Chu’s eighth feature film brings him full circle
With “Crazy Rich Asians,” Palo Alto’s Jon M. Chu could join Oakland’s Ryan Coogler as a Bay Area-born director rewriting the rules of Hollywood by showcasing stars and stories that have long been sidelined in U.S. films.
But back home at his family’s near-legendary Silicon Valley Chinese restaurant Chef Chu’s recently, he wasn’t a filmmaker on the verge of a watershed moment for Asian-Americans. He was just a grateful son.
“This place means a lot to me,” Chu said, standing in the Nine Dragon banquet room of the Los Altos restaurant. The 38-year-old director was addressing his Chinese immigrant parents, Lawrence and Ruth Chu, members of the media and two special guests, “Crazy Rich Asians” stars Constance Wu and
Henry Golding.
“I, literally, in this space had my fifth birthday, my eighth birthday, my 12th birthday. I got engaged here.”
The cause for the gathering was Chu’s eighth feature film, a spirited adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s 2013 novel about a Chinese-American economics professor who accompanies her boyfriend home to Singapore to meet his massively rich family.
Opening today, “Crazy Rich Asians” is drawing considerable buzz and scrutiny as the first mainstream Hollywood movie since “The Joy Luck Club” 25 years ago that boasts an all-Asian cast. And to hear the Pinewood School graduate tell it, his parents and even the restaurant had a hand in his getting to direct the movie.
Then again, Chef Chu’s isn’t just any family Chinese restaurant. Lawrence Chu opened the eatery in the 1970s and built it into a Silicon Valley destination for the tech elite, including Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.
He did so by serving what critics call delicious but innovative Chinese comfort food.
Jon Chu recalled how exposure to his father’s entrepreneurial patrons, as they shared their big ideas and digital technology, prepared him to be a go-getter with a flair for cinematic storytelling. But he said he couldn’t have persevered without his parents’ love and support.
Chu’s parents are game changers in their own way. That’s clear spending just a little time in their restaurant. Lawrence Chu, gregarious and a showman in his chef whites, ceremoniously rang a gong to invite his guests to fill their plates with Mongolian beef and his Famous Chicken Salad. He talked proudly about his son living “the American dream.”
Ruth Chu, with stylish spiky hair, played hostess at a table reserved for her son and his stars Wu and Golding. Wu currently stars in TV’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” while Golding is a dashing, Singapore-based former BBC travel program host making his film debut.
Ruth Chu proudly displayed her son’s student film awards from USC on the table. She laughed about how she is her own kind of “tiger mom.” Instead of demanding that he and his four siblings become “lawyers, doctors, CPAs,” she pushed them to pursue their passions. When a teenage Jon tearfully told his parents he wanted to make movies, Ruth Chu bought him a load of books on film studies so he could learn how to make it in cutthroat Hollywood.
During his first 10 years in the industry, Chu built his resume by directing concert films for Justin Bieber and several sequel movies, including “Step Up 2” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But Chu said his parents always encouraged him to make a movie about Chinese people. “As usual they were right,” he said.
After his mother and sister urged him to read Kwan’s book, he presented photos of his parents and their restaurant as a way to convince producers he would be the perfect director.
Chu says it’s fitting that a promotional event for his new movie centers on people enjoying a meal. In the film, he tries to portray different Asian communities through scenes in which characters feast on Singapore street food or gather as a family to roll classic Chinese dumplings.
“I never imagined I’d have a press event here, especially about a movie that’s so close to my heart,” Chu continued. “Food is a big thing in a lot of cultures. In our family, it’s how they communicate love.”
“Crazy Rich Asians” is a romantic comedy with snappy dialogue, stylish clothes and sets and gorgeous locations in Singapore and nearby beaches. But it also depicts conflicts over class, family, gender and Asian identity as its romantic leads, Wu’s Rachel and Golding’s Nick, struggle for their happy ending.
For Rachel, a middleclass daughter of a single mother, the biggest obstacle is Nick’s proud and traditional mother, Eleanor, played by screen icon Michelle Yeoh. Among other things, Eleanor scoffs at the very “American” idea of sons and daughters pursuing their dreams (an idea Ruth Chu instilled in her director son) rather than sacrificing for the greater good of the family.
“Now with this movie, we can start to paint a broader picture of who we are,” Chu said.
Chu says he never saw much of himself in movies growing up, especially among heroic leading men. But the #OscarsSoWhite movement, and the success of films like Oscar winner “Moonlight” and Coogler’s blockbuster hit “Black Panther” have shown there is a demand for movies about people who have long been relegated to stereotypes in films headlined by white stars.
Wu and Golding said they are proud to be part of Chu’s self-proclaimed “movement” to increase Asian representation in films. And as for coming to the Bay Area, touring Chef Chu’s and meeting Chu’s parents, both stars were delighted.
“Our movie is about family and love and heart, and then you come to this establishment that Jon literally grew up in,” Wu said. “And now he’s making a movie that he would have wanted to see growing up. His family is great! They’re super fun, and it’s so lovely being here.”