‘Crazy’ flick faces uncertainties in China
I don’t quite think this one will do well in terms of box office here. I don’t think the subject is that relatable to young audiences in China. I’m not quite sure how they will find that story interesting.
BEIJING: Globally, Crazy Rich Asians has raked in RM991 million at the box office.
It has just opened in China, and its producers are watching slack-jawed to see if it will rake in healthy takings as it did in the United States.
On the surface, the Cinderella story of a Chinese-American academic who unwittingly falls for one of Asia’s wealthiest and most eligible bachelors might seem a natural hit in China, with its all-Asian cast, Asian setting, some dialogue in Chinese and a happy ending.
But what made the fi lm so groundbreaking and distinctive in Hollywood – its lineup of Asian actors – is nothing new in China, where nearly every cinematic release features primarily Asian talent. The depiction of opulence and wealth also sits uneasily at a time when the Communist government is cracking down on both real and fictional excess.
And the China release comes well after the buzz around the fi lm in the rest of the world has already died down. On major Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan, thousands more users have indicated that they want to see Bollywood dramedy 102 Not Out and mainland teen romance Twenty than Crazy Rich Asians, with all three opening yesterday.
“I don’t quite think this one will do well in terms of box office here,” said one Chinese exhibitor, who nevertheless plans to allocate about 10 to 20 per cent of the company’s screens to the fi lm. “I don’t think the subject is that relatable to young audiences in China. I’m
Owner of chain of cinemas in China
not quite sure how they will fi nd that story interesting.”
Many of those keen to see the fi lm would have already watched it online by now, she added.
Those close to the production team say they have no way to predict the film’s performance, as no directly comparable titles have been released recently in China. The country sets a quota on the number of foreign fi lms it allows in and rarely imports romantic comedies. “We’re just very, very happy it got in,” a source close to the production told Variety.
The closest comparisons might be with Mamma Mia 2, which launched in China in August, or Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty, which was released in September. Both performed abysmally, bringing in just US$ 602,000 and US$ 206,000, respectively. Another point of comparison might be actioncomedy caper The Spy Who Dumped Me, which still took in only US$ 8.9 million.
Kevin Kwan’s original “Crazy Rich Asians” novel was never a phenomenon in China, where it can’t even be purchased in Mandarin, and the cast of the fi lm is little-known to Chinese audiences except for Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, who has a loyal fan base. In the Chinese marketing poster, Yeoh is placed close to the centre.
While the fi lm may vividly showcase extravagant wealth, its marketing in China has sought to emphasise aspects more in line with the Communist regime’s “core socialist values” – a potentially smart move as authorities crack down hard on luxury spending by officials and issue new restrictions on content deemed “overly entertaining” or focused on wealth accumulation.
Last week in Beijing, director Jon M. Chu essentially disavowed every word in the fi lm’s title. “The fi lm is a satire,” Chu told the state-affi liated Global Times. “It’s not about ‘ crazy rich’ or ‘Asians’ actually – it’s about the opposite of that. It’s about how all those things mean nothing and it comes down to our own relationships and fi nding love and our own families.”
Although the title Crazy Rich Asians (in Chinese) was used for the fi lm in Taiwan and Hong Kong, in mainland China it’s been changed to what translates roughly into English as “An Unexpected Gold-Digging Romance,” casting a certain aspersion on the characters.
Warner Bros. has even been using Communist Partyapproved terminology to describe the movie.
“American humour is perfectly combined with Chinese style, and the independence and ‘positive energy’ of the female characters is especially touching,” the studio wrote on its official Weibo social media account, using a phrase that refers to the sunny, inspirational material preferred by Chinese authorities.
Reactions from Chinese viewers who’ve already seen the fi lm has been mixed, with users on key platform Douban giving it a middling aggregate rating of 6.2 out of 10. Though the fi lm opens with a quote by Napoleon that sets its sights on the China market (“Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will wake the world”), many mainlanders felt they saw little to do with themselves on-screen.
“The opening quote is extremely misleading: China’s rise has no connection to this deceitful fi lm full of stereotypes,” wrote one user, adding that the emphasis on popular US topics of ethnicity and identity made it feel that the fi lm had “built a church, hung up a few red lanterns and sang a few songs about Asia’s glory to promote the American spirit.” Another review summarised the fi lm this way: “A bunch of aliens with Asian faces fall into a pile of money.”
But others remained excited to see an Asian breakthrough in Hollywood. Whatever the gripes, one user wrote, “let’s fi rst celebrate and support the box office, I guess, so that we have a chance to see more Asian stories.”