My college gf put this on one day when I was hanging out at her parents' house and I ended up snotty and sobbing while they all stared at me like I'd lost my mind. For whatever reason, this movie cut deep and hard, and I never watched it again. Twenty years later and I figured watching your reaction would be easier, but man... this still ripped my heart out. It's a beautiful story, but it's absolutely heartbreaking in equal measure. Thanks for bringing back some memories and helping me enjoy my second shot at experiencing the story.
One of the quintessential generational trauma films, especially for a lot of us Asian Americans, long before I had ever heard of the term, "generational trauma". Certainly Amy Tan's most famous novel and I love how The Simpsons referenced it in one episode when Lisa actually meets her in person and gushes about how she showed that the mother-daughter bond can triumph over adversity, only to have Amy Tan literally facepalm and tell her, "No, that's not what I meant at all; you couldn't have gotten it more wrong." (Obviously both the book and movie are centered around all the daughters and mothers telling their individual stories of adversity and many of the daughter learning from their mothers. The Simpsons just made a funny moment that Lisa somehow missed the point.)
Based on one of my favorite books by Amy Tan. I am always glad to see you delve into some deeper films. It is a tough watch at times. I think the mothers all achieved their goal of passing their hopes on to their daughters. The mother/daughter relationships are the hardest, but in the end the most rewarding.
I saw this with a friend in the theater when it came out. I began crying when the screen was still black with the voice over of the story of the one white swan feather and all her good intentions, my friend couldn't believe I was crying and let out her hearty boisterous laugh, by the end she was crying with me. Such an impartial story.
Ming-Na Wen is the only actress to date to hit the Disney trifecta of playing a princess (Mulan), a Marvel character (Melinda May in Agents of SHIELD), and a Star Wars character (Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and Bad Batch). She's noted the one downside to this is that it was extremely hard to decide what her Disney+ avatar should be. And I have to note that at age 59, she still looks exactly the same as in this movie, as you've seen in The Mandalorian. You've also seen Rosalind Chao before, as the "Asian woman" vision of Robin Williams' daughter in What Dreams May Come.
Thanks for this. These are such important stories and Amy Tan told them so well. I'm afraid this movie is being forgotten now so I'm glad to see it here.
I remember in the theater towards the end all of the close, intimate scenes and it felt like the movie was coming to an end. Then BANG that enormous shot of wartime China with thousands of extras.
Thank you so much for reacting to such a powerful and moving film. The first time I saw it I was sobbing so hard that I could barely make it to my car in the parking lot. It affected me to my core.
This was one of the 1st movies I watched as a young kid that Showed me an early lesson about, Hurt People - Hurt People. & That sometimes Generational Trauma is the Only thing We inherit from our Families.
One of my most favorite books and movies of all time. While I am Caucasian, my family are also immigrants with stories of hardship and sacrifice. Not really quite as dramatic as the movie, but it still reminds me to be grateful my Great grandparents came to this country, bringing all their hopes and dreams for the children they would have.
So glad you watched this wonderful film. I had read the book, and I think the film did it justice. That scene where June's mom locks her gaze on her daughter and with such fierce love and pride makes it clear to her daughter she sees who she is. That part and the end with the three sisters always makes me cry.
You mentioned that you weren’t very familiar with the time period of Chinese history that was depicted in the flashbacks. The wartime scenes and before took place during the Chinese Civil War, which was fought intermittently from 1927 to December 1949. Most of the scenes showing refugees escaping war-torn areas took place in the post-WWII period up to late 1949, when the Communists, led by Mao Zedong, took control of Beijing and established the People’s Republic of China, while the Nationalists, aka the Republic of China or the Kuomintang, fled to the island of Formosa and created the nation of Taiwan.
Two more recent Asian culture films I enjoy are Memoirs of a Geisha and Crazy Rich Asians. Thank you for sharing your reaction to The Joy Luck Club, one of my favorite films.
This was my favorite favorite movie. This movie helps me to understand my parents more & appreciated them more. Different generations & different times change our relationship bc of communication, but to try to connect & understand each other, we, the next generation, understand them. "I see you." I missed u daddy. Thank u for the reaction & ur time. I enjoyed the Chinese culture, the hardships & most of all, self-love, so that way u can pass it on to the next generation. ❤❤❤
I'm so happy to see someone reacting to this movie. Great reaction! This is the first reaction I've seen to this movie, and it's a movie that means a lot to me, so thank you for watching it! My mother was Chinese, and she died in an accident when I was very young. When I first saw it, this movie absolutely broke me. But it told stories of the sort of mother-daughter relationships and connections I didn't have, and for a while after I first saw it, I watched this movie multiple times a week. It made me feel connected in some way to my mom, if that makes sense. The Joy Luck Club is one of the few Blu Rays on our shelves that was bought exclusively for me. There have been other movies that I feel like every Asian American has seen/must see that I haven't had a chance to see yet ("Crazy Rich Asians" and "Everything, Everywhere" come to mind) but I never wanted any spoilers, so I haven't actually watched trailers or read synopses for them. It's possible my assumptions of their content could be very wrong. I very much want to see them so I can see for myself. Unfortunately, it seems like every time we buy a movie in this house these days, it's somehow related to Marvel, and I haven't yet had the chance to catch any of them streaming. I keep hoping our budget will loosen up enough to resume our Netflix and add a few other streaming services to our household entertainment so that I have more options.
