Have you read Crazy Rich Asians? Why not??? It’s a fun and sharp-eyed observation of the ridiculous excesses of rich Asians–its the opulence of Fifty Shades to the nth degree without the annoying inner goddess and bad sex scenes. But fear not, if you have no desire to wade through descriptions of brand names that we can only hope to gawk at, then watch the movie that’s going to be released this year. The movie trailer already set the tone of the dizzying materialism of people with an excessive amount of money, and I can’t wait to watch it.
But what has me excited about this movie is not the tightassness of Nick’s mother, played with such cool glamour by Michelle Yeoh, I feel like I should curtsey even just watching her on my small tv, but the fact that is a big budget movie of an entirely Asian cast. I hate to get too optimistic, as I’ve grown up watching Asians portrayed as either “they’re so dumb, its funny” (think of Sixteen Candles’ extremely offensive use of a Chinese character named Long Duk Dong), or the token smart Asian (the Jurassic Park scientist who only had two lines in the first movie). However, the casting of Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs in the rom-com Set It Up–never mind that they weren’t the main couple gives me hope. In addition, Randall Park and Alli Wong are starring in another rom-com, and this time they are not the minority sidekicks, they’re the stars.
Hollywood still has a long way to go, as evidenced by the casting (and un-casting) of Scarlett Johanssen as a transgender male but I hope that they continue to make movies that represent minority groups in this country.
And it doesn’t look like an artsy movie that maybe 18 people across 3 countries will see. It looks brilliant and funny and like it will resonate with a lot of people. Yay! I know I can’t wait to see it. I haven’t read the book, I didn’t even know it was a book. If it’s available on audio I might grab it.