Crazy Rich Asians
I don't get it. Call me a killjoy, but while I understand how important this movie is with its all-Asian cast, and even though the actors are nearly all charming, the male lead, Henry Golding, is particularly sexy, and the presence of the great Michelle Yeoh works to partly redeem the tiresome superficiality, what is there to say but honestly? I don't get it.
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My one word review: Bleh!
ReplyDeleteBest,
Bonnie
Last night I had a dream that you sent Henry to Canada to go to school and he was boarding at my house and hanging out with my kids. He wanted to go out but I was worried he wouldn’t be able to find his way back so I was writIng down my address which of course he already knew because he was there. I knew he was getting annoyed but he was very polite and patient. He and my kids were swimming in my pool that I don’t actually own in real life but wanted upon awakening because it looked good in my yard. I would like this dream interpreted. My guess is I spend too much time reading blogs and I want a pool.
ReplyDeleteGo see Searching, also a movie with Asian main characters. Very good, suspenseful, clever.
ReplyDeleteI won't see Crazy Rich Asians because I'm afraid it perpetuates a stereotype...Ruth King's good book, Mindful of Race, breaks down how many Asians are living in poverty in spite of being 'good' POC-sorry for the lecture.
Your bubbling peach pie on Instagram was upsetting to us waiting around at the birth center for a baby to come. Oh yum!!!!!
As my mom would say, "Well, I'm sure I don't know".
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the movie but I read the book which I enjoyed a great deal; it was like a good candy bar, not really good for you but enjoyable never the less:)
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. It has a good title, at least!
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. It has a good title, at least!
ReplyDeletelike so many movies, it fails to engage one in any kind of way. Like you say, all the elements were there and it still couldn't deliver. I find this often. It's just too bad this all Asian cast got caught up in this movie.
ReplyDeleteGlad to get your take, my friends walked on after about twenty minutes...caught Blackkklansman instead, Good move!
ReplyDeleteHa, I just found it funny!
ReplyDeleteMight have a different perspective ig you were Asian. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteMaybe — but I’m not one for this genre when it’s all white, black, Jewish, etc. I’m more of the Ang Lee, Kurosawa or Ozu type — even the great noodle western “Tampopo” was funnier, deeper and more watchable than this piece of fluff.
DeleteTo enjoy the movie you had to have read and enjoyed the books - all three of them. And to read and enjoy those books you had to have some familiarity with (by observing or being exposed to) the subcultures depicted there - Asian megarich, whether old money or newly arrived, where Western aristocracies and hierarchies are mostly irrelevant except as comic foils. The books had much more space to expound on these themes and did so in a very entertaining and genre-bending way. The books are more than just summer fluff reading. They are not sociological treatises, but they touch on interesting class-based cultural patterns via light rom-com - which make them terrific entertainment to read.
ReplyDeleteThe movie had much less space to go into the nuances and relied on audiences' prior interest in and grasp of the entire socio-cultural background, the way Hollywood movies assume shared cultural understanding with the audience. E.g. in the book, the deep cultural, political, and economic significance that shopping for and wearing the one-of-a-kind pieces from the absolute highest-end luxury brands, or bidding mega-millions in auctions for important art is really seen. Like Edith Wharton ...
And the themes of the books made the all-Asian (East and South East Asian to be specific) cast imperative. People who went to see the movie thinking that an all-Asian cast would make the movie meaningful missed much of the point.
There is room in the book-verse and cine-verse for good fluff as well as great 'serio-comic' art.
I love the Ozu/Lee/Kurosawa type movies too, but this movie greatly widened the scope of English-language Asian-focused Asian-origin films into territories that Hollywood takes for granted as having mass appeal.
Just my 2billion$
Thanks so much for your thoughts — I really appreciate them and understand how reading the books might lend more meaning to the film, or at least lend it more depth and less superficiality. I guess I didn’t even find it funny or clever — to tell you the truth — or entertaining “fluff.” The mega rich from any culture bore me when they’re not grossing me out! I do love the Edith Wharton analogy, though, but I’d argue the validity of the comparison in the movie.
DeleteAs Beth mentioned, I also won't go to see the movie because I'm afraid it perpetuates a stereotype. I seriously doubt our Asian Family Members will go to see it either if offensive stereotypes are portrayed and passed off as humorous.
ReplyDelete