Review: Crazy Rich Asians
It's been 25 year since a major Hollywood studio featured an all-Asian cast (that would be 1993's The Joy Luck Club), and certainly the interim hasn't exactly abounded in many films that had such representation either in front of or behind the camera. As with this year's Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians marks an important milestone but, as with that Marvel film, it also transcends its cultural importance to also be a film that is thoroughly entertaining and satisfying in and of itself, and most definitely one of the best examples of its genre in recent memory.
Though a fairy tale, this is no Cinderella story. Our heroine Rachel (Constance Wu) is not in need of saving, dreaming of a better life, or feeling incomplete. If anything, she already seems to have her happily ever after - a loving and supportive mother, a job as an economics professor at NYU, and a dreamboat boyfriend, Nick (Henry Golding), who has just asked her to come with him to Singapore to attend his best friend's wedding and, in conjunction, meet his family for the first time. Within seconds of his asking, word spreads like wildfire that Nick Young has a girlfriend, word which reaches his mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), whose antennae are instantly raised.
What Rachel doesn't know, and what she's about to find out, is that Nick comes from money, not just any money but, as the title pronounces, crazy rich money, and those with that kind of money are not about to let an outsider into their midst. Nick may have the best of intentions in shielding the extent of his family's wealth from Rachel in order to have a relationship on equal terms, but there are forces beyond his control, most especially his steel-spined mother who lets Rachel know in no uncertain terms that she will never be enough for her son. She's not the only one, what with other gossiping busybodies picking on everything from her wardrobe to her job to her being a child of a single mother.
Not that everyone she encounters in Singapore is a two-faced viper. There's her old college friend Peik Lin Goh, played by Akwafina to hilarious scene-stealing effect, and her garishly nouveau riche parents (Ken Jeong and Koh Chieng Mun), who collectively act as her fairy godmother. Joining them in the wackiness is Nick's second cousin, Oliver (Nico Santos), the self-described "rainbow sheep of the family." Then there's Astrid (Gemma Chan), Nick's cousin who would appear to have the perfect life as a socialite, fashion icon, humanitarian, and wife and mother but whose marriage to Michael (Pierre Png) is fast dissolving.
If there is one nitpick to be had about this otherwise stellar film, it is that it lessens the focus on Astrid and the cracks in her facade to such an extent that the storyline almost becomes a distraction rather than a solid secondary plot. In the novel, Astrid is almost a counterpoint to Rachel, the woman who has to hide who she is in order to make her husband happy whereas Rachel is wholly open about who she is. Whilst Astrid has also married a "commoner," who has made himself over to match her family's expectations, and does everything she can to ensure that he's not self-conscious about his lower status, Nick presents Rachel as she is, on her own merits, and the onus is on him more than on her to convince his family that she is the one.
Even if one can't quite understand the struggles faced by Asian Americans as far as juggling old versus new world traditions and thinkings, one can relate to all of the characters' situations and their attitudes. We've all known a disapproving parent, an image-obsessed friend, or someone who bites their tongue for fear of jeopardising their standing. Director Jon M. Chu doesn't skimp on the outrageous opulence that featured in nearly every page of Kevin Kwan's highly addictive novel, wisely concentrating the action on the major events during Nick and Rachel's time in Singapore: the luxurious dinner party on Nick's grandmother's estate, the bachelor party aboard a tricked-out shipping barge, the bachelorette party consisting of spa massages and shopping sprees, and the wedding itself that rightly lives up to its billing as the Singapore event of the century. The fact that Crazy Rich Asians manages to meld everything from laugh-out loud humour to heartfelt drama to a rousing romance in a film that is both substantial and confectionery is a minor miracle, and one can only hope that it definitively paves the way for films with more multi-dimensional Asian characters.
Crazy Rich Asians
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Written by: Peter Chiarelli, Adele Lim; based on the novel by Kevin Kwan
Starring: Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Akwafina, Ken Jeong, Jimmy O. Yang, Chris Pang, Sonoya Mizuno, Jing Lusi, Ronny Chieng, Pierre Png, Nico Santos, Harry Shum Jr., Kris Aquino, Fiona Xie
