Intro for August 2, 2024

Dear Gossips,   

Joan Chen is forever burnt into my mind as the beautiful and doomed Josie Packard of Twin Peaks, but time is relentless and Joan Chen is busy, so she is now coming around with a new spate of films. 

Leading the pack is Dìdi, Sean Wang’s Millennial coming of age film which I am reviewing later today. Chen stars as the matriarch of the family featured in the film, she is also one of Dìdi’s executive producers. It’s still too early to get serious about it, but right now, on the cusp of Venice and the fall festivals officially ushering in awards season, Joan Chen must be an early tip for the Best Supporting Actress conversation—I ASSUME she will campaign there, obviously, there is wiggle room depending on how competitive the lady acting races are, and people make adjustments accordingly—and Dìdi is a Best Picture contender, too.

But like I said, Joan Chen is busy, so it’s not just Dìdi she’s putting into the world. She has also secured the life rights of Dr. Qin Huilan and her son, Wei-Lai. If you’re not familiar, Dr. Huilan is a seventy-year-old Chinese retiree and fashion icon who recently walked in Miu Miu’s autumn/winter show:

Chen is also a director (credits include Autumn in New York and a segment of COVID drama Hero), so presumably this is a vehicle for herself as an actor-director. The timing is impeccable, given that she and Dìdi are sure to be part of the awards conversation this year, at least in the early going, which should help her with financing for a film about Dr. Huilan. 

It’s not like Joan Chen ever went away—she was just in A Murder at the End of the World with Emma Corrin and Brit Marling—but it does feel like she is about to re-enter the cultural consciousness in a big way. I love that her, for us, and for Josie Packard, who got one of the most existentially horrifying fates on Twin Peaks, which is really saying a lot, because that series is basically one big existential horror. Yes, it’s too early for trophy talk, but I’m saying it anyway—we’re entering a Joan Chen era.

One more thing Joan Chen is cooking: she co-stars with Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang in Andrew Ahn’s remake of The Wedding Banquet. Now I really can’t wait to see that movie. 

Live long and gossip,

Sarah