Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993                   TAG: 9311130054
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`THE JOY LUCK CLUB' CAN MAKE YOU CRY

But a "woman's movie" is often thought of as being slow, meditative and focused on commonplace details of everyday life. Not this one. The story is ambitious, spanning generations and continents, and there's a lot happening on screen - wars, murders, infidelity, passion.

Like its source material, Amy Tan's 1989 bestseller, the film is the story of four women from China and their four daughters who have been raised in America. The Joy Luck Club is the name the older women have given to their mah-jongg group. After one of them, Suyuan (Kieu Chinh), dies, her daughter June (Ming-Na Wen) is invited to join the club. That's when she begins to learn the astonishing secrets in her mother's past. Her three "aunties" have stories of their own.

Lindo's (Tsai Chin) daughter Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita) is a child chess prodigy. Ying Ying (France Nuyen) has been so terribly damaged that her daughter Lena (Lauren Tom) seems unable to become her own woman. An Mei's (Lisa Lu) passivity has been passed on to her daughter Rose (Rosalind Chow) and could ruin her marriage.

The causes of those problems are spun out in a series of interrelated stories that each woman tells through voice-over narration. Adding to the complexity, some of the characters are played by different actresses at different ages. Though the various plotlines in the script by Amy Tan, Ron Bass and director Wayne Wang are difficult to describe, on the screen they make sense.

The film flows smoothly among times and places, and though voice-over narration can be used to cover many sins, it's the right technique for this film.

On the negative side, some of the stories are told in more detail than others. The scenes of Ying Ying's courtship and marriage, for example, have the stylized look and passion of "The Godfather," but they're much too short. At times, particularly in the contemporary scenes, the dialog sounds like it could have come from an article in a women's glossy magazine, something like "Why Your Mother Hates You and Ten Things You Can't Do About It."

If the male characters tend to be shallow and one- dimensional, well, they're bit players and the movie isn't about them, anyway.

On the other hand, the ensemble acting is astonishing. These women are fully developed characters. Despite the often bizarre events in their lives, they're always believable. If the cast seems to be made of unknowns, they shouldn't stay that way for long.

In the end, this kind of film works or fails on an emotional level, and when the closing credits roll, there's hardly a dry eye in the house. So, ignore the flaws and excesses. Bring an extra hankie and enjoy

The Joy Luck Club: *** 1/2

A Hollywood Pictures release playing at the Gandin Theater. 140 min. Rated R for creative profanity, violence, subject matter.