| | The Joy Luck Club"You must think for yourself what you must do. If someone tells you, then you are not trying." -An-mei Hsu, "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan (Special Book Club Edition, copyright 1989) I was looking at my bookcases and saw "The Joy Luck Club." I thought, wow, we've had this book for so long but I've never read it. I remember watching the movie when I was much younger and not really understanding some things. So I decided to re-watch the movie and read the book. The movie was...not as 'good' as I remembered and the book was much better, albeit a bit confusing since Tan goes back and forth with the individual stories. As expected, the movie took liberties with some of the information and dialogue. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it took out alot of the little things that should've been included in the movie b/c it would have made certain situations more understandable. For example, in the movie, took out the childhoods of Rose Hsu Jordan and Lena St. Clair. I guess the movie really wanted to focus on Waverly and June. The book explains the Chinese superstition of the Red Candle. A red candle is lit on the night of one's marriage and if it is still lit in the morning, meaning that it never blew out, the marriage is a long lasting one. If the candle does blow out, then there was a mismatch and the marriage is doomed. In the movie, Lindo Jong recalls her childhood and arranged marriage. She claimed to never have met her future husband until the night they were married and later acted crazy with dreams of angry ancestors that explains the bad marriage and the lack of grandchildren. In the book, however, Lindo talks about how, on special occasions, she's met with her future husband and paid respects to her future mother-in-law by presenting her with self-made dumplings. She also goes on to explain that the red candle that had been lit on the night of her marriage had indeed blown out during the night, and the maid that had been watching over it had relit it as per instructions of the matchmaker. That sounds like an essay in the making -__- moral of the post...books are better than the movies they're turned into |
