An all-Asian cast and no martial arts: Why ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ matters
BEING Chinese-American, I grew up watching movies and TV shows with characters who looked like me, but didn’t act like me.
One of them was Lawrence, the nerdy Chinese student in the 2003 film School of Rock. He was bespectacled, soft-spoken and insanely good at the piano.
Another was Lucy Liu’s character Joan Watson in the popular CBS crime procedural Elementary. Before becoming a detective, she was the star of her class in medical school and had a career as a surgeon.
And I can’t forget Ang Lee’s epic 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Now the movie I have wanted my whole life has arrived - or, at least, the preview has.
The trailer for Crazy Rich Asians, based on a book of the same name by Kevin Kwan, was released this week. I’ve watched it more than 10 times already.
It’s loaded with Asian actors. In fact, it’s the first major Hollywood production that isn’t a period piece to have an allAsian cast in 25 years. It’s a love story. Think an Asian version of Meet the Parents, except the main antagonist is an ultra-rich mother who has mastered the disdainful side-eye.
Most important, it’s an entire movie about Asians without martial arts or stereotypical nerds.
From what I can tell, based on the book and the trailer, this is an event I’ve been waiting for: a film with Asian characters who are more like me.
Directed by Jon M. Chu, the Warner Bros. film follows an economics professor named Rachel Chu, an American-born Chinese (or “ABC,” as we Asians like to say,) as she accompanies her long-time boyfriend, a fellow professor, to Singapore for a wedding and to meet his family. Unbeknown to Rachel, her boyfriend, Nick Young, is actually from one of the wealthiest families in Singapore, making him, well, crazy rich.
Rachel is thrust into the exclusive world of old money and must face all the obstacles that come with dating “the Prince Harry of Asia.”
Many Asian-Americans, myself included, see this movie as so much more than your average popular chick-lit turned rom-com. Entertainment reporter Ashley Lee called the film “a pipe dream come true” and others have hailed it as “a historic moment for Asian Americans.”
While watching the trailer, I experienced something new. I looked at Rachel, played by Asian-American actress Constance Wu of ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” and completely related to her.
In the trailer, Rachel’s friend Goh Peik Lin (played by AsianAmerican rapper Nora Lum, who goes by Awkwafina) tells her that Nick’s mother “just thinks you’re some, like, unrefined banana. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside.”
Growing up in Guam, a US territory, I always felt more American than Chinese. I spoke English at home. My family didn’t own a rice cooker until I was in high school.
I developed an attachment to Rachel’s character long before I even knew there was going to be a movie.
Not only is she a rare AsianAmerican female protagonist, her character is complex. She’s multi-dimensional and embodies a host of relatable Chinese and American traits. She’s real, not some caricature, and in this film, she’s the star.
When I viewed the trailer, I saw for the first time in my memory a female lead with whom I shared not only my appearance but my experiences.
This movie gives me hope. Maybe I’ll start seeing more major movies with people who look like me and act like me. Maybe, just maybe, my pipe dream of a contemporary movie about a Chinese-American female journalist isn’t so crazy after all. — Washington Post.