I’m so sorry about your mom ♥️ I’m glad I was able to watch such a moving film that so many people like yourself hold dear to their heart. I haven’t watched Crazy Rich Asians yet but it’s on my list, but Everything Everywhere is an absolutely phenomenal film that everyone should dive into!
A movie I think you would enjoy..... The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Glad you liked Joy Luck Club. I didn't even realize it had been 30 years for this film. That honestly blew my mind. Sad film, traumatic film...but damn is it good.
The film mostly sticks close to the book, but one weird change is in which of the love interests is an irredeemable jerk. In the book, Ted doesn't defend Rose from his mother's racism, and even has the gall to chastise her for not standing up for herself, which ultimately leads to Rose actually kicking him out. Meanwhile, Harold is portrayed as just a bit carelessly selfish rather than the complete prick in the film.
Wonderful reaction! Let me tell you my experience seeing it in the theater when it first came out: EVERYONE, and that includes grown men, were bawling their eyes out through the whole film. Never saw anything like it in a movie theater before or since. For me, it started with the opening moments and the story of the swan feather. My great-grandmother came to this country with a sack of feathers. They were her dowry. She made them into three quilts and gave one to each of her three daughters when they married. The feather symbolizing the connection to the mother and hope for the future really resonated with me and seemed so universal. Thanks! LOVE your reactions, especially when you do the old Hollywood movies!
'second wife is a hoe taking her babyyyy' hahaha best line for me. This movie is special to me bc i watched it a lot on TV growing up and its a movie i come back to to have on in the bg sometimes hwen i work. its not a blockbuster or recent movie that will be used by reactors but i just love you reacted to this!!! thank u
I was so excited to see you were reviewing this fabulous film! It is brutal in the various stories it tells, true. But each of the mothers' stories, their daughters' relationships to each of the moms, and the daughters' stories give us a picture of the strength of family, love and learning through adversity. My favorite story in the book (and film) was the mom who figured out how to get out of a very bad marriage in a most clever way. And, of course, this was the mom who used her daughter's fame to try and gain her own fame. My most favorite scene, though, is when June and her mom finally confront how the mom sees her daughter. That line, "I SEE YOU!" just tore me up. For me, that is the most beautiful scene in the entire movie - and conveys so much of the love and emotion June's mom has for her. Wow! Thank you for being willing to take this movie on!
Thanks for reacting to this movie! One of the first movies with an predominately Asian cast and based on a popular Amy Tan book. Your reactions are always very real and genuine so it's great to watch your vids. Great job and see you at the next one!
It must be the Mandela Effect because I remembered Michelle Yeoh being in this also since every other Asian actor was But it was one of Rosalind Chao's best roles
I'm not sure I ever saw this movie, but I read the book several times, and the language was so vivid, it feels like I've watched it. Happy to go back to this memory with you, even though I'm sure it will be a sad one.
I thought I had seen this film long ago but none of it looked unfamiliar. I guess I had heard this film title mentioned so often for so many years that my brain somehow concluded that I had seen it.
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE won 7 Oscars: Best Picture Best Director Best Film Editing Best Original Screenplay Best Actress Michelle Yeoh Best Supporting Actor Ke Huy Quan Best Supporting Actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
Kinda feel bad for the moms that had to go through so much because of their husbands being bad people and with only daughters, not sons and who never got to know their father.
This is a masterpiece of a film. For me, it was less about 'generational trauma' and more about the strength and spirit of women. No matter what what culture you look at, women have traditionally been treated less-than. This film shows the historical abuse of living in an extreme patriarchy and the ripple effect it has on women through the generations. It is a sad movie, but at the same time a celebration of strong women.
My mom read the book & kind of got us into Mahjong because of it (I bought her a set), and I learned a version (since there are a hundred different variants for scoring) we all played & occasionally dragged friends into.
I know you saw this a year ago, but there is a depth to chinese culture and tradition many western countries don't (or don't want to) understand. This movie just opened a crack in the door that opens to hundreds of years of history. I hope this movie opened your eyes a bit to how other cultures are and that you have to respect that is the way things are regardless of what you think is right or wrong based on your own western ideals. I am an amercian born and raised in the US, and I totally understood generational trauma that my parents and their generation tries to protect me and my first gen relatives from. It is what it is. It is not western thinking where there is a freedom of choice. Back in the day in China, it was competition to survive. Parents did what ever they could for their children to survive, even if that means giving them away to another family to take care of. There are usually no so called 'happy endings' in chinese history. Alot of it is tragic, and many first generation born outside of China understand that. But it fades when the 2nd generation is born and they lose their ancestral cultural identity. Thank you for watching this movie. I hope it broadens your horizons a bit to learn about other cultures other than just living in the western culture.
If you liked this, perhaps you might like to give 'Crazy Rich Asians' a try? Best described as: Jane Austen... Set in the 21st Century... With Asians. And speaking of Asian cast movies-- would absolutely LOVE if you would consider reacting to 'Everything, Everywhere, All At Once'. Caveat: it's A LOT. Like, overwhelming brain overload, a lot. (The Matrix meets 2001 meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?) And every time you think it can't possibly get any more crazy, it does. But in the best way! It's a wild ride, and I think you would enjoy it.
Amy Tan was firmly against France Nuyen being in the movie, worried that the huge Broadway star would overshadow the others. It probably also didn't help that she's only half-Chinese, with her mother being French Roma. She went so far as cutting Ying-Ying's most emotional scene, which Nuyen is furious about to this day. Though the casting also led to a pretty fun in-joke, as Nuyen had starred in the original production of The World of Suzie Wong, which Rose notes Ted's mother feels like a character out of.
Oh man, lol.. so many mixed feelings about this movie.. Ot1h, it's pretty seminal to the asian female experience, especially of my mom's generation. (Otoh, I and all my other *male* asian friends noticed: in the years after this came out, lotsa asian girls we knew or encountered, of our own generation and all like US-raised like us mind you, really didn't seem to like us quite as much as before, even ones who were our *friends*.. It was like we'd been the lucky unwitting beneficiaries of all the scorn they wanted to direct at the vile asian male characters in the story, which I definitely felt too watching..) But yeah, my mom has all kindsa trauma stories of when she was a kid. Grandma forcing her to cook the rice when she was 5, beating her until she was bleeding if she burned it. Grandma trying to sell her off when she was 7 to some wealthy family who desperately wanted a kid (mom said she actually was sold and it was my grandfather who came that same night to rescue her and bring her back). Mom still brings that up every now and then, laughing about it but with bitter resentment, talking about how she still eventually forgave grandma (but never forgot-and honestly how do you?), but also wonders if she'd probably would've grown up possibly much happier with that wealthy couple as parents. Or how mom has or had uncles "back in China" with like 6 or 7 wives each.
thanks for doing this, any channel smart enough to do this should get subbed for sure, it blows me away so many channels that do reactions do so many crap movies but not this one, this is such a classic 🙂
I hadn't seen this before, so thanks for the opportunity to check it out. What really strikes me is that it's incredibly hard to write even one "human flawed" character without at some point taking them beyond any hope of audience sympathy, while this story has a whole cast of those and manages to keep them all on the right side of the line. Also, I was really worried for a while that it would be supporting that classic asshole defense "It was a different time/culture, you can't judge them," but luckily it's smart enough to avoid that too.
I was never good enough, pretty enough, society enough for my mother, to the point that she wanted me to stay in an abusive marriage for the money. It never ended until the day she died. to be honest, I mourned a little, but was more relieved. Even when I was 60 years old, she was hateful and judgmental. I am so thankful that I had a dad that was always in my corner, and was loving and kind.
This movie was a really great movie for Chinese representation and for mothers and daughters. But as the American son of an Irish mother, there's something in these experiences that echoes for me. And I suspect for most children of immigrants. And it wrecks me every time.
Loved this movie and the book. I read few of Amy Tan’s books. This one especially tho definitely the definition of generational trauma which was a term i never heard of when i first read the book and saw the movie
This movie is a tearjerker.. check out hope floats with Sandra Bullock it's really good also please do the Magdalene Sisters and Rabbit Proof Fence they are true stories and heartbreaking
You have not yet seen a single hindi language (bollywood) film. All you have seen from India are regional language films that are cringe and unnecessarily overhyped. I would highly recommend you watch some bollywood. You can start with "SHERSHAAH", "GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI" and "YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI" 🔥 Trust me and go for it
Six years ago back in late November late 2017 I'm at my first beautiful lovely disabilities prolifer Chinese Vietnamese Israeli Jewish college girlfriend Joanna Jane kolbeck.🇮🇱🇻🇦🇹🇼🇻🇳🇨🇳🇲🇽✝️
