerful like your critizing young woman in the movie….or like marital artists thinking they can catch bullets. Proud nations according to Adrain Von Kamm are less likely to convert that nations who were poor and thus the Samaritan woman with little pride converted more easily than proud pharisees like Saul. After centuries only 1 % of Chinese are Catholic and some of them in the 19th century did so for the litigious advantages that Catholics had thanks to the imperialism of France on behalf of Rome…oddly enough since France was no longer deeply Catholic in belief. China is the proud pharisee who is hard to convert than perhaps the poorer Vietnam who like the Samaritan woman did not see herself as all that.