Sometimes you go into a movie with zero expectations and come out completely surprised by the finished product. That’s exactly how I felt after leaving Crazy Rich Asians, a film that wasn’t even on my radar but one I’m happy that I took the time to see. The film is bolstered by a winning cast, solid writing, and it fully embraces all the tropes that have made romantic comedies heavily consumed by moviegoers. It’s all fantasy and maybe the fantasy is too far fetched but that’s why these films are popular. They paint a picture of what we would like to happen to us in real life. It’s complete wish fulfillment and while and it may not all be grounded in reality, the intentions are pure and completely relatable. While watching Crazy Rich Asians, I realized it has been quite some time since I’ve seen a romantic comedy that really got all the conventions right. There are beats that these films need to hit and this honestly hits every single one of them. It may be riddled with clichés but sometimes clichés are comforting and this a film that works because it completely owns the formula and completely runs with it.
A lot of the pre-release buzz on Crazy Rich Asians, based on the best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan, is that it’s the first studio film with an all-Westernized Asian cast released in 25 years. For those keeping scores, that would mean it was 1993’s The Joy Luck Club that accomplished this feat and sadly studios haven’t really gone after this market in such a way since. Yes, we’ve had films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but there is a key difference at play here. We don’t get to see a group of Asain actors playing contemporary characters in big studio films. I brought up the underrated Better Luck Tomorrow from 2002 with a friend and was reminded that while it featured a predominately Asian cast in a contemporary setting, it was a small indie film that didn’t see a wide distribution. Crazy Rich Asians has the distinction of taking on this task with hopes that it will resonate with audiences. Judging from its opening numbers on Wednesday it’s off to a great start and it’s proving that this inclusion is long overdue. The fact that the cast is all Asian matters on one hand but doesn’t make a difference on another. It matters because it shows a level of representation that is sadly absent in the industry but it doesn’t because the story presented here is universal. You don’t have to be Asian to understand falling in love and meeting your significant other’s family with that fear that you might not be enough. If anything, Crazy Rich Asians shows we are all trying to tell the same stories just through a different filter.
The film chronicles the romance between two Asians living in New York: Chinese American economics professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) and Singapore-born Nick Young (Henry Golding). Dispensing with such typical rom-com tropes as the “meet cute” and the first kiss, Crazy Rich Asians drops midway into Rachel and Nick’s relationship. They’re young, in love, and starting to think about (although neither has voiced it) marriage. That’s when Nick takes a big step – offering to bring Rachel to his home country to meet his family. There’s something he hasn’t told her, though. The Young family is filthy rich and Nick is considered almost royalty. When Rachel first meets Nick’s mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), the older woman isn’t impressed. And she has no shortage of help ensuring that this Cinderella doesn’t capture her son.
The primary concept behind Crazy Rich Asians is nothing new. We have seen many romantic comedies where a girlfriend or boyfriend is thrust into the position of meeting the family with less than flattering results. Crazy Rich Asians knows we know these tropes so, within the cliché, we find some bright spots that allow the film to work beyond what’s familiar. I enjoyed that the relationship wasn’t brand new and we were put in the middle of their honeymoon phase. This is a couple that is solid and very much in love, even if Rachel isn’t fully aware of her boyfriend’s status. Nick hiding his good fortune is also never seen as a betrayal, which is another cliché the film could’ve fallen on. Nick not sharing this info with Rachel is clearly because he has met a girl that loves him for the man he is and not for what he has. Initially, I had some qualms about Rachel not being aware that her boyfriend is basically royalty but the film does a convincing job of portraying Rachel as a girl who isn’t concerned with things like this so she wouldn’t be glued to the latest news on social media. There is a very funny and visually satisfying scene early in the film that has two girls spotting Nick on a date with Rachel and then spreading the info in TMZ-inspired fashion. It’s a funny sequence showing how fast news like that can spread and how it can be skewed once it passes from person to person.
Supporting players play a key role in the film which also allows it to differ a bit from its counterparts. Rachel isn’t alone in Singapore. Her college friend Peik Lin, played by Awkwafina, also lives there and not only does it give Rachel a friend in her corner, it also shows a family that is the polar opposite of Nick’s. Yes, they have money, but they’re wonderfully tacky and over the top with it. Most of the laughs come courtesy of Peik Lin and her crew once we land in Singapore and leading that charge is the scene-stealing Awkwafina, who also got to stand out earlier this summer in Ocean’s Eight. The film uses her just enough that she doesn’t overstay her welcome and they effectively use her for all the necessary zingers. I particularly enjoyed a scene where she’s dropping Rachel off at one of Nick’s parties and, when asked to stay, she hilariously has labeled back up outfits in her car that is fit for various scenarios (“cocktail”, “clubbing”, and “walk of shame”).
Nick’s family also isn’t filled with the usual stereotypes. Astrid, played by Gemma Chan, is Nick’s beautiful and insanely rich cousin who could be played to be vapid but she is given layers that make her instantly likable. Despite what might happen in other films, Astrid is one of Rachel’s allies and her relationship with her husband Michael (Pierre Png) is one that seems perfect from the outside looking in but it has its fair share of problems. He is a self-made young man who is looked down upon because he does not come from money. Their relationship is practically the mirror image of what could happen with Nick and Rachel if they aren’t honest about the class issues that make them different.
The one character that could’ve been played to stereotype is the role of Eleanor, portrayed by Michelle Yeoh. We’ve seen this stone cold matriarch before but Yeoh plays her with such class and conviction that we can understand why she’s highly protective of her son. It’s clear that she herself has been in Rachel’s position before, perceived as not good enough, and she stuck it out until she was deemed worthy. This fact has hardened her and made her the woman she is today. I never found myself hating her and always understood her intentions, even if it presents a roadblock from our couple living happily ever after.
At the end of the day, no good romantic comedy can work without us rooting for the central couple and from the start, we are 100% behind Rachel and Nick due to the performances of Constance Wu and Henry Holding. Wu is instantly likable in her role, one that allows her to play things a bit more sweet than her scene-stealing turn on ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat. She’s fresh, sincere and believable. She could lead any rom-com, whether it’s an all-Asian cast or not. Henry Golding, who is a fresh face here, is just as likable as Nick and allows the character to outshine his crazy wealth. He seems down to Earth enough to make us forgot he comes from royalty and the chemistry he shares with Wu is genuine. Golding is going to be one to watch and it’s looking like he’s going to have a one-two punch with this film and A Simple Favor, starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, opening next month.
The one thing that struck me during my packed viewing of Crazy Rich Asians was that the crowd was largely of Asian descent. It reminded me of when I watched Black Panther as another film that was groundbreaking in its own right for featuring a predominately African American cast in a big studio film. During the viewing of that film, it was exciting to see young kids of color looking up at the screen and seeing a hero that looked like them and with this film it was nice to see groups of people in my theater who were genuinely happy to see a romance play out on screen with a couple that looked like them. It was a moment that showed, once again, how important inclusion is in a film. We all have the same stories, the same wants, the same desires and believe in the same fairytales. These are universal feelings and they aren’t separated by race. Crazy Rich Asians is a story that is relatable to anyone who may come to watch but there is a power in seeing a culture being represented that has largely been underserved. We need more films like this and with its impending success, I hope this is the first of many more to come.
