The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Four mothers who emigrated from China, four daughters raised in America, and a run of flashbacks that finally lets each side hear what the other never said. Wayne Wang directs from Amy Tan's novel, with a screenplay by Tan and Ronald Bass, and the structure works like a family gathering where every relative gets one story. Some of the mothers' pasts are genuinely harrowing, so it is heavier than its warm reputation suggests. It is also the best film here for a mother and daughter who come from different worlds, because so many of its arguments are really about translation. Allow well over two hours.