The Joy Luck Club (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	133:18
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:45)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Wayne Wang
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Ming-Na Wen Tamlyn Tomita Lauren Tom Rosalind Chao Kieu Chinh Tsai Chin France Nuyen Lisa Lu
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Rachel Portman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Swedish Danish Spanish Norwegian Finnish English Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This a very well done film adaptation of novelist Amy Tan's first book about four Chinese women who migrated to America and their American-born daughters.

    The film revolves around a large dinner party held to celebrate June's (Ming-Na Wen) impending trip to China to reunite two sisters she had never met. They were tragically abandoned by her late mother Su-Yuan (Kieu Chinh) on the roadside in mysterious circumstances many many years ago back in China. Long believed to be "dead", the sisters' existence was recently discovered by Su-Yuan's church mahjongg club friends Lindo (Tsai Chin), Ying-Ying (France Nuyen) and An-Mei (Lisa Lu).

    Through a series of flashbacks, we gradually discover that underneath their seemingly comfortable and prosperous lives in San Francisco, each of the women has had a fairly interesting past back in China. Their memories have shaped their perceptions of life, and influenced their sometimes rocky relationships with their daughters. Lindo was sold in an arranged marriage to a draconian mother-in-law and married to a brat, Ying-Ying was married to a cruel playboy, and An-Mei's mother had to endure the humiliation of becoming the fourth wife or concubine to a man who raped her. Their stories are a mixture of the incredible and the tragic, and once we hear their stories we cannot help but to admire them for their heroicism and bravery.

    We also get glimpses of the daughters' lives, as young girls and then as adults. June as a child seemed destined to disappoint her mother's ambitions and hope, and as an adult has become a timid young woman with low self-esteem, but with a kind heart. Waverley (Tamlyn Tomita) was a young chess prodigy who as an adult is having problems getting her mother Lindo to accept her white American boyfriend (Christopher Rich). Lena (Lauren Tom) is married to an insensitive man (Michael Paul Chan), and Rose (Rosalind Chao) is in a failing marriage with a young publishing tycoon (Andrew McCarthy).

    The film by design is fairly episodic but it all seems to work well. Each mini-story is a vignette that is worth watching, and although the stories seem disconnected, they build on each other at an emotional level into an intense climax where we finally learn what really happened to Su-Yuan and her two baby daughters. Even though I have seen this film several times already, by the end tears were streaming through my eyes, but they were tears of satisfaction and joy.

Video

    The film is presented in widescreen, in the intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1, based on a 35mm film print.

    This is a well presented and near-reference quality transfer, from a relatively clean film source with hardly a trace of grain. Film marks are occasional and fairly minor.

    Detail levels are good, and I kept noticing little things like the texture of wood and floors, and fabric patterns. Likewise, colour saturation is pretty much spot on, with many scenes sparking with vibrance.

    The major video artefact that I encountered was moderate to high levels of ringing due to edge enhancement. Also, the scrolling end titles seem to shimmer slightly.

    A number of subtitle tracks are available, including English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Norwegian, and Finnish. In addition, two additional subtitle tracks (linked to the English and Spanish audio tracks) provide translations of Chinese dialogue. I turned on the English for the Hearing Impaired subtitle track briefly. The transcription accuracy is about average. Background noise and foley effects are transcribed, but there is no dialogue attribution.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 60:45 and is reasonably well placed because it occurs during a natural screen pause.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s). I listened to the English track.

    The soundtrack was originally recorded in Dolby Stereo, and has been remixed to Dolby Digital 5.1. It is a nice sounding audio track, with crystal clear dialogue and a full bodied musical score. I did not notice any issues with audio synchronization.

    As I expected, the soundtrack is very dialogue-driven and front centre focused with hardly any foley effects. A stereo soundstage is only generated for the background music (which, incidentally, is a lush orchestral score by Rachel Portman).

    The surround speakers and subwoofer don't appear to be used much except in the last 15 minutes of the film from around 118:22 onwards.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Unfortunately, there are no extras on this disc, not even a trailer.

Menu

    16x9 enhanced and static.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• nothing

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track
• Foreign language subtitle tracks

    Looks like both discs are similarly non-encumbered with extras.

    The Joy Luck Club is based on Amy Tan's first novel about the stories of four mothers who emigrated to America from China and their relationships with their American-born daughters.

    The video transfer quality is excellent, though marred by edge enhancement.

    The audio transfer quality is also excellent, though somewhat front centre focused.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall