Boston Asian American Film Festival Opens with ‘Joy Luck Club’ at Brattle Theatre

On Oct. 18, the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) celebrated its tenth anniversary with an opening night screening of “The Joy Luck Club” in Brattle Theatre. Rosalind Chao, one of the stars of the film, joined Boston Globe interim editor Shirley Leung for a pre-screening Q&A about “The Joy Luck Club” and its legacy.

Much of the prescreening conversation compared “The Joy Luck Club” to “Crazy Rich Asians.” Directed by Wayne Wang, “The Joy Luck Club” came out 25 years ago and was the first major Hollywood production to have a predominantly Asian cast. “Crazy Rich Asians,” which was released this summer, was the second. “The tie between ‘Joy Luck Club’ and ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ has a long history between the two,” Susan Chinsen, BAAFF’s festival director, said in her welcome address to the audience. “Many of the creatives that were involved in [‘The Joy Luck Club’] have set a foundation for all the work that has led us to be able to have successes like ‘Crazy Rich Asians.’”

According to Chao, however, “The Joy Luck Club” did not have as large an impact as she had hoped. “I knew the book was monumental,” Chao said, referring to the best-selling Amy Tan novel from which the film was adapted. “But [the film] didn’t quite have the effect, the long-lasting effect, that I’m hoping ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ will.”

Chao noted that there has been a significant difference in the reception of the two films. “[The Joy Luck Club] didn’t have the huge explosion that is happening right now with ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’” she said, “and I do believe that’s partly because of social media and partly because the Asian American community wasn’t quite ready to embrace each other… whereas now I feel like the Asian American community is very supportive of each other.”

When asked whether she expected “Crazy Rich Asians” to be a bigger turning point for Asian American representation than “The Joy Luck Club,” Chao responded optimistically. “Jon Chu, the director [of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’], just opened the door, and now we’re all rushing through that door… ‘Mulan’ is going to be an all-Asian cast,” she said, noting that she will play Mulan’s mother in the upcoming live-action adaptation of the Disney classic. “[There will be] a lot of really gorgeous Asian American males [in ‘Mulan’],” Chao added, eliciting cheers from the audience. “You have to have Asian American male representation and sexy guys out there, so we’re not invisible!”

Such progress in Asian American representation was further reflected in the growth of the Boston Asian American Film Festival itself. Before Chao’s Q&A, Chinsen briefly outlined the history of BAAFF and highlighted the diverse array of films that would be shown this year. In honor of BAAFF’s tenth anniversary, the festival was expanded from four days to 11. “We have over 50 films, and we’ll be hosting 40+ filmmakers and artists here this week,” Chinsen said, before inviting the filmmakers in attendance to introduce themselves.

Several of the filmmakers explained that their films were part of the festival’s “Queer & Here” short film program, which aims to elevate the stories of the Asian American LGBTQ community. “Like Mother, Like Daughter,” which centers on a transgender Vietnamese American woman, was one of the short films in the “Queer & Here” program. Kady Le, the film’s writer-director, reflected on the significance of “The Joy Luck Club” in her life as a first-generation American. “I wanted to see this movie because I remember seeing it for the first time in high school,” she said. “I just remember, when I was 16 years old, having that movie move me to tears because of how close and authentic it felt to my own experiences as a daughter of immigrants... Even though it was from a different generation, like in the ’90s, I think it speaks to Asian Americans today.”

Other attendees of the screening were similarly enthusiastic about “The Joy Luck Club.” Yiran Wang, an audience member from Shanghai, appreciated the film’s ability to resonate with Asians as well as Asian Americans. “I read the book and really loved it… It brought me to tears, and the movie [did] as well,” Wang said. “I’m not Asian American, I’m just Asian, but [the film] still speaks to a lot of my experiences, and I feel very moved and happy.”

Another audience member, Harvard alumna Margaret Ronan Stack ’80, returned to Cambridge to see the film. “It’s the first time I’ve been to the Asian American Film Festival,” she said. “I read this book a long time ago and never saw the movie, and it just brought the whole book back to me. It’s fascinating. I think it’s a great idea to have this film festival.”

—Staff writer Angela F. Hui can be reached at angela.hui@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @angelafhui.