‘The Joy Luck Club’ Film Added to the National Film Registry 27 Years After Release

“The Joy Luck Club” is one of 25 movies selected this year to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Among the best: On Monday, the Library of Congress announced filmmaker Wayne Wang’s acclaimed adaptation of Amy Tan’s bestselling novel is among this year’s inductees including “The Dark Knight,” “Shrek,” and “Grease,” the Associated Press reports.

Films chosen for this honor are based on “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage” since 1988. As part of the list, “The Joy Luck Club” will be forever preserved by the registry, along with other great films in its collection.
This is the second time a film by Wang has been honored by the registry. His 1982 indie film “Chan Is Missing” was also selected for preservation in 1995, reported The San Francisco Chronicle.
“As a Chinese American making Chinese American films, it means a lot to me,” Wang told the SF Chronicle in an interview. “There are so few of us filmmakers, and so few of these films that to be part of the library that’s going to go down in history is really, really wonderful. I’m very honored.”
The updated list, which includes a record nine films directed by women and filmmakers of color, brings the number of films selected for preservation in the registry to 800.
“With the inclusion of diverse filmmakers, we are not trying to set records but rather to set the record straight by spotlighting the astonishing contributions women and people of color have made to American cinema, despite facing often-overwhelming hurdles,” Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, said in a statement.

Based on a classic: Wang’s groundbreaking film has been highly lauded for brilliantly translating into film Tan’s novel about two generations of Chinese American women and their complicated relationships. The film was released by Disney, albeit reluctantly, in 1993.

Tan, who was a producer of the movie, also collaborated with Ronald Bass on the screenplay.
The cast includes Ming-Na Wen, Tsai Chin, Rosalind Chao, Tamlyn Tomita, Vivian Wu and Russell Wong.
In 2019, “The Joy Luck Club” book turned 30 years old, with a milestone “special edition” novel by Penguin Random House released in celebration.
In 2018, during the 25th anniversary screening of “The Joy Luck Club” film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, producer Ronald Bass hinted at a possible series or sequel, as NextShark previously reported.
Wang, born in 1949 in Hong Kong, counts “The Joy Luck Club” as one of 23 other movies he’s directed, according to his IMDb profile. He’ll allegedly be ordering DoorDash to celebrate his historic accomplishment.

Feature image via TIFF Originals

Share this Article