Every now and then, a movie that comes along is termed ‘path breaking’ or ‘trend setting’. Crazy Rich Asians is the new movie that is supposed to signal a ‘new dawn for representation in cinema’ according to some commentators. We look at how and why many see this as being a significant film:
Kevin Kwan wrote Crazy Rich Asians in 2013 and it became a bestseller. It was his intention to ‘introduce contemporary Asia to a North American audience'. The film adaptation of the novel is directed by Jon M Chu and was released recently. The story is about a grand wedding in Singapore, about modern-versus-traditional relationships and other issues that young Asians bought up and settled in the west tend to face.
It’s not just about telling the world stories about idiosyncrasies of Asian cultures or about telling the story about the obscenely rich in these cultures. It is about Asians finally finding representation in Hollywood. Currently only about 5% of speaking parts are assigned to Asian American actors found one study; so this film is a significant departure from status quo. By contrast the white characters in this film barely have any speaking roles.
One New York Times article asks why it took so long for a film like this to be made. This commentator makes a pertinent observation that Hollywood mostly presents Asian people in a stereotypical manner.
Many in the west presume that Asians feel right at home when they ‘go back home’. However, reality is different for children brought up with a ‘western sensibility’; who find themselves to be outsiders in a milieu that is only partly familiar to them.
The film has garnered delighted reactions from viewers of the film. Asian viewer in particular enjoyed the fact that the film made them feel “badass, funny and sophisticated while staying true to Asian culture.” Also very importantly, the film has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Even if one doesn’t look at the film from the perspective of what it represents in terms of diversity in Hollywood, it appears to be a highly watchable film. It is a rom com that is funny, sweet and sexy, according to commentators.
For reasons or political correctness or otherwise, North Americans tend to refer to people from the Far East and South East Asia as ‘Asian’. Which is strange because Indians, Pakistanis, people from the Gulf and many other areas are also Asian!
This tweet points out that Crazy Rich Asian does give full representation to some Asians. Not only does it tell the story only about people from some parts of Asia, there is also no representation for other religious denominations such as Sikhs and Muslims as this tweet seems to indicate.
On the whole, people have loved and welcomed the film not as a final achievement but a great start. There are many more stories to tell, conflicts to resolve and voices to share, says this tweet.
The trailer looks nice. Apart from the fact that everyone in the film seems to be firmly of the Oriental extraction (couldn’t think of a more politically correct term, so there!), this seems to be a fairly standard rom com fare. It may be about the super-rich but the story seems almost pedestrian in its predictability. But then this is just me judging a book by its cover…the proof of the pudding is in the eating, after all.
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