ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Art Director Burt, Donald Graham

Associate Producer Jessinta Liu Fung-Ping

Cinematographer Mokri, Amir

Costume Design Tanji, Lydia

Executive Producer Stone, Oliver

Executive Producer Yang, Janet

Film Editor Hoy, Maysie

Music Portman, Rachel

Producer Bass, Ron

Producer Markey, Patrick

Producer Tan, Amy

Producer Wang, Wayne

Screenwriter Bass, Ron

Screenwriter Tan, Amy

Sound Gegan, Gary

Sound Iadarola, Matthew

Production Company Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Canada, Inc.

Production Company Hollywood Pictures

Production Company Ixtlan

Distributor Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Canada, Inc.

Principal Cast Baker, Diane

Principal Cast Chan, Michael Paul

Principal Cast Chao, Rosalind

Principal Cast Chinh, Kieu

Principal Cast Guest, Nicholas

Principal Cast Lu, Lisa

Principal Cast McCarthy, Andrew

Principal Cast Ming-Na Wen

Principal Cast Nuyen, France

Principal Cast Rich, Christopher

Principal Cast Tom, Lauren

Principal Cast Tomita, Tamlyn

Principal Cast Tsai Chin

Principal Cast Wong, Russell

Principal Cast Wong, Victor

Principal Cast Wu, Vivian

DESCRIPTION

TIFF NOTE

In 1993, we had no way of knowing just how historic the world premiere of --The Joy Luck Club--would become. Wayne Wang's

Amy Tan's bestselling novel, "The Joy Luck Club," has been turned into the kind of sweeping emotional epic many people associate with classic Hollywood films. The story focuses on June, a young Chinese American woman whose mother Suyuan has just died. Suyuan's closest friends -- three other Chinese women who form the mahjong group known as the Joy Luck Club -- decide to honour their late friend's fondest wish by pooling their savings to send June to China for a reunion with her long-lost sisters. It is during the bon voyage party that June, her three "aunties" and their three daughters unleash the complex flow of memories that become the real voyage of the film. Director Wayne Wang and screenwriter Ross Bass do a brilliant job intercutting among the eight main characters, exposing complicated mother- daughter conflicts. But the stories reach much farther: back to grandmothers in China, and forward to great grandchildren in America. As the film moves between a China of concubines, arranged marriages, war, poverty, abandoned babies and sadistic husbands, and a San Francisco filled with more contemporary dangers (divorce, interracial marriage, discrimination) Wang and Bass never lose sight of the deep emotional and cultural forces that bind together -- and sometimes splinter apart -- these generations of women. Paramount among the many pleasures of "The Joy Luck Club" are superb ensemble performances by some of the most acclaimed Asian actresses in cinema who play 16 striking women of all ages, past and present. Especially impressive are the various children who create sharp, individualistic characters. Like the great cycle of studio women's pictures of the thirties and forties, "The Joy Luck Club" shamelessly embraces humour, melodrama, sentiment and style in the service of a story that unabashedly celebrates the struggles and triumphs of its heroines.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING HISTORY

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE PROGRAMMING HISTORY

TIFF YEAR-ROUND PROGRAMMING HISTORY

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FRL-46968 research file