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Born in Hong Kong in 1949, Wayne Wang grew up in a bilingual household. His father, an engineer, was fluent in English and imparted to him a passion for American movies; and his mother, a painter, encouraged him to pursue painting. After graduating from a Jesuit high school in 1967, Wang went to Oakland, California, where he earned a B.F.A. in painting and a master's degree in film and television from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He plunged into film making, dividing his time in the next decade between film making in San Francisco and Hong Kong. Chan Is Missing, which he co-wrote, produced, directed and edited on a budget of $22,000 in 1982, was his breakthrough picture. An edgy, seriocomic account of life in San Francisco's Chinatown, it played in many mainstream theaters and garnered critical praise.
With Dim Sum, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director's Fortnight section in 1984, he consolidated his growing reputation as a spokesperson for Chinese-American generational conflicts. It told a sensitive story of the problems between a Chinese mother and her American-born daughter. It was nominated for a British Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category.
Subsequent films include Slamdance in 1987, starring Tom Hulce, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Harry Dean Stanton; Eat a Bowl of Tea in 1989, a screwball comedy shot in Hong Kong; and Life Av Cheap . . . but Toilet Paper is Expensive in 1990, a film he refers to as an "experimental mix" of the samurai and thriller genres.
The Joy Luck Club has been dubbed by Richard Corliss as a film of "epic radiance." Based on Amy Tan's 1989 novel, the title refers to a mahjong-playing group of four Chinese women-Suyuan (KieuChinh), Lindo(TsaiChin), Ying Ying (France Nuyen), and An Mei (Lisa Lu)-who live in San Francisco with their American-born daughters-respectively, June (Ming-Na Wen), Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita), Lena (Lauren Tom), and Rose (Rosalind Chao). The stories of these eight women unfold in a complex series of interlocking flashbacks, and the action ranges from past to present, generation to generation, from Imperial China to San Francisco. The relations among these women are just as complicated-nourishing, suppressive, selfless, and self-centered. It's a tour-de-force of voices, each seamlessly joined...