Crazy Rich Asians

 Crazy Rich Asians 

The 2018 RomCom Crazy Rich Asians broke the record for being an all Asian cast in an American film since 1993 in The Joy Luck Club. Rachel Chu is the main character of the movie and even though she comes from a middle-class family she finds herself surrounded by some of the richest Asians on the planet. Rachel and her boyfriend Nick attend a wedding in Singapore where she finds out her boyfriend Nick comes from wealth. At first Rachel seems uncomfortable with the idea of wealth but soon starts to enjoy the luxury. I find that to be an unsmooth transition that isn’t brought up again in the film. 

One thing I enjoyed about the movie was the ease it gave me to watch it. I get escapism from the presentment of a financially free lifestyle. It was nice to get away from my life at Lawrence and be in Singapore. One thing I didn’t like was the idea that the film was made to present the wealthy one percent instead of the majority. Or perfection instead of imperfections. This is where Hollywood starts to collide with representation. Hollywood almost tries to distract the audience from a bigger picture with wealth.“Hollywood, as an aesthetic and as a mode of production, however global in its present scope, remains haunted by the socio-economics and cultural power dynamics of its historical origins. Through this problematic of representation and identity in globally successful films, the accolades and popularity of Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians are, indeed, notable.” (4) Can we even call this representation of the Asian American community if only one percent was represented? I don’t think we can, representation includes more than just the one percent. 

When thinking about why Hollywood creates a film, I ended up circling back to box office numbers and money. Since Crazy Rich Asian’s is based on a best-selling novel the goal of the movie was to please a large audience in hopes profit. As Wyatt quotes in “On The Banality of Transnational Film “One assumption made by much of the critical reception around these films seems to be that big box office will lead to change in future film production, distribution, marketing, and messaging. All too often, these successes tend to be isolated events despite the promise of a shift in cultural representations. (Wyatt 9) It’s upsetting but I agree that “Crazy Rich Asians was a setback as far as representation. A great movie for escaping but hopefully in the future we be presented with more relatability films. 

 

Hollywood has been around since before I was born. Yet not much has changed, only a select few can get jobs And make decisions. Directors tend to be white males offering a very limited perspective on the film gaze. Power structure is also important  when thinking about systematics in U.S. “It is time to leave behind the belief in a liberal progression that merely gives studios and audiences a pat on the back for antiracism every so often, and to think instead about the broader racialized and gendered conditions for media mak- ing.” (Phruksachart 64) To conclude, I think false or mis-representation is something important to be talked about. To me, Crazy Rich Asians is an amazing film when it comes to presenting a distracting truth. The intentions of the film are overly presented in a way that can't escape Hollywood fantasy. I would have been just as pleased with a film that presented a real life experience like AKA Don Bonus.