Trivia / The Joy Luck Club

• Creator Cameo: Amy Tan can be seen in the party scene at the beginning of the movie.
• Fake Nationality: Suyuan Woo and Ying-Ying St. Clair are played by Vietnamese actresses Kiều Chinh and France Nguyen, and Waverly is played by Japanese-American actress Tamlyn Tomita.
  • Amy Tan famously did not want France Nguyen in the film. She wanted an ensemble cast and felt that Nguyen's Hollywood / Broadway legend status would completely eclipse the others, even well-known veterans like Lisa Lu. ^note She could be right: besides Nguyen's impressive career, any actor who has been in Star Trek: The Original Series has that status forever and will draw Trek fans whatever she's in Nguyen is still bitter about the fact that Tan had her finest scene cut so she (rather than the film as a whole) wouldn't win an Academy Award.
• Reality Subtext: Amy Tan essentially lifted An-Mei's backstory from what she was told about and researched about the backstory of her grandmother. Both the victimized An-Mei's mother and the evil Second Wife are modeled after her grandmother's alleged mannerisms and backstory. Several details that Amy thought she made up for the story were real. Amy's mother had been careful not to reveal certain details and later asked Amy how she found out about them.
• Referenced by...:
  • According to this article, Joy Ride (2023)'s title is a reference to The Joy Luck Club, which is also about four Chinese-Americans reconnecting with their Chinese roots. In fact, the movie's original title was "Joy Fuck Club".
  • In the Futurama episode "Mobius Dick", when Amy Wong's mother Inez believes that Amy is dead she declares that "my days of joy and luck are over. Guess I gotta quit that club." Amy and Inez are both voiced by Lauren Tom who appeared in the movie adaptation.

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