Crazy Rich Asians

As I was going to the movies the other night to see BlackkKlansman, a woman stopped me. She was an Asian woman. She looked at me sheepishly and said, "Pardon me, I've never been to the movies before. Would you help me buy my ticket?" I assisted her on the machine. She was so grateful, smiled, and shook my hand as she walked into her showing of Crazy Rich Asians. This is why minority representation in Hollywood is important.

Crazy Rich Asians tells the classic Cinderella story and takes it to modern times. Boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy, boy turns out to be rich as hell. The film indulges in all of the luxuries from Kevin Kwan's novel, on which the film is adapted. There's the first class flights, the expensive weddings, and other various obvious showings of that great Asian wealth that Yeung family has procured. The real twist here is that the film features the first all Asian cast in a Hollywood film in over 25 years.

Crazy Rich Asians opens brilliantly with the perfect middle finger to all of the racism and backlash it has received. A racist hotel manager refuses to believe that the Yeung family has enough money to stay in the hotel. It shows the family scared, all huddle in the phone booth outside as rain falls upon them. When the family returns, entirely drenched, they are now the owners and proprietors of the hotel, as Eleanor Young (Micheel Yeoh) smiles to the audience. It is the perfect opening to a film that takes on such a difficult yet amazing task of inclusion and diversity.

The film has its moments of absolute brilliance as previously mentioned. Seeing Asian culture and sensibilities portrayed in such an honorable and non-stereotypical way is refreshing. However, the film failed to escape from the classic romantic comedy tropes that we have seen time and times again as viewers. The leading lady is pretty, but not gorgeous. She is insecure about how she presents to her boyfriend, who is ungodly attractive and has been with tons of beautiful, yet interpersonally unappealing women. He finds the one he wants, despite their differences in social class and standing. All along the way, the girl is increasing her external beauty, as a total loss of complete feminism. This tells the female viewer that if you aren't wearing the right clothes, and look the part, you have no success at love. All along the way, the oddball, yet humorous and encouraging friend steals every scene as the far more interesting and in-depth character. This isn't to say that Awkwafina isn't absolutely brilliant at her role, and doesn't have one of the brightest young futures of anyone in show business, but it feels overplayed.

The madcap insanity of this movie, followed by its basic poignancy is something to be appreciated. The film has been a smash hit at the box office, proving that diversity really does sell. Pay attention, Hollywood! Overall, Crazy Rich Asians is an enjoyable movie, but no great feat to write home about.

Grade (7.5/10)

My wife is the type of person who falls asleep if the movie is boring or uninteresting. With Crazy Rich Asians, she stayed awake until the end.

I have three insights on it: 1. Crazy Rich, Asians! 2. Live Action Asian Disney Princess (minus the powers) 3. Normal Asian Family Tradition

Overall, the movie was good. It was the generic princess type movie but the Asian theme made it unique (in my opinion). I had a few laughs on it. I recommend it. You'll have a good time.

Let me say straight off the bat that this does not give an accurate representation of 99% of Singaporeans, such as myself, ordinary people with more modest, down-to-earth backgrounds. This didn't stop me from enjoying this movie, which featured terrific acting, a storyline that translated decently onto the screen and wonderful camerawork and production values.

Michelle Yeoh, acting as the stern, imposing mother of the male protagonist Nicholas gave the standout performance for me- I could sense the intensity of this character without going over-dramatic. Constance Wu, playing the female protagonist, also did terrifically as the girl thrust into a world she's totally unprepared to face. Everyone else, including Henry Goulding as the male protagonist, were also solid.

I found the character development in the movie impressive, not just with the two main characters but even the minor ones too, as their backstories and motivations for behaving the way they did unfolded effectively. The storyline does fall prey to corny moments typical of most rom-coms- indeed, on that note, the story itself unfolded in a manner very formulaic of a rom-com, but that isn't too big of a deal in a script which overall works well. And it's supplemented by interesting camerawork and beautiful production values, illuminating the story very nicely.

