BY: ERIN O’BOYLE
Some movies are made solely to make people laugh, others are to inform people of a story or a message, and some movies, if done correctly, can do both. Crazy Rich Asians isn’t just your typical romantic comedy.No, this movie sent a message to Hollywood and to America. Crazy Rich Asians was the first American film in 25 years to have an all Asian cast. 25 years! With the 2010 census revealing that there are over 17 million Asian Americans living in the country, why is it only now that we are seeing them in their own Hollywood film?
The movie centers around the young love of Rachel Chu and Nick Young as they travel to Singapore for Nick’s best friend’s wedding and where Rachel will meet his family for the first time. However, little does Rachel know that her boyfriend is actually a part of the multi-billion-dollar Young family that owns numerous real estate properties all over Asia. The movie follows Rachel as she tries to impress the Young’s but never seems to be enough.
If we’re being honest, I expected a lot less from this movie. I thought it was going to be the cheesy rom-com with a lot of emphasis on all the glamor and excessive of the filthy rich. Although, it has both the cheesy-ness and the excess it also had some really important points about family, love, sacrifice, and acceptance that I wasn’t at all prepared to be demonstrated so beautifully. Another surprising feature of the movie was the side plot line that followed Nick’s cousin Astrid and her marriage. Throughout the movie, there was a tension between Nick’s family and Rachel for being of different socioeconomic backgrounds. With Rachel being raised by a single mom in New York, and Nick being raised in Singapore and going to private boarding school in England with a crazy big family, they definitely had different lifestyles. This was the same with Astrid and her husband, as he was “a commoner” rather than born into money. Astrid’s story runs parallel to the main story line, and I really believe adds to the film and looks into the complicated dynamic of societal masculinity in films.
I like to think of this movie as a combination of Monster-in-Law with Jennifer Lopez and the feeling of excesses that the Fifty Shades of Grey series provided, but with a whole new level of depth that those two other movies never had.
It was funny and empowering and just fun to watch! I was fighting for Rachel and Nick the whole time I was watching!
I ask that even if you’re not a romantic comedy fan, you go anyway to support Asian Americans in film because they deserve to be represented in Hollywood just has much as any other race.
With a Rotten Tomato score of 93 percent and an opening box office estimate of $34 Million dollars it’s clear that this movie won’t only go down in the history books, but in the hearts of many!