Crazy Rich Asians 🎥💰

Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel Crazy Rich Asians now has its own movie with the same title. The groundbreaking movie has an all Asian cast, which hasn’t been done since ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ in 2002. Nevertheless, critics and Asians around the globe are excited about this movie that ignores stereotypes about what characters Asian actors can play and presents crazy rich Asian families.

The film is centered upon Rachel Chu, played by Constance Wu, and Nick Young, played by Henry Golding. Both are professors at NYU, but after a year of dating, Nick decides to take Rachel to meet his family in Singapore for his best friend Colin Khoo’s (played by Chris Pang) wedding. Nick is a member of the Young family, the biggest property developers in Singapore and Asia unbeknownst to Rachel. She plunges headfirst into the glitzy, glamorous life of crazy rich Asians. This film has all the expected characters: an overbearing/protective mother, a friendly relative to rely on, a posse of mean girls, and more. It also fluidly interweaves ‘Singlish’ (Singaporean English, which has elements of Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Tamil, and Malay, as well as some uniquely Singaporean words like ‘lah’) with British, Australian and American accents. The movie explores the treatment of ABC (American Born Chinese), Singaporean, Hong Kongnese, Taiwanese or other non-mainland Chinese Asians. The film definitely does touch upon how being from mainland China is somehow inferior or disliked. In many ways, it is a traditional film with a hierarchy and heavy influence on appearances or the lack thereof.

Regardless of the societal impact, this film is great with some of the highest ratings. It maintained a whopping 100% from rotten tomatoes for a while but is now at 94%. This is an extremely high rating only matched by Arrival, The Dark Knight, and Finding Dory. It achieved a 7.7/10 from IMDb and 5/5 from Common Sense Media. Alongside the movie being an undeniable success, it is also important for the progress of Hollywood. This movie proved that an all Asian cast can create just as successful a movie as any other cast, and also that Asian actors can play any role.

Be sure to catch the film when it releases in China.

For more information, visit Rotten Tomatoes,