MovieChat Forums > The Joy Luck Club (1993) Discussion > Who's your favorite mother and daughter?

Who's your favorite mother and daughter?


The characters are so different in this movie, I think it's hard to choose! My favorite daughter was without a doubt, Waverly Jong. She has a very strong will, doesn't back down, and is just point-blank cool (and also Tamlyn Tomita was excellent as her). As for my favorite mother, it's either Lindo or Ying Ying. Tsai Chin was really cool as Lindo, but I always just like Ying Ying the best. She seemed like such a sweet person.

Anyway...I'm interested to hear what you say!

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I think that Rose was my favorite daughter and Ying Ying was my favorite mother. But, it is the extraordinary job that each of these mothers and daughters does at portraying the mother/daughter bond that makes it so special. I feel so connected to all the characters; the way that all the stories intertwine is incredible. It does an excellent job at showing the "how I see my mother, how my mother sees me, and how others see our relationship" saga that every young girl and her mother experience. The movie showed me that mothers really DO have a life before their children, even if we don't realize or acknowledge it. This is an important lesson for daughters to learn; it is the experiences that a mother had in growing up that made her the woman she is and it is the things she learned from those experiences that she is passing down to her daughter, hoping she will learn from them. Daughters in general, or maybe just me, often disregard it when their mother says things such as "Trust me, I know from experience." I realized after this movie that there was SO much more to my mom than I knew. She is an individual and it took seeing this movie for me to really come to terms with that.

I don't know if this makes any sense, I am having a hard time verbalizing my exact thoughts. This movie is so touching; I can't watch it without going through an array of emotions and it always ends with me placing a call to my own mom to tell her how much I love her.

“I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way. No, this cannot be, this not knowing what you're worth, this not begin with you.” ~An-Mei

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Thanks for responding and putting that quote in the end. I thought Ying Ying was an inspiring character... the end of this movie always makes me and my mom cry!!



~No One Mourns The Wicked~

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Favorite daughter: June because I can relate to her about what she said in the film about disappointing her mother.

Favorite Mother: Hard choice I liked all of them.

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Ying Ying and Lena have always been my favorite.

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My answer is all of them. However, since I didn't read the book and all I had have to go on is what I had seen in the movie, I had always felt for the daugther who dismissed as have no life, the one who is a faith, serving daugther. The reaction on her face tells me that she is hurt everytime, think it is Ling-Ling, (but i'm not sure), just waves her off. It tells me that there is something more going on there than what the current narrator is relating.


"Its easy to win when you throw out the rules." from Hitchcock's "Saboteur."

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Ying Ying and Lena. In the book I didn't understand their relationship and what Ying Ying was talking about at the end of her last chapter, the part about waiting between the trees.

But the movie clarifies it in a really great scene where after Ying Ying accidentally breaks the vase and Lena comes running she confronts Lena and "gives her her tiger spirit" which is rightfully hers. Great.

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<<But the movie clarifies it in a really great scene where after Ying Ying accidentally breaks the vase and Lena comes running she confronts Lena and "gives her her tiger spirit" which is rightfully hers. Great.>>

AH, I LOVE that scene in the movie! It's so well done!


...and in conclusion, I would like to say that James Dean and Leo Gorcey are very hot.

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<<But the movie clarifies it in a really great scene where after Ying Ying accidentally breaks the vase and Lena comes running she confronts Lena and "gives her her tiger spirit" which is rightfully hers. Great.>>

AH, I LOVE that scene in the movie! It's so well done!

___________________________

I cry like a baby at that scene."I will be waiting, like a tiger in the trees.."

But for pure entertainment, I like the tug of war between Waverly and her mother.





God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety

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I love the relationship between Jing Mei (June)and Suyuan. I was so touched by the story of the swan feather because it is a message of hope. Suyuan regretted giving up on her twins so when she had Jing Mei, she placed all her hopes on her. June may not be as talented and as sophisticated as Waverly as she is often compared to but her mother never gave up on her.

It hits close to home when it comes to mother and daughter relationships because most mothers would love their children to be the best that they can be specially with their daughters isn't it?

I also love that scene where they talked about the crab. That June did not choose the best quality crab because she had the best quality heart. Meaning, June may not recognise it but she does have a heart that sees and understands people.

Another thing I liked about the June and Suyuan tandem was the scene with the swan feather. When she met up with her twin sisters in the movie, she brought the swan feather and her mother's pictures and that was very moving to me and it ended with the lines, "This feather may look worthless but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions."













Be back when Pride and Glory requires an Ugly Betty double to be fed to the sharks!

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well said I always cried at that part when she talked about the swan feather and the talk with her mother about the crab. It always happens.

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First, I'm a guy and let me tell you ... us guys have the same problems as you women do with mothers ... and fathers. Chinese or not.

I read all you post and certainly agreed with all of them. I just watched it again (which is why I'm here) and after tonight's veiwing, I really identified with the long time effect of what was happening to Waverly.

Interestingly, I've seen the movie 5 or 6 times and never before identified with Waverly. MOF in past viewings Waverly was my least favorite.

It would be interesting to invite back everyone who has posted her, have them watch the movie again (after some time, of course) and see if they still feel the same way or if they have a new favorites.

All the mothers are my favorites. I loved them all.

Macklin Crew

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I think my favorite is Lena and Ying Ying, espeassially is written in the book. I'm not sure I approve of the changes done to their stories in the film, though. What I like about their stories is Ying Yings ability to read the future, and the way she deals with it. And Lenas way of relating to a mother she occationatly believes has gone mad.

Jing Meis and Suyans story is also very nice, the story about the swan is really touching. Really describes the feelings and wishes a parent could have for their child, which the child too often never understands.

**********
They blew up Congress!!! HAHAHA!

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Fave mother: Lindo funniest, An-Mei nicest
Fave daughter: June and Lena
Fave mother-daughter combo: Waverley/Lindo funniest, but most touching is Ying-Ying/Lena

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in the book
mother- lindo
daughter- jung mei

in the movie
mother- suyuan
daughter- jung mei
if you never lie, then you dont have to remember anything- Mark Twain

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Mother: An-Mei - I always liked her story the best.

Daughter: I liked June, Rose, and Lena almost equally, really.

Waverly and Lindo are kind of a**holes. lol Granted loveable ones, if you grew up with them, but certainly not endearing enough to be anywhere near my favorite.

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Hm...I think I'd have to say that my favorites are Ying Ying and Lena- at least in the movie, they seem to have the best relationship. I feel like you can see how much they *really* love each other (as opposed to Waverly and Lindo, who are always fighting; Suyuan and June, because June just didn't understand her mother; and even An-Mei and Rose, because Rose was just blind to so much). I love Auntie Ying Ying!!


~I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship~ LMA

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