It’s worth making a disclaimer here that when “Asians” is used in this blog post and within the subcultures mentioned, in my experience it generally refers (and is not limited) to Chinese, South-East (Singaporean, Malaysian), Korean. I would say roughly, subcultures that are usually physically characterised by “yellow” (undertone) skin, black hair, monolids, and other distinctive features.
Unintentionally, it excludes South Asians (e.g. Indian, Pakistani), other typically ‘brown’ cultures, and a bunch of others that I’m not even remotely cognizant of but would acknowledge if appropriately educated.

Spoiler-Free Section

Crazy Rich Asians is one of those movies that you really had to watch it at the time and observe the surrounding conversations soon afterwards to really appreciate just how much of a splash it made in the Western film world. It paved the way for more (South-East/East) Asian-American films and stars to make the spotlight and garner more attention in the Western world, people of mixed colour and diaspora could finally see and feel themselves represented in various ways, and it highlighted various subtleties and struggles that such people (including myself) face.

Needless to say it felt like it was a movie made for white (or culturally Western) people, in terms of how on-the-nose some of the themes were expressed. For me, born and raised here in Australia but empathising with my mother’s Chinese-Malaysian background, there is usually a lot more subtlety in terms of how people treat each other. I’d say go in with an open mind, and if you have Asian friends it’s worth asking them what they relate with in the movie because I guarantee your takeaways/observations will be very different.

I’d say probably my main criticism of the film is that it lacks polish and experience. It’s one of those films where if you made everything 10% better (directing, writing, casting, acting, sound design, backgrounds, everything), then the whole film would be better as a whole. It’s very comfortably a 7/10 overall.

Discussions with Spoilers

Casting

Casting is probably one of those things that purists Asians might wring their hands about especially given that all the actors are from varying Asian backgrounds even though they all fall under the ‘Asian-American’ category, and it’s reflected in the movie in the sense that there didn’t seem to be a very strong Asian (subculture) theme. It probably makes sense that the film was set in Singapore as a result.

Very noticeable is how typecast some roles and/or casting choices are (at least of the ones I know of): Ronny Chieng, Jimmy O. Yang, Ken Jeong, Awkwafina. If you’ve seen any of them in other roles, or their comedy work, it’s very easy to see that all they had to do was play up their usual characters in Crazy Rich Asians. Awkwafina was probably the only convincing act for me.

Henry Golding plays the charming + humble + thoughtful boyfriend, which he would rehash in Last Christmas (2019). I’d be curious to see him in other films to see how expansive his acting ability is, but so far nothing bad to say about him.

Michelle Yeoh did really well with what she was given. Personally I’m more disappointed at some of the lines she had to deliver and what were probably more director decisions rather than acting on her part. What I would’ve liked to hear was her voice sounding like it was holding back a lifetime of resentment at various key moments, because it’s one of those things that a first-generation immigrant would’ve been through (especially when facing racism head on at the start of the movie?!). Even though there was a line about how she gave up studying Law to be with her husband, I couldn’t hear/feel any resentment in the voice. But perhaps showing such resentment would’ve not been so befitting of a rich person? I wouldn’t know. I just feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities to really bring out depth in Eleanor Young’s character.

Constance Wu as Rachel Chu was…okay? Nothing good, nothing bad. I’m not too familiar with her mother character on Fresh Off The Boat but from the few clips I’ve seen she obviously knows how to play into the stereotypical Asian mother trope, but Rachel Chu’s character fell a bit flat. I think it was fine if she was a bit of a doormat in the first half while she was getting to grips with the new rich world around her, but when she decided to be more assertive I didn’t really feel any change in character or aura for her – usually if I had to direct such a portion I’d be more insistent on a ‘being scared but still determined’ character, like a ‘quiet determination’, like when you know someone’s silently confident.

Is this how rich people actually conduct themselves?

A funny personal tidbit: my mother was not keen to watch this since she’d initially assumed the setting was in Hong Kong instead of Singapore, and from her own personal experience she found rich Hong Kong-ers very insufferable.

I have no idea how rich people conduct themselves. I’m the kind of person that you’d see in the slightly run down areas at some Asian diner that has 5 star food but you wouldn’t guess it from the outwards appearance nor reviews in Western areas (because white people usually get turned off by indifferent/grumpy Asian servers even if the food is 5 stars, so usually good Asian places in Western areas tend to get 3-4 stars).

Killing a fish and leaving it on one’s holiday bed with a nasty message? That’s too on-the-face and far too petty for me. Anyone familiar with Chinese culture and how China conducts things in general is much more passive and behind-the-scenes. It’s a slow grasp of power through various small influences, a little bit of spying and espionage, and building up defences for any worst case scenario for potential retaliatory purposes (e.g. the ICBMs).

Even Eleanor Young’s very forward speaking to Rachel Chu about how she’ll never be accepted on the stairs was just too on-the-nose. And then thrusting at her the investigation into her mother’s past. Where’s the subtlety?! I suspect this is more a consequence of the original book that this movie was based off. The only thing I could possibly think of is that in rich culture, expressing these things openly is more the norm amongst such people. All I can say is that it would definitely not exist in the cultures I’m most familiar with.

The Mahjong Scene

The mahjong scene was one that was talked about a lot especially how it marked the turning point of Eleanor Young’s opinion on Rachel Chu. The main bit I really appreciated was the subtlety in not explaining the game itself, and presumably how Rachel actually won (?) versus Eleanor – personally I don’t know enough mahjong to tell, but one could make the assumption based on their reactions and how the movie went on afterwards.
My perception of a mahjong place was vastly different to how it was presented: In general I’d assumed mahjong places were a bit more worn down and much noisier. The clacking/mixing of the tiles at the start was a great indicator, and I would’ve liked to have heard it (maybe I didn’t?) in the overall background noise. There’s also usually a lot more buzz in the air, in terms of people talking, exclaiming, and general hubbub, not so much a clean organised tournament-esque scenario they presented. However I’m happy to be wrong, and perhaps this is how rich people play mahjong, but nonetheless this was probably one of the better expressed and executed scenes in the movie.

All in all…

I’m happy this movie was made, given its cultural impact to Western film and media in creating an opportunity for Asian-Americans to be more seen. Seven years after, there’s obviously still work to be done especially in the higher tiers of Hollywood, and there certainly should be more people than just Michelle Yeoh that should also see the spotlight at some point.

It is probably too much for me to expect the first such movie be a smash hit, but imagine how worse it would’ve been if it significantly flopped or disappointed the Asian-American community. No doubt everyone was still figuring things out, so there probably wasn’t a clear indication of how one should direct and/or act, so with that in mind, they all did a really good job nonetheless.