Many people seem to really detest this movie (and even the book it's based on), perceiving it as a shallow, silly, even offensive glorification of ultra-rich families and modern-day materialism. I'd say that's too simplistic of an overview, as the heightening of a mega-wealthy bubble that is presented in the story is simply to illustrate the issues and circumstances that someone in that scenario would face. It draws out themes such as the love of wealth, the desire to maintain a reputation before others, and how to manage cultural/social expectations and traditions when they conflict with your wishes. That is something I really appreciated in the film, and would recommend you disregard the negative reviews and give it a watch.

There are three complaints:

1. Celebrates perversity - romance and materialism are too intimately tied together (i.e. gold-digging) that both end up being expounded in their superficiality and unreality

2. Limited representation - only "Chinese" Asians and only extremely wealthy individuals are portrayed, undermining the efficacy and diversity of true "asianhood"

3. Shallow plot and characters - overused story-line about romance and familial tensions, a pure imitation of Western desires with a lack of oriental authenticity, leading to a paper-thin plot protracted by stereotypes

Three responses:

1. If you actually consider how the movie plays out, the elements that supposedly celebrate exuberance and materialistic romance are either dismissed in their possible retention of worth or confined to brief stylistic moments which throw the more intractable experience of love without materialism into stark relief. There is so much evidence of this throughout the film - every point of excess ingrains in us, as an audience, a sense of disgust or doubt - is that not then the point? Plus the title literally spells the theme out for you "Crazy Rich", so yeah. What did you expect?

2. Now the second part of the title"Asians". I agree, the film does not cover every individual that would be qualified under the term in an ethnic or otherwise geographic sense. But why did it have to? It is not a documentary. It does not aim for absolute objective authority, it tells a story with insight into a limited persona with limited struggles and limited breadth. The assertion that the movie is inaccurate or "bad" because it does not show us every type of Asian is extremely unfair - at least they showed us some (where most do not show any) and they did it in a way where the central aspects of being Asian are still on display (e.g. filial guilt, patriarchy).

3. This then leads me to my next point. What is the big picture? Sure we could convert this movie to have an all white cast and the general story-line and characters would not have to be completely revised, I concede that. But, to me the appearance of an all Asian cast in big budget Hollywood - twenty-five years after "The Joy Luck Club" - means a lot. I think even if you take the plot at its worst - dreary, old garbage - and the inclusion of Asians as mere tokenistic market-pandering, I still stand by this film. Because to me this film is a gateway to all the things that people have been so frustrated and disappointed about, it is a film that in its very existence can forge the path for much broader and deeper representation or discussion. You will not be able to overturn all Asian stereotypes or perfectly represent all Asians overnight, it is an ongoing process that begins by giving the "asian-face" more airtime. Plus I thought the way females were portrayed in this film has been misconstrued and under-evaluated. Just saying.

Watch the film and see what you think.

Why all the hate? This movie is purely escapism and it doesn't pretend to be anything deeper than that. It showcases exotic scenery and lots of shiny expensive things. There's also a "Cinderella-esque" love story that serves to move the story along sweetly.

The characters aren't super deep and they don't do any switching up halfway through the film so the plot is easy to follow. Charming boy is secretly rich with a heart of gold, and eyes for only our lead lady. Successful girl is comfortable and naive, and fights a battle of wits to be with her man.

I see a lot of people complaining about racism and the movie promoting bad values. Yeah, the movie primarily showcases East Asians as opposed to every single Asian people, but why the pressure??? Finally, a movie that features Asians whose entire character identities aren't math experts or Kung fu masters (which is the stereotypes mainly presented in American television), but people with varied goals and backstories that can be understood to a certain extent by their audience regardless of race. As for the bad values about gold digging and backstabbing. Literally every rom-com has a gold digger or backstabber thrown in the mix for a little razzle dazzled added drama.

All these "far stretched" complaints are clearly based in some people's discomfort with a movie presenting any race other than white but still being celebrated on a large scale level. This is a standard modern fairytale type romance. It's not meant to be complicated. It's just fun. Don't overthink it, just enjoy.