Joan Chen-aissance + Beetlejuice 2 Red Carpet
Hello WNVM-ers,
Cheryl ventured into the Land of Bon Jovi — the Jersey Shore — this past week, while Fawnia’s prepping for TIFF.
In the meantime, let’s get into it with Fawnia’s ode to Joan Chen (who’s seen Dìdi?!) and Cheryl brings you the latest in haunting celebrity fashion in the land of the recently deceased, the Harris-Walz campaign’s preferred playlists, and the rosé brand name Jon Bon Jovi should have chosen for Hampton Water. Plus, follow us on Instagram! It’s pretty and we have fun in our stories over there!
Don’t Call It a Comeback
Because Joan Chen has always been here. Now everyone knows it, and she’s having the best time.
By Fawnia
I’ve said it before, I love teen shows and movies. So I was especially excited to finally see Sean Wang’s coming-of-age movie, Dìdi, which charmed everyone at Sundance and ensuing festivals this year. Finally, a film that's specifically like my childhood: Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) is a Taiwanese American teen toiling in the socio-economically and ethnically diverse East Bay suburb of Fremont. He spends the summer before his freshman year just really going through it: angst, insecurity, self-discovery, and the slow realization that his mom, played by icon Joan Chen, is a real person, with fraught relationships and heartfelt dreams.
But then I came out thinking—by egregious mistake—that I didn’t connect with it. Maybe because I was a full grown adult in 2008. (Although, for the record, I did listen to Paramore and spent too much time on AIM and MySpace.) Then, while chatting with my cousin and WNVM subscriber, Lin, I realized, wait, no, I disassociated because the movie was TOO REAL. I was just like Chris, a second gen kid trying to fit in, while not understanding that restlessness, melancholy, and yearning, much less knowing how to verbalize it.
I didn’t hate this confused, angry Chris; I hate myself for being such a teenage dick to my amazing parents! It wasn’t a part of me I enjoyed revisiting — and let’s be honest, brattiness doesn’t end with the teen years — but it also was a revelational bonding moment with Lin. So credit where credit is due to talented newcomer Izaac and the 29-year-old director for his compelling vision — peppered with evocative and super-precise-to-2008 Bay Area details, like skateboarding in deserted office parks. (Asian A.V. Club has a great interview with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker, by the way.)
But honestly, the main reason I watched the movie in the first place, and took this harrowing emotional rollercoaster ride — and maybe now need to go back to therapy — is Joan Chen. I’ve spent my entire life being blown away by the Shanghai-born actor, starting with her memorable portrayal of tragic Empress Wanrong in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 epic, The Last Emperor. Or, it actually might be the less high-brow movie, Tai Pan, based on “Shōgun” author James Clavell’s novel, which was panned even back then for negative stereotyping. But, I was too young and uninformed to realize (yet apparently old enough for an R-rating!) — and my mom and I were just so elated to watch her. Joan exudes this aspirational glamour and distinction that I had never seen before, especially not on someone with a similar background. Like she embodies the ethos: If you dream big and work hard enough, you really could fulfill your ambitions.
In Dìdi, the Oscar contender (yes, that's the buzz!) broke my heart and made me giggle many times over as Chris’ single immigrant mother, Chungsing. She put aside her big city artist ambitions to raise her two kids in the ‘burbs with absolute unconditional love and support. Joan shifts so deftly from matter-of-factly discussing bodily functions to farting (to Chris’ horror), to poignantly sharing her regrets and what-ifs to her teenage son.
“Completely effortless,” says actor-writer-director Lynn Chen, who played Joan’s daughter-in-law in the Will Smith-produced indie, Saving Face. She first met Joan, whom she also admired since childhood, at a table read for Alice Wu’s 2004 queer family dramedy. “[Joan] was literally just reading off the page, but she was the character. She was so in it and I just remember being like, ‘Oh, wow, that is what I want to be like as an actress — effortless.”
“I remember [as a child] being mesmerized by this elegant, sophisticated, gorgeous, intriguing presence on-screen. She was smoldering,” says actor-producer Brian Yang (and full disclosure: my friend and aforementioned Joey Tribiani). Before he produced the 2013 Jeremy Lin documentary Linsanity and the Ken Jeong-starring 2023 film A Great Divide, Brian achieved his dream, as the Charles Melton to Joan’s Julianne Moore… the Nicholas Galitzine to her Anne Hathaway … in Saving Face.
“When I got the news I was gonna play [Chen’s character’s] young secret lover — I can still remember the feeling — honestly, it was one of those [moments] you'll never forget,” says Brian, who recalls excitedly telling his ecstatic friends (us) and family. “They all know who Chen Chong is, right? That was a proud moment for my parents, because she spans generations.”
Joan’s been a movie star in China since she was hand-picked to join the Shanghai Film Studio at age 14, and she's been just as prolific in Hollywood since her college years. I admit to missing her as mysterious sawmill owner Josie Packard in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” — not my thing — but I can immediately pull up the image in my head. She’s continuously challenged herself, even taking her talents behind the camera. Her award-winning 1998 directorial debut, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, led to 2000’s Autumn in New York, starring Richard Gere and WNVM icon Winona Ryder. (Read David Canfield’s Vanity Fair profile for a comprehensive breakdown, and delightful interview with her.)
“Joan Chen is the bomb. I always felt like — I'm not just saying this — but she was under-appreciated in many ways. Sometimes you're ahead of your time,” says Brian.
