When one sees movie trailers, the whole idea is to sell the film to its audience, however when I saw my first trailer of "Crazy Rich Asians", I felt it was a silly, inane and very predictable film-- just from the trailer. Well, after viewing it, I concluded that it wasn't an amazingly great film, but was far better than I ever expected after viewing the trailer. Some films simply do not sell the film.
This story follows Chinese-American, economics professor and native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding), to his best friend's Colin Khoo (Chris Pang) wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first but nervous about meeting Nick's family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life. It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country's wealthiest families, but also one of its most sought-after bachelors. Being on Nick's arm puts a target on Rachel's back, with jealous socialites and, worse, Nick's own disapproving mother, Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh).
Others to round out the cast are Gemma Chan as Astrid Young Teo, Lisa Lu as Ah Ma, Awkwafina as Peik Lin Goh, Ken Jeong as Wye Mun Goh, Sonoya Mizuno as Araminta Lee, Jimmy O. Yang as Bernard Tai, Ronny Chieng as Eddie Cheng, Remy Hii as Alistair Cheng, Nico Santos as Oliver T'sien and Jing Lusi as Amanda Ling.
This was well directed by one of the best Asian filmmaker's out there, Jon M. Chu ("Step Up 2: The Streets" '08, "The LXD: The Uprising Begins" '10, "Step Up 3D" '10, "The LXD: The Secrets of the Ra" '11, "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" (documentary) '11, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" '13, "Justin Bieber's Believe" (documentary) '13, "We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss" (documentary) '14, "Jem and the Holograms" '15, "Now You See Me 2" '16) plus TV and shorts. Although I do understand why most filmmakers stay in their comfort zone when it comes to their work--most people do, it is so nice and surprising to find those that cannot be pigeon-holed, such as this director. His resume is a who's who of different films with different genres and topics. The chemistry between Wu and Golding was spot on which is the crux of the premise of the film in order to convey this to the audience which is shrewd directing. It was surprisingly well written by Peter Chiarelli ("The Proposal" '09, "Now You See Me 2" (story) '16) and Adele Lim (series TV), based on the novel "Crazy Rich Asians" by Kevin Kwan. I say surprisingly since Chiarelli has limited feature film experience and Lim has none. Other than some jumping around in script and a few places of slowness, this storyline kept the audience moving right along. The best thing about this was the amazing delineation of character development with each character and how those characters were able to connect. From what I hear, "Crazy Rich Asians 2" is already in the works. Hey, when you got a hit, which this is, you gotta jump on that profit 'band wagon' for as long as one can.
Did this film have heart? Yes, Was it entertaining? Absolutely, Was it predictable? Sure, but it being a rom-com, there has to be some forgiveness since all rom-coms have the tendency of predictability. Certainly if you want a film that's fun, entertaining with a dose of heart thrown in, then this will be the ride you'll want.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG-13 121mins.
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