7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Joy Luck Club tells the uplifting story of four remarkable friends whose extraordinary lives are filled with joy and heartbreak. Their Lifelong friendship reveals a mosaic of the startling events and conditions that have shaped their lives - and how these experiences have affected the hopes and dreams they hold for each of their children.
Starring: France Nuyen, Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, Chao Li ChiRomance | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Author Amy Chua holds the distinction of having helped to introduce a term to the general public which has since become instilled as an easily recognized colloquial turn of phrase, when she wrote Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in 2011. So-called "tiger mothers" may not have been named as such more than two decades earlier when another Amy, Amy Tan, wrote her best selling novel The Joy Luck Club, but as that old adage goes, “a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet”, which in this case might be paraphrased to state “a Chinese tiger mother by any other name would still instill terror in her daughter’s heart”. There’s an obviously different dynamic between mothers and daughters than between mothers and sons or fathers and sons. My own wife for example can hardly go a day or two without calling her mother for often very long phone chats. Even when my parents were alive, I would no sooner think of calling them for a “chat”, short or long, than I would think of planning a trip to a far off planet (and frankly that second option would probably have occurred more readily to me on any given day). But the mothers and daughters in Tan’s multi-generational opus have a special bond that goes beyond even that of “typical” mothers and daughters, and it’s that yoke, in all its glory and tribulation, that forms the basis of Tan’s piece, which Tan herself adapted (with Ronald Bass) to the medium of film in 1993. While some Asians and Asian-Americans decried the film for fostering certain stereotypes (ironically more about men than about women), those of us who weren’t particularly tuned in to the Chinese immigrant experience found The Joy Luck Club to be a really heartfelt and unexpectedly moving piece that offered a glut of wonderful performances from a variety of Asian-American performers who really have had far too few opportunities to strut their collective stuff on the big screen. Unabashedly sentimental and (some might argue) at times overly melodramatic, The Joy Luck Club looks at the interwoven destines of four Chinese immigrants whose mahjong club has brought them together regularly for years. The death of one of the women creates a new opportunity for the extended families of all of them to gather, which in turn leads to a series of flashbacks where we’re given some rather remarkable back stories for various characters.
The Joy Luck Club is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney/Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The film has always looked pretty soft, and this Blu-ray continues that tradition, but there is a noticeable and rather dramatic uptick in both saturation and clarity in this new high definition presentation. The best sequences here are probably the "historical" segments, when the film tends to traffic in somewhat more exotic and/or opulent imagery than the often brown, drab imagery of the reunion party and other "current day" footage. Wang tends to favor close-ups and midrange shots throughout the film, both of which offer very good to excellent fine detail. No over aggressive digital tweaking seems to have been done to this release, which retains a very natural filmlike quality.
The Joy Luck Club features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that, if nothing else, offers the sumptuous beauty of one of Rachel Portman's most evocative and achingly gorgeous scores. The music in fact provides some of the most consistent surround activity, but the film actually has rather good immersion in many large crowd scenes, including the reunion where discrete channelization really helps to create a very vivid sonic creation of a crowded home full of people in different rooms. Dialogue is also very well supported and there's even some perhaps unexpected dynamic range courtesy of some of the backstory sequences. Fidelity remains excellent throughout this presentation and while the overall impression left by this track may seem rather restrained, it's actually very nicely balanced and nuanced, much like the film itself.
There are no "real" supplements on this disc other than "Sneak Peeks" for other Disney/Buena Vista titles. I never include such content as scorable in my assessment of supplements.
I hadn't watched The Joy Luck Club in several years before I popped in this Blu-ray, and I had frankly forgotten what a wonderfully engaging film it is. Full of really "true" feeling family dynamics, the film is a cornucopia of humor, tragedy, pettiness and nobility—much like life itself. Some may feel the film tugs a little too aggressively at the heartstrings, but a good cry never hurt anyone. This Blu-ray offers nice looking video and good sounding audio, and even without any supplements, this release comes Highly recommended.
2014
2008
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1985
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2015
Includes "Him", "Her", and "Them" Cuts
2014
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2001
2011
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2015
2002
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Tears of Joy Edition
2014
Arrow Academy
1941
2017
2016
2014