Crazy Rich Asians — the good, the bad, and the poorly made dumplings.

Shannon Wan
Sep 8, 2018 · 7 min read

And a reminder that representation doesn’t represent everything.

Source

Let’s first get the good stuff out of the way. (Disclaimer: this review is based on the movie and the movie only. I have not read the book and therefore cannot do a side-by-side comparison.) CRA obviously brings Asians to the silver screen for the first time in a long time, and for that I am happy. The movie incorporates various elements from Asian culture and highlights them in a way that makes them universally appealing, whether it be the food (dem Singapore hawkers!!), or the high-rise architecture, or the musical soundtrack, which includes traditional tunes as well as more contemporary pop/hip-hop to keep the atmosphere lively, it’s refreshing to see elements of Asian culture featured for non-Asian audiences.

Our main protagonists feature the up-and-coming Constance Wu portraying Chinese-American economics professor Rachel Chu, and her beau Nick Young, British-Malay halfie, along with a well-known cast including Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

It was hard for me to figure out what perspective I should have viewed CRA. If it were just another rom-com, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so critical. But this movie was getting hyped up by many of my fellow Asian-Americans and, with the tagline of being the first movie starring an all-Asian cast in approximately 25 years, I figure I’d jump in the hype boat and paddle along with everyone else to see what the chatter was all about.

Here come the spoilers!

I’m assuming I’m supposed to see parts of myself in Rachel Wu’s character. Bright, second-generation, hard-working individual whose mother came to America to carve out a life for the two of them. Near the beginning of the movie, there was a scene in which mother and daughter go out clothes shopping upon knowing that Rachel is going to Singapore to meet Nick’s parents. Within the boutique, the mother tells her daughter, “You look Chinese, you speak Chinese, but you’re not Chinese on the inside.” This presents a wonderful opportunity to address the constant back-and-forth that all of us have encountered:

Confusion, dislike, frustration of the challenges that come with being rejected by both sides of the hyphen. Neither Asian enough nor American enough, yet realizing that the tiny hyphen in between these words would never be large enough to encompass the holistic experience that we as individuals had to offer our countries.

Unfortunately, I don’t really see that addressed again after that first scene.

Setting the Scene

We’re quickly introduced to the gossip circles that exist in Singapore when Nick is spotted by paparazzi in a bustling New York coffee shop while introducing the idea of taking Rachel to Singapore to meet his family. His mother calls him moments later to confirm if the rumors are true, to which he responds yes. On the plane over Rachel starts to get an inking of how rich her boyfriend is, but rather than pursue the topic they decide to chase away any jitters she may have had with some mile high loving.

Upon arrival we are introduced to the lavishness of high-baller society in Singapore, which is most definitely done to up the ante on all things rom-com and glamorous. We get to see Rachel attend a bachelorette party set on a private island with an unlimited shopping spree and spa day; Nick goes to a bachelor party that would blow any Vegas gig out of the water. The villas, the mansions, the gated security — everything is lavish in a way that feels a little unbelievable. We got Asians, we got Rich. Now, where’s the Crazy?

Mother of Hidden Dragons

Nick’s mother is cast as the main antagonist of the story — having faced her own trials and tribulations herself in her youth and as a young mother taking care of Nick throughout his childhood, it’s understandable that she is quite protective of him and wishes for him to stay in Singapore and inherit the family fortune. It is at this point we witness some pretty intense scenes between boyfriend’s mother and potential daughter-in-law, including obvious disdain for Rachel’s immigrant story.

We catch glimmers of the pressures she faces from Grandma, and the fact that she may or may not be projecting her own misgivings onto Rachel, but not much more to understand where her character is coming from. I understand it’s difficult to communicate the complexities of Confucian family hierarchy and the obligations that come with filial piety to an otherwise clueless audience, but at the same time if this were done up a little more I feel like we would have that much more sympathy towards Eleanor.

The two women have some pretty tense conversations and Eleanor deals some pretty low blows to Rachel’s self-esteem (that staircase cat fight, woo!) but tensions seem to resolve a little bit during the wedding of their friends. Rachel shows up in full glam ready to play their game, and seem to fall in love all over again as she and Nick make eye contact while he stands on the stage as best man to the groom. Eleanor witnesses their wordless adoration and seems to wilt a little bit in her acrimony towards the two.

Plot Twist and Resolutions

As we think all is winding down, the viewers are thrown a curveball — turns out, Mama Dragon had sic’ed a private investigator on Rachel and finds out that her father, rather than being dead, is still alive. On top of that, her mother actually had Rachel outside of wedlock with another baby daddy! She flees the scene, feeling completely defeated, and proceeds to fall into deep depression at Peik Lin’s mansion until her mother shows up. And as for how quickly our main protagonist was able to get over the trauma of finding out her life was a lie? Only as fast as rom-coms allow.

The two face off at a mahjong parlor for the anticlimactic ending. Rachel could have won the game, but decides to give up her tile to Eleanor. The metaphor is obvious — she could have agreed to marry Nick and elope with him, but she decides to let him go.

At this point, I would have been fine with the movie ending. She leaves the crazy, the rich, the Asian behind. She understands that being Asian and American are two components of her life that cannot be separated, and that no one can talk down to either one of them. She is whole and complete and her relationship with Nick is not worth the treatment she received while in Singapore.

One game of mahjong able to convince Eleanor, with her own twisted demons and societal pressures, to let her son be happy? Please. Give me a break. The marriage proposal was forced, the chemistry between our two lovebirds was nowhere to be felt, and nothing, not even sex on a plane, could convince me that their marriage would lead to anything substantial. All the issues that were presented at the beginning of the film were still unresolved by the end of the movie. Instead we just get the promise of marriage and a fairy-tale ending (and a big honking emerald diamond) — but for what?

Asian Masculinity on the Big Screen

My biggest disappointment was the two-dimensional nature of our Prince Charming’s character. Thanks to whoever gave us not one, but two shots of abbage (to disprove the long-existing emasculation of Asian men by Western societies, I don’t know??) but that was as far as the movie went in characterizing its male characters, who had personalities with as much bite as Americanized Thai curry.

As Rachel is running around interacting with other Singaporean socialites, she encounters bullying and harassment from all sides,even in the form of a gutted fish on her bed and its blood scrawled out messily on the bedroom walls. Nick’s reactions to this? “Let’s go out and have a nice night all to ourselves. It’ll be great.” Great, my left a$$cheek. I really wished that Nick’s character was more developed because he could have contributed to the plot in a way that strengthened his relationship with Rachel and therefore convince me that the bond they had was something worth fighting for. Otherwise he just seems like a random (albeit attractive) gentleman who wants to marry Rachel without considering all the factors.

Conclusions

Maybe I’m being too critical of this movie because it’s more or less a rom-com and I’m being reminded of why I don’t like rom-coms in the first place. Perhaps my expectations were set too high (you fooled me, 93% tomatometer!) and they should have been set lower. Ultimately I still felt CRA came off as kitschy. And those dumplings? With skin that thick I almost thought they were making baozi instead.

Two elements the movie proves is true: momma’s always got your back. And women are scary.

Overall, I found the movie as bland as the Americanized versions of Asian food. Are we as Asian-Americans supposed to be just as bland? Sorry to say that while I was unexpectedly impressed with the message of La La Land and its commentary on all things love, I was equally disappointed in the way Crazy Rich Asians falls short on what could have been a profound statement on the way love can both bring us together, tear us apart, and challenge us to choose in favor of or against it.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade