Crazy Rich Asians - Aug 19

…‘Crazy Rich Asians’ have aired this month at last. Already there are issues with them. How come?

Firstly, the plot. Despite the statement that the movie drew its’ material from the entire trilogy, it is still largely based on the first novel, the initial ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. Before anyone begins to argue, let us immediately agree that yes, the novel is about the nouveau-riche of Asia, the new aristocracy that is supplanting the old, European one, so calling the movie derived from the novel some sort of a breakthrough is a misdirection. …Or is it?

Before we discuss this matter further, let us look on the more technical aspects of the movie, how it is different from the novel. One notable difference is Astrid’s plot line – in the movie, it is downplayed; she and her husband break up and this is it. In the novels,…it lasts for the entire trilogy, and it is one of the least comic plotlines there, too. It is an inverted mirror to Rachel and her man, Astrid married outside of her class, a poorer man, and their marriage didn’t work, as he became a jerk and a stereotypical domineering husband, (in a bad, non-sexual way). Fortunately, her ex-boyfriend was there to save the day and help her and her son, so it all works out at the end of the trilogy. Yay! …But with fewer laughs than you might think.

…That is actually an interesting point. Not unlike the LG trilogy by Jenny Han, KK’s CRA trilogy is not exactly as comic as the movie may make you think; there are plenty of comic moments, but both trilogies have plenty of drama, too. This is reminiscent of yet another supposed rom-com movie, ‘Maid in Manhattan’, back in 2008. Remember? It has starred J-Lo and some other celebrities? It was a good movie, but it was not exactly a comedy, for a number of reasons.

One is that J-Lo is not really a comic actress; Salma Hayek, (re: ‘Fools Rush In’ from 1997), is, but J-Lo is not. Her current TV series, ‘Shades of Blue’, is a very good TV show, but it certainly is not a comedy either, and ditto for ‘Maid in Manhattan’ film. There were a number of comic/funny scenes in that movie, but as a rule, J-Lo was not in them. Funny just does not come naturally to her, and neither does romance, apparently: there was zero chemistry and Ralph Fiennes in all of the scenes that they were together, which was bad, because they were the lead characters in the movie.

Mind you, ‘Maid in Manhattan’ had plenty in common with the CRA film – both films talk about social inequality; both movies are set in big, famous cities, and etc. Both movies are also American, but mayhap we are getting distracted?

No, not really: another major difference between the CRA film and the novels is the downplay of the fact that Rachel’s biological father was an important member of China’s communist party – it is not featured as prominently in the movie as it is in the book.

…This was actually a point of realization for me, when I read the novel: it was set in Singapore (primarily), yet the characters came across mostly as Chinese, so I actually did some research about Singapore and China and learned, to my embarrassment, that Singapore wasn’t all that close to China, but actually quite far away, which brings us to the next point.

Firstly, the critics of the movie are not wrong: CRA is downplaying the multiethnicity of Singapore, focusing primarily on its’ elite, which is apparently mainly of Chinese origin, both in the movie and the novels. As such, it raises an issue: just how much of making the movie is an international win?

This brings us to Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’, (released in Feb 2018). It is a different movie from CRA, but it had been handled similarly – it was proclaimed to be an African movie, an Afrofuturistic movie, and etc. – and then people began to examine it more closely, look at the technical angles, and began to realize that it actually didn’t have too much to do with Africa, especially with real life Africa, such as it is: Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ featured an idealized American, or Afro-American, version of Africa, which is another matter altogether – and the same thing is going down with CRA. It has less to do with real life Asia and more with a stylized, fictional Asia of the novels’ author first and the movie’s actors, filming crew, scriptwriters, the director, etc. second. It is still a very impressive feat of cooperative achievement, very important for Asian-American actors in Hollywood, but just like ‘Black Panther’, CRA appears to be reaching out for being a movie of international importance – and this is where it falls flat, as Asians abroad, (especially those native to Singapore), have very different opinions of it than the people back in U.S. do, and it shows, as all the hype about CRA the movie is dying down already.

Does CRA matter? Yes, because right now U.S. is wrestling with the temptation of getting rid of its’ international utopia…for good. This is an ambiguous move, not because if the States do it, it is the end of the official-unofficial Pax Americana that has been going on since the end of the Cold War. Fewer people outside of U.S.A. want to get rid of it than the Americans pretend, but it is enough for the Americans to grow increasingly disillusioned with the utopia that they have been building since the 1970s, actually, and this is not good either. If U.S. stops even trying being an international arbiter, (as they have pretended to be in the post-Cold War years), this is it. The end of an international democracy and the end of a world that we have lived in for more than twenty years by now. What comes next will be different – just different, but we got sidetracked.

No, not really. CRA is a good movie adaptation of a novel, with plenty of technical differences from its book cousin. This is a regular occurrence for such films – the LG movie is different from the book as we have discussed earlier, and so’s ‘Freaky Friday’, or rather – its’ latest reboot, (that has also aired in August 2018). Somehow, people forgot that in the original novels… that is right, there were at least two novels – in the first, mom and her daughter switched places, in the second – a father and son, and they were all one family, a stereotypical nuclear family. In most of the adaptations, the family usually misses a father, and the son is much younger than his sister is. Somehow, there was never any stink raised over this odd development, so there is that. The latest FF movie version was wonderful all the same, too, but we are talking about CRA here.

…And it is the same thing. Whatever justified criticism CRA’s message might be bringing forth, the setting – the city of Singapore – well, does not. Everyone likes it, but many people loved ‘Black Panther’s’ Wakanda too, and let us be honest: while the setting can have some importance to the plot, (i.e., in ‘Main in Manhattan’, Manhattan and NYC did play an important role in having the plot go along), people usually stay to watch any movie for its’ actors – and this is what they’ve done for CRA: they watched it, and they judged it. As a movie, CRA is a success; as an attempt to affect real life politics, especially outside of the U.S., it is not so much, just as ‘Black Panther’ was not, (do people even talk officially about that film anymore?), so let us just accept it and move on.

…And for now, this is it. See you all soon!