“There are starving children in America!”. Ken Jeong’s remarkably funny line rings out in the audience with roars of laughter. Perhaps it’s the disregard to an idea of a higher society than ours that it hits home with surprise. Or maybe it was the mostly Asian American crowd that laughed at the line exhibiting how blunt and straightforward Asian culture was.
Crazy Rich Asians works, just barely. Adapted from Kevin Kwan’s novel, it follows the story of the unassuming economics professor Rachel from New York City following her boyfriend Nick to Singapore where she learns that Nick is heir to the richest family in Singapore. Once they arrive in Singapore to this revelation, it begins a spiral of opulence, jealousy, and introduction to the old money culture.
Important to Asian American representation? Definitely. For the first time ever we get a romantic comedy where the two leads are Asian in a Hollywood produced movie. The Asian men depicted throughout the movie are cast into two categories; buff beautiful Asian Ken dolls or normal scrawny guys. The Asian women are generally all beautiful lead by the stunning Constance Wu in different outfits throughout the movie.
The film is beautiful in it’s own right as well. Director Jon Chu, already an accomplished director with G.I. Joe series, portrays the luxury and opulence of rich Asian lives with impeccable detail to the cinematography and set design. Singapore, a fantastically small rich city-state, also prominently features it’s lack of restrain in spending on public landmarks like the Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay.
The film is objectively good but not great. The many reviews that use the phrases “an age old story” or “classic rom-com” is a great way to spin what actually could mean cliched or cheesy in any other romantic comedy. I suspect because of the magnitude of it’s Asian representation in film by having an all Asian American cast has helped push the reviews to be more favorable. Currently on Rotten Tomatoes it sits at a 93% rating.
It’s also no wonder that Ken Jeong’s scenes then steal the show. A known Hollywood actor and icon, his comic relief is laughable compared to the more stilted scenes within the drama between other characters. Possibly it’s a demonstration in how his breakthrough and many years in the film business since the first Hangover movie can produce such quality acting and funny moments.
But above all, it’s amazing to see this movie actually come alive. It was only last year when there existed a Bruce Lee movie featuring a white main character or Scarlett Johansson’s controversial role in Ghost in the Shell. Disney as well can no longer excuse the delay of the Mulan movie with finding an all Asian cast when Crazy Rich Asians surmounted the challenge and is on its way to grossing the equivalent of it’s budget on opening weekend.
Halfway into the movie, I had a feeling it was getting a little cheesy, a little ridiculous, a little pointless in some of the subplots. The story was maybe a little boring because I had either read the book before or was aware of the lack of depth that typically accompanies the usual rom-coms.
But I realized to feel that way, a tinge of apathy, followed by an expectation of a happily ever after (spoiler I guess), was astonishing in itself. I cringed to the opening scene of racism depicted by the French lobby desk worker to Michelle Yeoh’s character. It was familiar in all movies to either cast Asian characters to portray racism towards them or even worse, pit Asian characters at the expense of racist jokes. And yet as the movie progressed and I watched a collaborative effort of Asian actors speaking English, I felt my feelings normalize as I accustomed myself into the movie of a romantic comedy and it’s drama between a man and a woman. In the middle of the movie, Henry Golding’s character is quick to be held back by his best friend from punching another antagonizing character, not for racist based remarks, but because the character was being an asshole.
To be able to treat a movie with contempt, to criticize the movie with overused tropes and cliche, and to feel sorry for an Asian character without a connection to race, was by far the greatest impact of Crazy Rich Asians. An achievement for Asian Americans in media is not a fawning over their sole ability to produce representation for the first time ever, but rather an opportunity to acknowledge that Asian Americans in film can not be treated differently from the other actors and movies in Hollywood. We can produce good and bad movies that audiences watch without race in mind, without stereotypes to overcome, and without a feeling that they are watching a foreign film. While not going to win any academy awards, Crazy Rich Asians is instead the strong start that’s needed for Asian American representation for years to come.
