Joan ChenFilmography

Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Film

Actors: Turhan Bey, Joan Chen, Tsai Chin, Stephen Gong, James Hong

Synopsis: Filmmaker Arthur Dong's documentary Hollywood Chinese pays homage to the first century of the American film industry, as specifically colored and influenced by the Chinese immigrants to whom Hollywood owes an inestimable debt. Dong touches on everyone from actress Anna May Wong, of Limehouse Blues Read More

Lust, Caution

Actors: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee Hom

Synopsis: Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee adapts this Eileen Chang story set in World War II-era Shanghai that details the political intrigue surrounding a powerful political figure named Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Spanning the late '30s and early '40s, the movie introduces Read More

Sunflower

Actors: Joan Chen, Sun Haiyung, Liu Zi Feng, Zhang Fan, Gao Ge

Synopsis: The tumultuous relationship between a father returning home after years in a labor camp and the nine-year-old son who doesn't quite know what to make of this new man in his life lies at the heart of director Zhang Yang's heartfelt drama addressing the nature of change and the importance of family Read More

Americanese

Actors: Chris Tashima, Allison Sie, Kelly Hu, Ben Shenkman, Joan Chen

Synopsis: Writer-director Eric Byler adapted his ensemble comedy-drama Americanese from Shawn Wong's bestselling 1995 roman American Knees. The film, like the novel, dramatizes the seriocomic, day-to-day experiences of a number of Asian American immigrants in the City of Angels. At the story's center Read More

Tonight at Noon

Actors: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lauren Ambrose

The Home Song Stories

Actors: Joan Chen, Joel Lok, Irene Chen, Qi Yuwu, Steven Vidler

Synopsis: A combination of circumstance and poor life choices turn to young children into the caretakers for their unstable mother in writer/director Tony Ayres' semi-autobiographical family drama. As aging writer Tom (Darren Yap) sits down to pen a screenplay detailing his life story, memories quickly Read More

The Sun Also Rises

Actors: Jiang Wen, Joan Chen, Anthony Wong, Jaycee Chan, Zhou Yun

Synopsis: Loosely inspired by author Ye Mi's novel Velvet, Chinese New Wave director Jiang Wen's follow-up to Devils on the Doorstep drifts between Yunnan's Shangri-la and the Gobi Desert to follow four narratives exploring the roles that culture and revolution have played in Chinese history. In the first Read More

Saving Face

Actors: Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, Lynn Chen, Li Zhiyu, Shen Guanglan

Synopsis: An Asian-American woman and her mother both find their private lives are becoming a family matter in this romantic comedy-drama. Wilhelmina Pang (Michelle Krusiec) is a surgeon living in Manhattan whose mother (Joan Chen) is eager for her to settle down with a nice man and get married. What Ma Read More

Cyber Wars

Actors: Genevieve O'Reilly, Luoyong Wang, Joan Chen, David Warner

Synopsis: A collection of evil corporate conglomerates are using their powerful influence to play a deadly game with the citizens of a major metropolitan city, and upon discovering the diabolical scheme, a fearsome bounty hunter and a determined police detective find that beating the moneymen at their own Read More

Jasmine Woman

Actors: Zhang Ziyi, Joan Chen, Jiang Wen, Liu Ye, Lu Yin Pei

What's Cooking?

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon, Mercedes Ruehl, Victor Rivers, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies, Joan Chen, Kristy Wu, Will Yun Lee

Synopsis: Kenyan-born, London-educated Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha follows up on her debut hit Bhaji on the Beach (1994) with this gentle look at multiculturalism in Los Angeles. The film details the lives of four ethnically diverse families -- black, Latino, Jewish, and Asian -- during one frantic Read More

Autumn in New York

Crew: Director

Actors: Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Anthony LaPaglia, Elaine Stritch, Vera Farmiga

Synopsis: An man gets an unexpected lesson in love and life from a much younger woman in this romantic drama. Will Keane (Richard Gere) is a wealthy 50-year-old restaurant tycoon who has a knack for wooing beautiful women, but is unable to commit to a lasting relationship. On day Will meets a beautiful Read More

Chi Yu Fungbo

Actors: Daniel Wu, Kwok-Leung Gan, Emil Chau, Josie Ho, Joan Chen

Synopsis: Hong Kong director Teddy Chen follows up on his hit Downtown Torpedoes (1997) with this breathless action flick that recalls the South Korean mega hit Swiri (1999). Just as Hong Kong's new airport is set to open, a band of terrorists strike a Korean cargo ship, but they leave behind three encoded Read More

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

Crew: Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Lu Lu, Lopsang, Qian Zheng, Gao Jie, Li Zhizhen

Synopsis: Actress Joan Chen makes her directorial debut with this bleak tale, adapted from the award-winning novella "Tian Yu" by Shanghai writer Yan Geling, about the loss of innocence during Mao Zedong's brutal Cultural Revolution. Precocious Wen Xiu (16-year-old Lu Lu), playfully called Xiu Xiu by her Read More

In a Class of His Own

Actors: Lou Diamond Phillips, Cara Buono, Joan Chen

Synopsis: Lou Diamond Phillips stars in the true story of a high school janitor who never graduated high school and now must get his GED or lose his job. With the help of his wife (Cara Buono), a teacher (Joan Chen), and the school's students, he perseveres and eventually earns his degree. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Homicide: Life on the Street: Wu's on First?

Actors: Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Reed Diamond, Michelle Forbes, Clark Johnson

Synopsis: Pembleton (Andre Braugher) is impressed by reporter Elizabeth Wu (Joan Chen), who is covering his investigation of a drug-related cop killing. He is, however, less than impressed when the inquisitive Wu proves to be a monumental nuisance. Elsewhere, Kellerman's (Reed Diamond) wild country-boy Read More

Precious Find

Actors: Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Brion James, Harold Pruett, Don Stroud

Synopsis: Philippe Mora, the genre filmmaker whose marsupial-themed Howling III and alien-abduction hit Communion solidified his reputation as a director of clunky, substandard fantasy, returned with this space-set remake of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. True to form, it's a clunky mess, with Harold Read More

The Hunted

Actors: Christopher Lambert, John Lone, Joan Chen, Yoshio Harada, Yoko Shimada

Synopsis: In this international action thriller, Paul Racine (Christopher Lambert) is an American salesman with a computer firm who is in Japan on business. While spending an evening in a bar, he meets Kirina (Joan Chen), a beautiful but mysterious woman. Paul buys Kirina a drink, one thing leads to Read More

Judge Dredd

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen

Synopsis: A violent, effects-heavy science fiction adventure, Judge Dredd depicts a nightmarish future in which overcrowded cities are terrorized by brutal gun battles and policed by "Judges," law officers who act as judge, jury, and executioner. Sylvester Stallone stars as Judge Dredd, a punishing enforcer Read More

Wild Side

Actors: Christopher Walken, Joan Chen, Anne Heche

Synopsis: Alex (Anne Heche) is a corporate banker who refuses to prostitute herself for the company but has house payments to make so she becomes a call girl on her own terms. After hooking with bad-boy criminal Bruno Buckingham (Christopher Walken), she is then approached and raped by FBI-agent Tony who is Read More

Red Rose White Rose

Synopsis: In this sensitive Asian melodrama chronicles the two major loves in the life of a man who cannot change. The story is divided into two parts; each part focused upon one woman. The story begins in Shanghai during the early 1930's and follows the loves of Chen-pao. His early love life abroad is Read More

On Deadly Ground

Actors: Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey

Synopsis: Jennings (Michael Caine), a corrupt company owner will stop at nothing to open a new refinery in Alaska. Forrest Taft (Steven Seagal), a disgruntled former employee is chosen by an Eskimo chief as savior of his people. Forrest's mission is to prevent the new refinery from beginning work before Read More

Golden Gate

Actors: Matt Dillon, Joan Chen, Bruno Kirby, Teri Polo, Tzi Ma

Synopsis: Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) wrote this ambitious epic that attempts to examine the communist witch hunts of the 1950s, racial prejudice, abuse of governmental powers, guilt, and suicide. The film begins in 1952 as an eager young FBI recruit, Kevin Walker (Matt Dillon), finds Read More

