“I can’t wait to watch it!” “Oh my gosh, you haven’t seen it, yet? You HAVE to watch it!”
People have uttered these exclamations countless times since Crazy Rich Asians came out.
The day the film premiered, my friends and I immediately went to the nearest theater in NYC. As we sat together at the theater and the preview trailers went on, we could not stop repeating, “Guys, I’m so, SO excited!” From gasping at the beautiful decorations and venue of the multi-millionaire wedding, being at the verge of tears because of Nick and Rachel’s adorable relationship, and filling with anger because of Eleanor’s harshness on Rachel, watching the movie was quite the experience. My body filled with adrenaline as I ate my popcorn faster than I normally do. I’d never felt this much excitement over a movie, but for reasons that seemed almost inexplicable. I knew this movie meant a lot to the Asian American community, but in ways that I did not entirely understand until months after I had watched it.
Still remaining somewhat confused about the movie, I began to explore further by not only watching the movie for the second time, but also jumping in on conversations and asking questions about the movie. It was through discussions with other individuals who had watched the movie and the exchange of thoughts and perspectives that enabled me to gain a more nuanced understanding of why this movie meant so much to my identity as an Asian American.
On September 22, 2018 the AACC hosted a private screening of Crazy Rich Asians and a follow-up talk with journalist and CNN Contributor Jeff Yang.
His words made me understand the complexity of the movie, and that simply watching it for the first time and leaving it at that was insufficient. The director of the movie Jon M. Chu told him, “We didn’t want to give people an excuse to think of this world as some kind of obscure, exotic fantasyland – this is a real place, with real culture, history and tradition, and instead of just giving them answers to their questions, we want them to have conversations.” This intention clearly proved to be successful. As Jeff Yang describes, the “lack of training wheels,” influences us to not only walk out of that movie with tears, but also with curiosity and the desire to discuss and analyze various parts of the movie.
An interesting part that struck me was his explanation of the Mahjong pivotal final scene of the movie. Mahjong is an extremely popular game in Chinese culture. And in this scene, the creators of the movie even asked a mahjong expert to choreograph that game, which added to the authenticity of this scene as well as the symbolic meaning behind every movement.
Indeed, the symbolism of the game enables us to see the power dynamic and values between Rachel and Eleanor. We learn that Rachel would have won the game anyway but threw away her winning hand, in the same way that she could have married Nick, but was willing to sacrifice this to ensure that Nick would still have family – one of the core values of Asian culture. (See here for more details).
However, though this particular scene held authenticity in its references to Chinese culture and Mahjong, there still remain other shortcomings in the movie.
During my conversations with other Asians who have watched it, the issue of colorism came up consistently. We noticed the lack of dark skin Asian actors and actresses in the movie. This may reinforce the idea that even within Asian culture, there exists colorism—families with traditional values often perceive Asians of darker skin color with low-class and as those working on labor farms who tend to tan outside. Contrastingly, people associate light-skin Asians to those of higher class. Even in my day-to-day conversations when relatives come over, especially over the summer when I begin to tan, pointing out how dark I have gotten seems to be an inevitability. While initially I felt disappointed that the movie seemingly reinforced this idea, I recognized that I could not entirely blame the movie for this. The question remains as to whether the movie held responsibility to break away from true Asian beliefs, or, alternatively, symbolize and reflect Asian American stereotypes.
There also exists a tension between the movie’s job to follow the characteristics of the book and portraying Asian Americans as a whole. For many, this movie being the first all-Asian American cast raised high expectations for the Asian American community in terms of representation—not only in color but also in socioeconomic background. What about Asians who are not super rich, but also hold onto strong values in family? Many first-generation and second-generation children in America constantly balance between Chinese values of family and values with which they are raised with in America. This movie did not really portray this. But at the same time, was it supposed to? In fact, isn’t the movie called “Crazy Rich Asians” for a reason? Can we even blame the producers of this movie or hold them responsible for failing to portray other situations of the same racial group?
Speaking to a friend who I watched Crazy Rich Asians with from back in NYC, she stated:
“The fact that there was an all Asian cast was groundbreaking. The last time a cast got even close to this was, The Joy Luck Club (1993), which was years ago. The acting and the storyline were also great, and it was generally an enjoyable movie to watch. Also, I think that it really spoke to a lot of Asian Americans because despite everyone “looking the same,” there is a clear distinction/wall between us and the family friends, relatives, etc. that live in whichever Asian country our family is from. That being said, I feel like Crazy Rich Asians (and The Joy Luck Club––two movies that have been essential to the realization of more Asian/Asian American representation in Hollywood)––depict extreme circumstances. It would be nice to have Asians cast regularly in tamer roles. This movie in particular is called, “Crazy Rich ASIANS,” so it would seem unfitting for them to cast anyone of any other race. I mean, that’s great too! It’s a huge step in the right direction, but it just makes me want to see more movies that put Asians in a variety of roles without literally spelling out: ‘Here’s our cast of Asians!’ Us, as well as other people of color, are all integral parts of the community, so it’d be nice if we were all properly ‘integrated’ in the films that we all watch and that take place in the communities we live in.”
The multitude of these perspectives reflect the complexity of Crazy Rich Asians and the ways it holds significance in people from varying backgrounds. Nonetheless, it is no mistake that the rom-com took the top at the domestic box office. It made many of us cry, laugh and leave us wanting to watch it once more. Given the confirmation that there will be a sequel, we can only anticipate what the following movie will do for the community.
-Jennifer Qu ’22