But, ever since I yelped in delight at her 2020 cameo as the long lost (hot) ex in Alan Yang’s family drama, Tigertail, I feel like Joan has reached that stage in her trailblazing career where she’s just out there having fun. I could call it a Joan Chen-assiance, but she’s always been here. I’m just glad she’s finally getting the widespread attention and opportunities she’s been long due, like her turn as Lu Mei, a tech bajillionaire, prone to airsickness (what?), in last year’s mystery thriller “A Murder at the End of the World.” I just loved seeing her drop a savage burn, or throw a crushing side-eye, while looking chic as fuck in a Fendi caftan or an sleek black Moncler puffer coat.
Chen also just wrapped Fire Island director Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic, The Wedding Banquet, also starring my faves Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone. I can’t wait to see Chen bring new facets to playing a supportive mom to Kelly Marie Tran’s queer daughter character, which sounds kind of like Saving Face, actually.
“She’s a really fun person. There were a lot of moments in Dìdi, where I was like, ‘That's Joan. Very Joan,’” says Lynn, who also runs Gen X Taste and The Yellow Pages on Substack. “As an actress, she doesn't overthink things, she just plays and does things which is always a joy to watch, but also to act opposite. You feel very safe acting with her.”
Brian also fondly remembers working with an encouraging Joan, who kept in touch. “She makes you feel like she's an old friend, like she's known you forever. She knows you by your name. She genuinely listens and she’s, like, sneaky humorous,” he says. “She made the set really at ease for the cast and crew.”
On a recent episode of podcast “Las Culturistas,” co-host Bowen echoed similar sentiments. “Oh my god, and she is the funniest motherfucker on any set she’s on. I have it on good authority,” he said, presumably referring to The Wedding Banquet set hijinks.
Well, I have it on good authority that Joan is currently fielding more offers than ever, which bodes well for me to see her stretch — and enjoy — herself even more. I may just have to restart therapy first.
We are two Gen X journalists who analyze all the '80s and '90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here!
You Oughta Know
The publicity machine has geared up for the forthcoming September 6 premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The cast has been out and about doing photocalls, all showing up in delightfully goth looks inspired by the film. Jenna Ortega, who plays Winona Ryder’s daughter in the movie, has especially committed, showing up in black lace, various stripey outfits, and one on-the-nose homage to Lydia Deetz in her schoolgirl uniform from the end of the first film. Winona went full-on undead Victorian poet. (We love her and want her to stay weird.) And Catherine O’Hara, my god! There has also been an influx of sometimes head-scratching merch tie-ins, including a capsule collection by LA-based fashion label Rodarte. WNVM will be covering all of this more in-depth in future issues after we watch the film, which Cheryl is seeing in a preview the day before it opens broadly because she is that dedicated to this silly franchise.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz recently sat down and discussed a wide range of important issues, such as who their favorite musicians are. Walz likes Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen, unsurprisingly. Harris likes Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Prince, and hip hop. In a throwaway aside, she mentions that second gentleman/husband Doug Emhoff is into Depeche Mode. Anyone who read our theory of ‘80s broccoli hair — which he sported during that period — should not be surprised to learn this! (It would be really fun to have some Gen X-ers in the White House, wouldn’t it?) [Twitter/X]
Speaking of Gen X in the White House, Harris showed up in her signature Converse to kick off her campaign’s bus tour. (The brand would probably welcome the attention and appreciate others wearing them in solidarity, because they recently have been suffering declining sales.) We have been zooming into the pictures forensically to try to figure out what model they are, because they seem to be a platform style, though we can’t find confirmation of this. Wearing regular OG Converse All-Stars, known for zero arch support or padding, is probably not conducive to being on your feet all day greeting supporters. [Twitter/X]
In a blurb discussing Jon Bon Jovi’s rosé wine brand, Hampton Water, which he runs with son Jesse Bongiovi, Bongiovi drops the nugget that they “considered calling it Bed of Roses rosé.” Bongiovi said it was a joke, but this was a real missed opportunity IMHO. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Hong Kong’s record-setting martial arts blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In opened in the U.S. last week. Director Soi Cheang discusses the movie’s setting of 1984, when the British agreed to return the colony to China, the recreation of the infamous Kowloon Walled City, which was demolished in 1993, and a cast that inspired many young Gen X-ers, including martial arts star Sammo Hung and heartthrob Aaron Kwok — whose face was plastered all over Fawnia’s college dorm room thanks to her roommate Elaine. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Sofia Coppola is releasing a product with botanical beauty brand Monastery. (h/t Feed Me) The $120 facial mist, which looks and sounds lovely, drops in October but is available for pre-order now. This is the second high-end beauty collaboration Coppola has done recently. She recently worked with Augustinus Bader on a trio of tinted lip balms, which our friends over at Starving for Beauty analyzed and pronounced off-brand for her. The world does not need one more single celebrity beauty brand, but one from Sofia Coppola done properly, with her signature eye and aesthetic? We might listen. Maybe all these collabs are just testing the water for her. [Monastery]
Matthew Perry’s doctors and his personal assistant have been charged in his tragic death from a ketamine overdose. This story is just so sad. [The New York Times]
For much less than a case of Bed of Roses Hampton Water rosé, you can support us and upgrade your subscription here:
Talking about Joan Chen is one of my favorite pastimes.
Love this piece Fawnia. I absolutely love Joan Chen and I loved Dìdi when I watched it during Sundance earlier this year. I myself was growing up in the East Bay Area just before time this film was set (2004 high school grad!) and I have two Asian childhood best friends and many close Asian friends, and the film felt so connected to some their experiences and what they described to me over the years as we grew up together. The film felt so authentic and huge kudos to the filmmakers. I’m friends with the costume designer Brianna Murphy who I think did a wonderful job. 👏