Temptation of a Monk

Actors: Joan Chen, Wu Hsing-Kuo, Zhang Fengyi, Michael Lee, Lisa Lu

Synopsis: This melodramatic epic martial arts outing from Hong Kong filmmaker Clara Law is set in 7th-century China and center's on a disgraced warrior's quest for redemption. Formerly a general, he trustingly made a devil's bargain with a rival general that resulted in the assassination of his troops and Read More

Tales From the Crypt: Food for Thought

Heaven & Earth

Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, Hiep Thi Le, Debbie Reynolds

Synopsis: With Heaven and Earth -- cobbled together from two autobiographical reminiscences (When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace by Le Ly Hayslip -- Oliver Stone completes his self-declared "Vietnam Trilogy" (the other films being Platoon and Born On the Fourth of July) of Read More

Turtle Beach

Actors: Greta Scacchi, Joan Chen, Jack Thompson, Art Malik, Norman Kaye

Synopsis: In this grim docu-drama an Australian photojournalist leaves her children to cover the story of Vietnamese boat people in a Malaysian refugee camp. There she becomes friends with a Vietnamese streetwalker who has married a diplomat and together they try to do something about shocking conditions Read More

The Killing Beach

Synopsis: The struggles faced by Vietnamese boat people make up the focus of this story about an Australian reporter (Greta Scacchi) assigned to cover the Malaysian arrival of Vietnamese refugees. Also known as Turtle Beach. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Steel Justice

Actors: Robert Taylor, Joan Chen, J.A. Preston

Synopsis: In this futuristic sci-fi fantasy, a police officer is assisted in stopping crime by a giant mechanical dinosaur. The great creature was transformed from a child's toy by an enigmatic time traveler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Shadow of a Stranger

Synopsis: In this suspense film, a couple goes on a weekend vacation to get some much needed peace and quiet and instead find themselves entangled with murder and blackmail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Strangers

Synopsis: Three forms of sexual dysfunction provide the basis of this anthology. The first episode centers on a married couple who can only make love in the presence of a stranger. The second centers on a crazed woman with a constant compulsion to masturbate. The third centers on a voyeur who is planning to Read More

Where Sleeping Dogs Lie

Actors: Dylan McDermott, Tom Sizemore, Sharon Stone, Mary Woronov, David Combs

Synopsis: When unsuccessful writer Bruce Simmons (Dylan McDermott) is kicked out of his apartment, he takes up residence in an old abandoned mansion. When he discovers the gruesome history of the house, he is inspired to begin a novel based on the grisly murders that took place there. However, when a Read More

Wedlock

Actors: Rutger Hauer, Mimi Rogers, Joan Chen, James Remar, Stephen Tobolowsky

Synopsis: In this futuristic action drama directed by Lewis Teague, Frank Warren (Rutger Hauer) is a man accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of gems. In prison, all the inmates wear collars which are electronically joined to those of an unknown partner. The collars will explode if either partner Read More

The Blood of Heroes

Actors: Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Vincent D'Onofrio, Anna Katarina, Delroy Lindo

Synopsis: Blood of Heroes features a sport that you're not likely to see on ESPN. It's called "juggers", and Rutger Hauer is the champion jugger in the post-apocalyptic world; he goes from village to village with his entourage, brutishly taking on all comers. The action culminates in the bloody "league Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 03

Synopsis: Originally broadcast on April 26, 1990, episode three of Twin Peaks, "Rest in Pain," takes place the day of Laura Palmer's funeral. After having breakfast with Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn), Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) explains his dream to Sheriff Harry Truman (Michael Ontkean), claiming it is a code Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 02

Synopsis: Originally broadcast on April 19, 1990, the memorable and pivotal second episode of Twin Peaks, "Zen, or the Skill of Catching a Killer," contains the infamous surreal dream sequence with the Little Man From Another Place (Michael J. Anderson). On Saturday night, sleazy businessman Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 01

