Crazy Rich Asians: Film Review
Cast: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina
Director: Jon M Chu
In truth, Crazy Rich Asians is a masterpiece of staging and hollow spectacle.
It's a tale as old as time itself, one which dabbles in fairy tales, and enigmatically weaves some very familiar threads in among opulent gaudiness. It's almost satirical in ways, if it wasn't such a blatant and shallow piece at heart.
It's your classic girl (Wu) meets boy (Golding), girl dates boy for a year, blissfully unaware that said boy is part of a mega-rich family and who tries to introduce girl to her snooty mother (Yeoh), who's dismissive of the differences between the two.
Along the way, throw in some very familiar and very obvious cultural issues and jealousies, stir it all up et voila, Crazy Rich Asians.
And yet, if the tale is an all too hoary rote one, the rom com greatly benefits from some truly globally impressive cinematography (it's like a tourism board advert for Singapore at times) and some directorial flourishes from Chu himself.
Whether it's showing off the excess, drowning the screen in swathes of local culture (hello, extended street vendors montage) or thrusting to prominence the Asian way of life and actors, it's clear why Crazy Rich Asians is having a moment to shine.
Like the subject matter, it's a little indulgent and overlong, and certainly, some of the sequences feel like they could have been excised from the 2 hour run time, and in parts, it has to be said that some of the narrative feels weaker than it ought to be, an excuse to join together the dots of its paper thin characters, and kill some time prior to the next luxurious sequence.
But Wu shines, as does Yeoh, with what little they have; and Humans star Gemma Chan brings more than enough to the table as the subject of potential sequels.
In this obvious tale of family clashes and of tradition, Crazy Rich Asians rightly deserves the applause it's getting for bringing the culture to a wider audience, and by telling a very familiar story complete with broad brush strokes in what will be to many, unfamiliar surroundings. It's the very essence of representation and is also somehow the epitome of where 2018 has marked the turning point.
But for cinema purists, looking for a little more perhaps, Crazy Rich Asians could do with an expeditious trim, a plumping of some of the elements of its Jane Austen edges and a bit more of a killer hook. Here's hoping the sequels manage this - and more.
