Crazy Rich Asians

SENTIMENT CLOUDING JUDGMENT?

Two.

There are only two major Hollywood movies I know of that have featured Singapore in some way, shape or form.

The first was Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) which I didn't even bother watching because it looked absolutely terrible - that movie featured a car chase in the Central Business District as well as some other scenes shot at Gardens by the Bay.

The other was a little cameo in Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) where Marina Bay Sands along with many other global landmarks were decimated by aliens or something (the movie was so forgettable).

Both of them are forgettable movies which nobody remembers.

This time, however, my country is finally done some justice with the movie it appears in. Heck, this is the best representation of Singaporean culture I've seen on the big screen, and it comes from a major Hollywood studio! From our local cuisine to family customs and traditions, it's all there.

Personally, I’m not a very cultured Singaporean. As they say in the movie and in real life too, I am what's called a 'banana' - yellow on the outside, white on the inside. However, the movie did leave me brimming with immense pride to be Singaporean, with my culture being represented accurately and respectfully in a major Hollywood production.

Stuff like this is very rarely heard of in Hollywood. For a specific country's culture to be represented in such detail and respect is truly commendable.

From the get-go, you can tell what kind of movie it was going to be - one with the guts to challenge old-fashioned views that Hollywood is very used to.

This movie practically lifted these views that have been an unaddressed issue in Hollywood for decades on its head.

On to the movie proper, and I have to commend the entire cast.

I thought all the performances from the actors were good. And the Singaporean actors we’re familiar with from Mediacorp productions hold their own with more seasoned international Asian actors. Just surprised there wasn’t a Gurmit Singh cameo in the movie.

There's very natural chemistry between the movie's lead characters Nick Young (Henry Golding) and Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) which is always an important factor in any romantic movie.

I also thought Michelle Yeoh was terrific in her role as Nick's very demanding and traditional mother, Eleanor. She's an absolute legend of these parts and it's great to see her showing off her dramatic talent.

She plays her role with such subtlety and class, and as an antagonist, she is genuinely terrifying.

Pierre Png plays a character named Michael Teo (sounds familiar?), and this character is kind of a douche so damn it, Pierre and the writers, I demand an explanation for this misrepresentation.

On a more serious note, the character of Michael is involved in a side plot together with his wife Astrid (Gemma Chan) which was perhaps the weakest link in the entire movie.

The main story itself is pretty weak in the sense that it's a very typical romcom plot that we've seen a hundred times before. Some could say that there's nothing wrong with the tried and tested, while others like me lean more towards lazy writing OR too much of a focus on the whole Singaporean culture thing.

So to have this side plot which almost seemed to be forgotten about at one point in the movie (around the mid-way point) be so weak in the sense that it lacked all form of emotional depth, I feel it really bogged the movie down even more in an area it couldn't afford any more issues in.

Back on a more positive note, I have to commend the production design, costume design and music because they really made this movie look and feel so appropriate and beautiful. Some of the sets were stunning, particularly a set for a very extravagant ceremony at CHIJMES which left me in awe.

The movie is shot decently for the most part. The establishing shots showing the Marina Bay skyline and MBS were all very beautiful but I felt that they lacked variety.

I felt they could've showed more landmarks or locations around Singapore. Then again, maybe due to sponsorship or product placement deals, certain locations couldn't be shown like Sentosa, the exterior of Changi Airport or Orchard Road. 

Still, I'll take what I can get.

Back to more negatives, and the movie becomes extremely boring in the second act. The only thing that kept me interested was the fact that events were happening in Singapore in places I recognise, and for that dependence on sentiment to keep me interested, I have to mark the movie down.

There is a point I need to address with regards to the movie and this review.

I personally feel that the impact sentiment and emotion/nostalgia has on local viewers like me really clouds our judgment on how good the movie actually is. Strip away all the Singaporean culture and what you have left is a very basic romcom with predictable twists and plot elements, with side plots too weak to sustain any dramatic weight.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the representation of Singapore is phenomenal and a huge step in the right direction for the future of racial representation in pop culture, but as someone watching the movie as a movie and not as an advert for Singaporean tourism, it shouldn’t prevent one from thinking objectively.

All in all, Crazy Rich Asians was a very fun time at the cinema and a very pleasing time too with feelings of such pride in seeing Singapore represented so nicely.

However, strip those local elements away and the bare bones of the movie are very weak and ultimately fail to bring much to the table in terms anything fresh in the romcom genre.

As much as I want to appreciate these movies as art forms, at the end of the day, these movies are products that need to make a lot of money worldwide if they want a chance at making more of the same thing.

What we got with this movie is a giant step in the right direction for racial representation, but if this movie doesn't do well financially, you can be very sure that we won't see something like this for a long time.

Thankfully, favourable reviews from Rotten Tomatoes (94% as of 26th August 2018) and excellent word-of-mouth from both local and foreign critics and movie goers show promising signs for the future.

As someone with aspirations on working in the film industry in the future, my fingers are tightly crossed.

5.5/10.
(8/10 with all sentimentality included in my judgment.)