Synopsis: The first official episode of Twin Peaks, entitled "Traces to Nowhere," originally aired on April 12, 1990. Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) of the FBI continues to investigate the mysterious death of Laura Palmer. He interrogates James Hurley (James Marshall), Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 06

Synopsis: Episode six in the first season of Twin Peaks, "Realization Time," originally aired May 17, 1990, and was directed by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. The wounded suspect Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re), shot by Shelly (Madchen Amick) in self-defense, tries to kill Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 07

Synopsis: The final cliffhanger episode of the first season of Twin Peaks, entitled "The Last Evening," originally aired on May 24, 1990, and was written and directed by series co-creator Mark Frost. James (James Marshall) and Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) search for clues and find the missing tape, while Dr. Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 05

Synopsis: Episode five of the first season of Twin Peaks, "Cooper's Dreams," originally aired on May 10, 1990, and was directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. Trying to start her own investigation, Audrey goes to a job interview at her father's department store. She manipulates the manager, Emory Battis (Don Amendolia Read More

Twin Peaks: Episode 04

Synopsis: The fourth episode of Twin Peaks' first season, "The One-Armed Man," was originally broadcast on May 3, 1990, and directed by Tim Hunter (River's Edge). Deputy Andy Brennan sketches Sarah Palmer's visions of Killer Bob, resembling the Bob in Agent Cooper's dream from episode two. Another of Read More

Twin Peaks [TV Series]

Actors: Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Lara Flynn Boyle, Joan Chen, Sherilyn Fenn, Piper Laurie, Michael Ontkean, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Kyle MacLachlan

Synopsis: The groundbreaking and influential Twin Peaks series originally ran on the ABC network for the short time between April 1990 and June 1991. Created by film director David Lynch (Blue Velvet) and writer Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues), it gained an enormous following of viewers while challenging Read More

Twin Peaks

Actors: James Marshall, Michael Ontkean, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, Kyle MacLachlan

Synopsis: Also known as "The Northwest Passage," the two-hour pilot episode of Twin Peaks originally aired April 8, 1990. The central plot of the series is set when Pete Martell (Jack Nance) finds the body of high school student Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) wrapped in plastic by the water at the Packard Read More

HeartBeat

Synopsis: This drama features a progressive medical group whose founding female members encourage the use of unique practices for the best results. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Last Emperor

Actors: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Ryuichi Sakamoto

Synopsis: The Last Emperor is the true story of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the last ruler of the Chinese Ching Dynasty. Told in flashback, the film covers the years 1908 to 1967. We first see the three-year-old Pu Yi being installed in the Forbidden City by ruthless, dying dowager Empress Tzu-Hsui (Lisa Lu). Though Read More

The Night Stalker

Actors: Charles Napier, Michelle Reese, Katherine Kelly Lang, Robert Viharo, Joey Gian

Synopsis: Sergeant J.J. Striker (Charles Napier) is a hard-drinking cop who tracks down a serial killer that can seemingly repel bullets in this routine crime drama made in 1985. Sommers (Robert Zdar) kills prostitutes and paints Chinese symbols on his victims. Rene (Michelle Reese) is the hooker who teems Read More

Tai-Pan

Actors: Bryan Brown, Joan Chen, John Stanton, Tim Guinee, Bill Leadbitter

Synopsis: Daryl Duke directed this epic adventure, based on James Clavell's best-selling novel, concerning the battle for control of the China trade in early 19th-century Hong Kong. The film takes place in 1842 on the China Coast, where the Chinese object to the British imperialist policy of buying opium Read More

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart

Actors: Laureen Chew, Kim Chew, Victor Wong, Ida F.O. Chung, Cora Miao

Synopsis: Wayne Wang's follow-up to his low-budget success Chan Is Missing is a gentle, slice-of-life comedy about the shifting relationship between a widowed mother and her thirty-year-old unmarried daughter in San Francisco's Chinatown. Mrs. Tam (Kim Chew) lives with her youngest daughter Geraldine (Laureen Chew Read More

Xiao Hua