The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is a fantastic rom-com
Film is first since ‘Joy Luck Club’ tohave largely Asian cast.
A rom-com movie rarely gets the level of scrutiny and attention that the upcoming fifilm “Crazy Rich Asians” is pulling in. Why?
It’s the first major American studio movie set in the present day featuring a largely Asian cast since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club.” The film features a mix of newbies and experienced actors from all over the world such as Michelle Yeoh (”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Constance Wu (“Fresh Of the Boat”) and Ken Jeong (“Dr. Ken,” “The Hangover”).
Based on a best-selling 2013 novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan, the film features New York City Chinese-American economics professor Rachel Chu (Wu) traveling with her heart throb of a boyfriend Nick Young (British-Malaysian acting neophyte Henry Golding) to Singapore for a friend’s wedding only to discover he is super rich.
Rachel quickly feels like a fish out of water, and most of Nick’s family treats her with disdain. Much of the comedy plays of the cultural and class divide between her and his family members.
Warner Bros. Studios is pulling out all the stops marketing the film, screening it in multiple cities and sending its cast members worldwide to promote the film. Sneak previews last Wednesday largely sold out. In a nod to the growing Asian-American community in metro Atlanta, the studio flew three of the actors to the area earlier this month to promote the movie: Ronny Chieng (“The Daily Show”), Awkwafina (“Ocean’s 8”) and Nico Santos (“Superstore”). The film officially comes out stateside today.
The Hollywood Reporter, in an extensive cover profile of the fifilm, revealed that Netflix had thrown a crazy amount of money at the producers, but they turned it down because they wanted to prove to the world this fifilm could sell tickets in movie theaters.
“We want this movie to be as impactful as possible with a traditional Hollywood release,” said Awkwafina, a Queens, N.Y., native who plays Rachel’s colorful best friend Goh Peik Lin. “That’s a beautiful thing. It’s a big movie and you want it to be released in a big way.”
Chieng, who plays Nick’s conceited cousin Eddie, said he admires the decision. “How often does someone make a decision not based on the bottom line?” said Chieng, who grew up in Malaysia and Singapore. “They did this for cultural reasons to promote the idea that Asians can be the leads, so young people can go to the theater and see themselves.”
Santos, a Filipino native who plays Nick’s cousin and fashion designer Oliver, said he hopes if the film sells enough tickets, “it will open the floodgates and hopefully we’ll be able to tell more stories like it and different stories about other marginalized groups as well.”
While the accents, milieu and characters are distinctly Asian, the storylines regarding family tensions and trying to find acceptance are “universal,” Santos said. “Everyone can relate to the themes.”
Each actor brings a different comedic angle to the film. While Awkwafina’s Peik Lin is ebullient and amusing in her own right, Chieng’s Eddie is an undeniable jerk.
“My character is probably the worst of rich Asians,” Chieng said. “I embody all the pettiness, the jealousy, the materialism.”
Santos’ Oliver is one of the few empathetic characters toward Rachel among Nick’s largely judgmental family members.
“My character is very much an outsider in his own family,” Santos said. “Oliver isnot as wealthy. He’s treated as the errand boy. When he sees Rachel, his heart goes out to her.”
After years of seeing potential Asian roles given to white actors, the cast of “Crazy Rich Asians” is understandably hopeful that this film will help reverse that bias.
“As an Asian-American actor,” Awkwafina said, “I never forget what’s happened in my career is the result of actors in the past who struggled and had to take roles that may have made them feel uncomfortable. This movie is a perfect example that we are out here.”
Added Chieng: “You can feel it in the zeitgeist… you can sense there’s a feeling that people want to hear stories that reflect them. People want authenticity. And that means having the people who lived those stories tell those stories.”
Early reviews from critics for “Crazy Rich Asians” have been positive with a nearly 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating and boxoffice projections pointing to a $20 million-plus domestic openingweekend. In this currentday where rom-coms are struggling in theaters in general, that would be considered a hit because the budget is reportedly around $30 million.
Brian Lowry of CNN calls it “a highly satisfying, decidedly old-fashioned romantic comedy, garnished with soapy elements and enough mouth-watering shots of food to inspire a big meal before or after.”
Jeff Yang, a veteran Asian-American entertainment columnist who co-hosts a podcast called “They Call Us Bruce,” has already seen the film three times and plans to see it two more times.
“I think it’s going to be transformative for Asian-Americans in Hollywood,” he said. “If it hits expectations, it will unleash a whole pipeline of Asian-American projects, no joke.”