Out of all of the stories of the Mothers(And perhaps the daughters), whose was the most tragic?
For me, it would be Aunt Ying-Ying.
To see her youth, her beauty, and her child be whipped away by one man....
Very sad, indeed.
I agree....although most of it is her lack of will power.
She spent ten years in isolation...in the book she had a miscarriage when he left her for another woman. She blamed her hate for him as the reason for her child's death and spent ten years in her guilt until she got news that he had died.
I am not sure why that was not done in the film....?? supposedly she had another one after marrying Mr St Clair....thus mother and daughter never bonded that well.
hello.. i thought in the book that she aborted her unborn son after she found out how much of a player Linh-Xiao was?
shareI've taught this film and story in my English literature classes, and I've noticed that my students always seem to have the strongest reaction to the story of Auntie An-Mei and her mother (when she takes the opium to free her daughter's spirit). Their reactions usually follow a very predicatable pattern:
June's story (initially draws them in, but they're still thinking: What the hell is this?
Auntie Lindo/Waverly (they begin to really warm up to the story because of the humor).
Auntie Ying-Ying (seems to be a difficult one for the students to relate to, and throws them off somewhat after the comedy of the previous story. The guys are usually thinking, "This woman is a total wuss," and "This husband is too evil to be believable" and the girls have a very difficult time reconciling themselves to the fact that she kills her baby).
But then comes Auntie An-Mei's story, and I see the total transformation: Just complete and total heartbreak by the time that story is done. It's the one that almost always requires a full box of hankies afterward.
For me, personally though, I have to say the final segment where June's mother abandons her babies, and then June arrives in China to reunite with her sisters. I'm always in tears by that final scene.
I think this movie in general was the most heartwrenching movie I have ever seen. I have never cried as much from a movie since JLC.
share[deleted]
I think it is Suyun leaving her babies, only to be rescued herself after.
For Ying-Ying to loose her baby completly, to be so out of it that she kills him is horrendous, but to have to leave your children because you think dying next to them will mean noone will help them is just beyond tragic.
I don't know if I could ever do that. But the situation, the pressure, the sickness in her all made her do this, and she would rather have had ANY other opportunity. One thing is to leave a child with parents or "selling" her to a husband. But Suyun had no idea if anyone would ever pick them up. They could have died there under that tree. It is just awful.
*Jack Nasty loves ya*
Suyun leaving her babies, and then being rescued and never knowing whether they were alive or dead. That's just beyond tragic to me.
shareI teared up about An-Mei's grandmother, seeing how loving and respectful An-mei's mother was, even after all the accusations the grandmother threw at her.
shareI also believe that Suyuan's story is the most tragic because she had to leave those baby girls behind, then have to lose her other daughter to American culture later on. Suyuan's daughter Jing-Mei may have realized her mother's tragic story later on, but failed to recognize her mother's struggles whilst she was alive.
But as for the other mother-daughter pairs, there was a certain moment where the daughters finally made a connection with their mothers.