 |
| photo courtesy of laist.com |
Crazy Rich Asians
is a romantic comedy directed by Jon Chu and based on Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel
of the same name. The movie features an ensemble cast, which includes Constance
Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, and Michelle Yeoh (among many others).
Wu plays Rachel Chu, an NYU professor who goes to Singapore to meet her
boyfriend’s family at a wedding… only to discover that he’s ridiculously,
fabulously wealthy.
It just doesn’t get more
charming than Crazy Rich Asians. On
paper, the movie sports a familiar romantic comedy narrative, but very little
about Crazy Rich Asians feels tired
or derivative. Rather than hunker down in genre tropes and clichés, the movie opts
for dazzling escapism and a pinch of fairy tale magic.
 |
| photo courtesy of foxnews.com |
Crazy Rich Asians
spends a great deal of its runtime in Singapore, where Rachel’s boyfriend Nick
Young (Golding) grew up and where his family’s luxurious estate sits. The
family, we’re told, comes from “old” money, and the movie spares no expense in
impressing the sheer immensity of their wealth upon the audience. Much of the
movie’s joy—as well as its considerable visual beauty—stems from our exposure
to this lavish lifestyle. It’s a fantasy world, plain and simple, and we view
it, like Rachel, as the uninitiated. Another movie might have run aground in
making the point—rich people can be hard to root for, after all—but Crazy Rich Asians doesn’t get bogged
down; it’s more concerned with sweeping you off your feet.
 |
| photo courtesy of hollywoodreporter.com |
Part of the magic has
to do with the movie’s willingness to stop and smell the roses. There’s plenty
of plot to go around, so it wouldn’t be hard to imagine atmosphere falling by
the wayside. But that’s not Crazy Rich
Asians. No, here, the director is having just as much fun as we are, and he’s
not afraid to veer off into artistic flourishes when it feels right. Take one
sequence, where the news of Henry’s girlfriend reaches his mother by way of a
social media frenzy, or another in which Chu simply pauses the action to immerse
us in the culture of Singaporean street food. Scenes like these help give the
movie its effervescent, amiable quality.
The cast delivers
memorable performances on every side, with Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh earning
special notice. They spend the movie’s runtime as (primarily) opponents, and
their scenes together provide some of the most shocking moments. It’s
Awkwafina, however, who makes the biggest splash. As Rachel’s best friend Peik
Lin, she steals every one of her scenes… and nearly the entire film.
 |
| Awkwafina as Peik Lin. photo courtesy of time.com |
In terms of narrative, Crazy Rich Asians benefits from a smart
script (undoubtedly owing to Kevin Kwan’s original). The screenplay isn’t above
indulging in genre clichés here and there, but it still manages to feel fresh
and fun. Of course, it helps that romantic comedies today are far less
ubiquitous than they once were, but the movie does its share by breaking with
expectations where it can. And at the end of the day, some of Crazy Rich Asians’s charm comes from its
willingness to embrace its rom-com roots—cheesy one-liners and all.
TRAILER
Watch the trailer here.
 |
| photo courtesy of vox.com |
No comments:
Post a Comment