Text/Jin Pei.
The movie "Happy Luck Club" tells the difficult past of the four mothers in the form of memories. Their past sufferings are both dramatic and everyday for the little people of old China. It shows four pairs of daughters and mothers, mothers and grandmothers, and the bitterness of facing the harsh reality, which is touching and thought-provoking.
Adapted from Amy Tan's famous work "Xifuhui" by Amy Tan, a Chinese-American writer, the film was released in 1993 and directed by Wang Ying, starring Zhou Caiqin, Wen Mingna, Yu Feihong, Wu Junmei and others.
The Joy Luck Club, founded by the warbler's mother, is where four mothers get together to play mahjong and "come to forget the mistakes of the past, laughter and joy." "You win and lose but don't forget to tell the best story." It also contains the traditional Chinese expectation of joy and blessing.
The cross-cultural theme embodied in the film is the cultural complex born from the collision and fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, and the Chinese people's belief in their own identity, that is, "Who am I?" "The search for it. Chinese immigrants overseas, when they arrive in foreign countries, there is always an irreparable rift in their hearts: language that is not understood, great sorrow that cannot be dispelled, collision with the national culture of the country of residence, and a confusion without "roots", which can only be resolved by pinning hopes on the next generation.
However, the next generation born and living in a foreign country, listening to the memories of their parents and vowing not to forget the motherland, can only fantasize about the hazy appearance of the distant homeland, only appearing in strange dreams. Rootless Chinese with yellow skin, dark eyes, American citizenship, a local fluency in English, the use of knives and forks, etc., except for the race, they are no different from others. But who are you?
Plunged into endless confusion, confusion with "Who am I?" "In pursuit.
Eventually, from being nothing to being both American and Chinese, the Chinese began to find themselves.
The first group
From an early age, Yingying's mother hopes that she can make great achievements and win glory for herself, which is what every traditional Chinese mother expects, "hoping that the child will become a dragon, and the girl will become a phoenix", regardless of whether the child wants to or not. Even today, not many Chinese parents can fully respect their children's opinions. Because the child's will is not yet mature, more parents choose to overprotect, so that some people on the Internet joked: almost thirty years old, hearing the sound of the mother going upstairs will shake the body, turn off the mobile phone screen and pretend to have slept.
The warbler refused to play the piano: "I will never be the kind of daughter you want me to be." ”
The mother replied, "There are two kinds of daughters: obedient, or obedient to their own hearts." There is only one kind of daughter who can stay in this family, and that is the kind of obedient. ”
Warbler: "Then I hope I'm not your daughter, you're not my mother." ”
Mother: "It's too late to change." ”
This may be a conversation that many families will have, how desperate, how hurtful, but yet how real.
The second group
The story tells in chronological order of a chain of blood thicker than water for grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. Lindo's mother sold Lindo to a large family as a daughter-in-law, but she escaped through her own ingenuity. The heartache and helplessness of the separation of mother and daughter are very moving in the parting woods covered with smoke, through the screen.
And the most touching scene in the film is also presented in Lindo's relationship with his daughter:
Lindo: "I could see her face facing me, but not looking at me, she felt ashamed, ashamed to be my daughter. ”
Daughter: "You don't know that you have an impact on me, your words, one look, I will go back to four years old, crying and falling asleep, because no matter what I do, I will not please you." 」 ”
Lindo: "Now, you make me happy. ”
Finally, the two laughed and hugged each other and laughed.
The third group
When Yingying was in old China, at the most beautiful age of 16, she fell in love with a man who only used her as a plaything, gave everything she had, and finally drowned her own child with her own hands in order to get revenge on the man, and when the child lay lightly in her arms, she realized that her weak soul also disappeared. When she arrived in the United States, she taught her daughter to pursue what she wanted: respect and tenderness.
Group IV
This is the most heartbreaking set of stories. Ame's mother endured all the cruelest things that a beautiful woman in the old society could endure: her husband died, she was bullied by bullies, she was forced to have children, her son was occupied, and finally, in order for her daughter to live happily, she swallowed too much opium to commit suicide, and she killed her own soul, only to save her daughter's soul.
Generations go on, and in the United States, Ame teaches her daughter about love, about freedom, about the dignity of women themselves.
So the daughter said to her husband, who wanted to give up the marriage: "You can't take my house, you can't take my daughter, you can't take any part of me, because you don't know who I am, I died sixty years ago, I ate opium... And then die... Get out of my room. ”
Here, horror, gloom, suspense, like the rebirth of Ame's mother's soul, alludes to this feeling of protecting her daughter.
It is mentioned in the Joy Blessing Society: "If you show one face, you must sacrifice the other face." ”
Everyone in this world has a face to show to others—a face that is bright and beautiful; a face that others will never see—a face full of loneliness and strength.
The beginning of the film tells a story about swan feathers that runs through the whole film, if you want to know this story and understand the face behind the Chinese in the United States, please take a look at this good movie that touches the softest part of the heart.