Crazy Rich Asians * (2018, Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh) – Movie Review

Director Jon M Chu’s ghastly romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians was an unexpected runaway hit in America, its success based on the source global bestseller by Kevin Kwan. It is Mills and Boon’s finest. I’m guessing the success is due to its wallowing in displays of extreme wealth, gold-digging and back-stabbing, and its praise of the surface-only materialist idea that being super rich is more valuable than goodness, handsome is more valuable than what’s inside a person. Money lures OK. No wonder it was popular in America, where it has grossed $140,852,000 so far.

Constance Wu stars as American-born Chinese New York economics professor Rachel Chu, who agrees to go with her new loving, handsome, perfect boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) to his hometown of Singapore to meet his family at the time of his best friend’s wedding. What she mainly meets is his horrible battleaxe of a mother, Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh), a woman with a much too close a relationship with her son, and vice versa, by the way.

She also meets various jealous women who want to bring her down and grab Nick in the nick of time for themselves. But, really, it is all about the mother, and she’s the one who wants Nick all to herself. Mum says it’s all about social class and Rachel Chu not being a proper Asian because she is an American-born Chinese. But, don’t believe a word of it, Mum wants Nick all to herself.

It is surprising to find this incredibly soppy tosh directed by a man, co-written by a man (Peter Chiarelli), and based on a book by a man. It is all female wish fulfillment. Nick’s secret is that he comes from an impossibly wealthy family, and as such is Asia’s most eligible bachelor. The perfect man! It is just like Shades of Gray, without the S&M sex. It is not that Nick speaks nicely or that he has perfect skin and a hunky body. He is Asia’s most eligible bachelor because he comes from an impossibly wealthy family.

Constance Wu and Henry Golding.

Constance Wu and Henry Golding are both of them good actors and easy on the eye, and Singapore looks nice as well, and so does the movie, while Michelle Yeoh is a formidable presence as the gorgon mother. But it is hard to believe a word of it or be interested in any of it. If Rachel Chu is such a strong, modern woman, why is she spending any time at all sucking up to a mother who makes Mrs Bates seem pleasant. All this and no shower murder or S&M sex.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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Henry Golding in Crazy Rich Asians.