“The Joy Luck Club” (1993) broke ground in Asian and Asian American representation in film and TV.
Still frame from “The Joy Luck Club”
Words by Samantha Pak
Novelist Amy Tan and Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Bass (Rain Man) are teaming up to bring us a sequel to The Joy Luck Club.
The 1993 film, based on Tan’s book of the same name, with its majority-Asian American cast, was groundbreaking in representation for the community. It was one of the first instances many of us saw ourselves on the screen that wasn’t based on a stereotype.
In addition to Tan and Bass, Jeff Kleeman and Ashok and Priya Amritraj are set to produce Joy Luck Club 2 through Ashok’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group.
The Joy Luck Club was directed by Wayne Wang and followed a group of Chinese American mothers and daughters, their histories, stories, and interwoven lives. And while no director has been tied to the project, according to Variety, the original cast is in talks to reprise their roles from the first film. Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, and Lisa Lu played the mothers—members of the Joy Luck Club—while Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, and Rosalind Chao played their respective daughters.
And just as exciting as it will be to see the original cast back together again, this new film will also provide opportunities for more young Asian American actors, because Joy Luck Club 2 will follow the characters in the next phase of their lives: The mothers have become grandmothers and the daughters are now mothers themselves, with daughters of their own “exploring their own relationships with culture, heritage, love, womanhood and identity,” according to Variety.
As a writer, Tan is known for portraying the complex relationship between mothers and daughters. And for many Asian American readers, her characters’ experiences reflected many of our own as children of immigrant parents. With Tan as one of the screenwriters for Joy Luck Club 2, we can’t wait to revisit her old characters, see where their lives have taken them and how they handle raising Asian American daughters in the 21st Century and all that comes with that.
When The Joy Luck Club debuted in 1993, it grossed about $28 million in North America, according to Variety. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA award for best adapted screenplay. It also paved the way for more Asian and female representation in film and TV—Margaret Cho’s ABC sitcom All-American Girl was released a year later. However, it took more than two decades for us to see another major studio film featuring a majority Asian cast (Crazy Rich Asians, 2018) and a major network show centering Asian American characters (Fresh off the Boat, 2015-2020).
The good news is that with other recent projects such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Fire Island (2022), and Partner Track (2022) centering Asian and Asian American characters, we haven’t had to wait decades for more meaningful representation. And it looks like Joy Luck Club 2 will just keep that momentum going.
Published on October 14, 2022
Words by Samantha Pak
Samantha Pak (she/her) is an award-winning Cambodian American journalist from the Seattle area and assistant editor for JoySauce. She spends more time than she’ll admit shopping for books than actually reading them, and has made it her mission to show others how amazing Southeast Asian people are. Follow her on Twitter at @iam_sammi and on Instagram at @sammi.pak.