Crazy Rich Asians 2018
This was a pretty big movie when it came out and got pretty good reviews for a romantic comedy. One reason it got attention was that it was authentically Asian. Or Asian-American at least, based on a book by an Asian, directed by an Asian, and starring mostly Asians, but still an American movie (there are plenty of authentic Asian movies in Asia) for American audiences. That’s good, but some of the stuff seems a little over the top, like only an Asian could get away with presenting some of these almost offensive stereotypes. And while the Asians in the title are “crazy rich” and not “crazy and rich,” they threw in a lot of crazy Asians I guess to lighten things up, but a lot of the wacky humor doesn’t work that well. Is anyone in Asia really like Ken Jeong (who plays a dad here)?
Anyway, the movie. It is about a couple in New York City who have fallen in love and the guy is taking his Asian girlfriend (raised in America) back home to Singapore for a friend’s wedding and to meet his family. She does not realize his family is one of the richest in Singapore, which is pretty rich. The boyfriend is the perfect prince: handsome, loyal, loving, rich, just kind of ridiculous in how good a person he is. The friends back home are sometimes decent, sometimes quite awful, including his mother who doesn’t want her son to marry an American. The girlfriend is just finding out about how rich her boyfriend is, but is also kind of too good to be true: beautiful, smart, kind, but not quite as expressive as her boyfriend who professes his undying love constantly. It just feels a little like a romance novel, as much fantasy as anything resembling reality, though some other characters face big challenges.
In the end, while not always funny, it is still a fun movie to watch, and hidden amongst the antics of the wild characters are some good observations about Asian culture, and everything ends as well as it could, just like it should, and like you know it will.
Written: 27 Jan 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital