Taking a quick break from writing Christmas arrangements to do this review of Crazy Rich Asians (note I have new arrangements that I’ve finished, but have not yet uploaded to my blog).
It doesn’t take long watching Crazy Rich Asians before you know you’re in for some serious propaganda. In fact the first scene is an opening salvo against white men and the western world. A Chinese family, led by Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh) stumbles into a posh British hotel, drenched from the rain with her two children, including her young son Nick Young. Despite a hotel reservation the family is denied stay under the guise of “No Vacancy”. It is clearly racism. In the end, Eleanor exacts sweet revenge, buying up the hotel and taking over ownership from an English family that had been stewards of the hotel for hundreds of years.
The message is clear. Asians, well, in this movie the Chinese, are here to stay.
Fast forward about 20 years or so and Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is flying to Singapore to attend a wedding with her boyfriend, the now grown up Nick Young. He is a billionaire. And of course Rachel doesn’t know it. And of course she doesn’t find out until right before she gets to meet the parents (er, parent, because Dad never shows up in this movie).
Anyway, the whole billionaire backdrop gives plenty of opportunity for lots more asian persuasion, like a mouth-watering Singapore night market scene where our young millennial couple buys all types of amazing looking dishes to try. You can almost hear the director saying “See that white people, your food is crap compared to ours!” Which is true. There’s also a funny closeup of Nick Young’s brother-in-law, fresh from a shower looking completely ripped. I can totally imagine the director – “We have great food and we’re HOT!”. Watching that scene I kept trying to figure out how they were going to explain Mr. Muscles…well don’t worry, the script writers thought of everything…he was a captain in the army before he married Nick’s sister.
If my review is a bit snarky, it’s partly because I’m not keen on the message that buying your way to the top is a solution to things.
And ironically, that’s what actually happened at our showing. As we approached the theater, the marquee for the show proclaimed Sold Out for both its 6:30pm and 7:15 showings. We felt lucky to have reserved tickets, but upon entering the theater, it was only half full. This was in Orange County California on a Saturday evening, which does not lack in Asian population. Clearly other forces (like rich Asian venture capitalists) are at work here.
That essentially sums up what is disappointing to me about Crazy Rich Asians. It’s a superficial effort to put Asians into the public consciousness. Instead of crafting a powerful soul-stirring movie, the producers, directors, studio execs and everyone else fell back on the easy solution. Money, money, money. My guess is that studio execs felt that the best way to sell tickets was to use the glamorous billionaire high-roller life style to attract Non-Asians.
That isn’t too much of the problem for the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. The director Jon M. Chu creates an entertaining glimpse into the billionaire lifestyle with montages, cool graphical “iMessage” style overlays, gorgeous flyovers of Singapore, and amazing set design. It all has good energy, but a movie can only subsist on glitz for so long before the story needs to take over and really carry it.
And this is where I feel the movie loses momentum. The energy is is lost once the director tries to weave in family drama and the complex clash between a upper-middle class person and the ultra-wealthy.
This is actually one of the weird undertones to the movie that feels out of place to me. Rachel, played by Constance Wu, is an economics professor at NYU who specializes in game theory. But, we later find out that she is too poor and low class for Nick’s rich family. I get it but it just feels off. I mean, the majority of the people watching this movie probably went to a place like Cal State Fullerton. And they’re thinking “Really? When she’s living in New York and eating out all the time?” My feeling is If you’re going to do the rags to riches thing, you’ve got to go all the way. Like Annie (the 1982 version, not the blasphemous 2014 version), Karate Kid and Rocky and Pretty Woman.
Speaking of Rachel, Constance Wu does a great job as the main character. Rachel’s gradual maturity from cluelessness to elegance is one of the movie’s highlights and she has terrific chemistry with all of the other actors/actresses. I especially loved the scenes between Rachel and Awkwafina. The humor, although not particularly clever, is snappy and tightly paced.
The other actors/actresses do a fine job, but they have less opportunities for character development. Henry Golding is a very capable leading man as Nick Young, and there are times when his pensive look into the open sea hint at a deeper character profile. Unfortunately this is never developed and he ends up being one-dimensional, which says more about the script than his acting skills. In fact this problem occurs with all the characters with the exception of Rachel. The script hamstrings everyone into their corresponding stereotypical box. Astrid (played by Gemma Chan), is the angelic daughter. Awkwafina is goofy comedic relief.. Michelle Yeoh is, well Michell Yeoh, She of course nails her role as the stoic Chinese matriarch.
And it begs the question, for a movie that tries so hard to show that Asians are no longer content to be stereotyped as kung fu masters or the butt of jokes, why are all the characters stereotypes themselves?
I guess I had higher expectations for a movie that is attempting to jumpstart cultural representation in Hollywood. I wanted something that had more depth and that didn’t use culture as the driving force of the story, but more as an auxilliary aspect. Like Slumdog Millionaire, or Lion or Life of Pi. The themes in those movies were touching, thought provoking universal messages that applied to all of us. Granted, Crazy Rich Asians makes its own attempts at a universal message with its “Be Yourself” trope, but it ends up feeling rushed and a little forced.
I guess if I could use a metaphor for Crazy Rich Asians and draw upon my musician background, It’s like the wealthy Chinese classmate that, like you, plays the piano. He’s technically brilliant, even better than you, and can play Chopin and Debussy flawlessly. He’s entertaining. However what’s missing from his performance is the music’s soul…that something that that draws you in and makes you feel something amazing. As a movie, Crazy Rich Asians is certainly entertaining, but we need something a bit more than that if we want to jumpstart Asian cinema. Here’s to hoping!