Daily News from New York, New York • 1919

NEW YORK'S BEST ENTERTAINMENT SECTION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER "8993 ci -4 liMIJliOILEdl 'r' VV2, HOPE SPRINGS MATERNAL: (From left) Kieu Chin, Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lauren Tom, Lisa Lu and Rosalind Chao in "The Joy Luck Club" i i mm M1W LfU Duty and love of two generations of Chinese women mark tears of 'Joy Luck Club' The Joy Luck Club recoils in horror. "How can a daughter not know her own mother?" That is the main thrust of the movie that mothers and daughters share an inextricable bond, like it or not. lidifies the women's stories so that each pairing makes genealogical sense. The mother who once craftily escaped her own destiny passes on to her daughter the gift of strategy. This daughter becomes a chess prodigy until the day she takes her mother for tant cultural component; their problems revolve around self-esteem.

But the mothers whose childhoods were tests of identity and survival are rich, exciting characters. At first, they seem old-fashioned, superstitious, querulous. As their stories unfold, we see their true selves, which can best be de IRECTOR WANG, WHOSE most successful movies Sum," "Eat a Bowl of have THE JOY LUCK CLUB. With Kieu Chin. Tsai Chin.

France touyen. Lisa Lu. Ming-Na Wen. Tamlyn Tomita. Lauren Tom.

Rosalind Cnao. Directed and co-produced Oy Wayne Wang. At Cinema 1. Running time: 135 minutes. Rated R.

HE WEEP-O-METER MAY NOT II always be the most accurate gauge of a film, yet "The Joy Luck Club" certainly registers high on it. "The Joy Luck Club" is an emotionally exhaustive weepie that successfully adapts Amy Tan's complex, in-tergenerational novel about four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters. Their stories carry the cumulative force of history, culture and mother love. Not since "Flower Drum Song" have there been so many Asians in a Hollywood movie. With this huge, abundantly female cast, director Wayne Wang weaves an intricate tapestry of matriarchal strength and sacrifice.

The movie pairs the unlikely yin and yang of Disney (as distributor) and Oliver Stone (as executive producer). The screenplay (partly by Tan) so granted. (Score one for the moms!) The mother who witnessed her own mother's ultimate sacrifice must harness old strengths to help her own emotionally fragile daughter. (Score another for the moms!) And so on. The movie gains momentum until the waterworks get turned on full-blast.

This is not only because the stories are fraught with pain and meaning, but be scribed as they do the traditional game of mah-jongg "very tricky." That four-cornered game is the basis for the Joy Luck Club, a cabal that meets regularly to replenish their Chinese spirits. When one member dies, the others invite her daughter to sit in. This daughter gets more than a mah-jongg game. Her "aunties" play for big emotional stakes. been about the Chinese family experience in America, spends most of his energy shaping and containing the various stories, parts of which were shot in China.

He sees the central problem is one of perception, or misperception the women's faces are reflected and refracted by mirrors, windows, shafts vf light. "You look, but no see," as one mother chides. The fourth daughter has been waiting in the wings throughout the movie's framing device of a going-away party. When she finally looks at and ees the truth of her mother's "good intentions." it is time for "The Joy Luck Club" to register right off the I JAMI BERNARD "My way best way," harrumphs one as they manipulate the daughter into going to China to find the twin babies her mother abandoned during the war. What can she tell these now middle-aged women about their mutual mother? cause each segment presents the kind of emotional closure that is usually impossible in real life.

The second generation of women are paler versions of their moms. These San Francisco-born daughters speak English but lack some impor- weep-o-meter and into a realm where Kleenex, or even mom, cannot help you. I I I -Tt1'J lit! fT l'Jk I 'A'Jil llA'A'J 1 tlUlM 71.