CRAZY RICH ASIANS

You can’t play not to lose.

In Jon M. Chu’s new film, we watch a game being played and are told that to be successful at it, one needs to understand negotiation, strategy, and cooperation. The point is clear – one cannot excel at only one or even two, but all three in order to stand half a chance. The first two, it would seem, are easy – after all, most of us could likely form a strategy and find ways to negotiate it into fruition.

Co-operation though is a whole other animal. In life, in love, in familial matters – cooperation can be a tough nut to crack. After all, cooperation often means sacrifice…and who amoung us truly want to sacrifice any advantage we may hold?

CRAZY RICH ASIANS begins by introducing us to Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) – an Economics professor at NYU. Rachel is the youngest professor at the school and a loving daughter to a single mother. She also just so happens to be in love with another professor named Nick Young (Henry Golding). On a date one night, Nick invites Rachel to travel with him to Singapore for a family wedding as his date. Happy to finally have the chance to meet the family Nick seldom speaks about, Rachel jumps at the chance.

Not fifteen minutes later, Nick gets a call from his mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh). Word travels fast on social media nowadays, and not long after the plans are set, Nick is already having to answer to his family about who he intends to be gracing their presence with. They ask, because they are rich. Crazy rich. Stupid, crazy rich. Or, as Rachel’s old roommate Peik Lin (Awkwafina) will eventually describe them: “snoshy” – neither snobby nor posh, but a new hybrid all its own.

The news is somewhat shocking to Rachel, but she loves Nick for who he is, so she tries to put her best foot forward and fit-in. After making a stop at Peik-Lin’s family home, she gets a clearer picture of what she’s in-for and begins to gird her loins. The Youngs aren’t just rich, they are also powerful and closed-ranks. Being brought into their orbit will require finesse.

Rachel is introduced to all of the aunts, cousins, girlfriends, boyfriends, grandchildren, and grandparents. They are too numerous to detail one-by-one, and how she keeps anyone straight is a wonder. Everyone has their own personal drama going-on, some of that drama even involves Nick. Some of them are delighted to be meeting her, and happy to see how happy she makes Nick. Others see her as a threat, a gold digger, a usurper. They cannot believe an Asian-American like her has managed such social-climbing and snagged one of Singapore’s most eligible bachelors.

Nick and Rachel endure an emotional week in the lead up to the wedding of Nick’s best friend. It will underscore the nature of tradition for one Singapore family, and test the limits of one modern woman. It will also be very loud, very colourful, very indulgent, and completely unforgettable.

Watching Rachel navigate the world of CRAZY RICH ASIANS, one can’t help but see it as a search for one’s place. Make no doubt that she is self-assured, but to watch her face and listen to her speak, we can’t help but notice traces of doubt. She is, after all, a child who grew-up not knowing one of her parents. She is also an American citizen transplanted from Chinese roots. She is also, of course, not nearly as wealthy as the social circles she is now being drawn into.

Rachel seeks wisdom from all around her, be they Nick’s grandmother and aunts, a VIP guest at a wedding, or even her old college roommate. She clearly knows who she is, but isn’t certain how she fits into the world Nick wants her to be a part of. The tale is specific to one woman and one culture, and yet it can easily appeal to anyone who has ever wondered to themselves “Who am I, and how do I fit in here?” (Show of hand please?)

In the late-going of CRAZY RICH ASIANS, a scene I dare not give away underlines Rachel’s point about how one must play any game to win, and that we cannot merely play “not to lose”. In unbelievably elegant fashion, the film takes a moment to subtly underscore every statement it has already made about the nature of class and family, and demonstrates that in a game like that, one can only play to win. It sounds selfish, and in a world so fixated on personal success one could be excused for thinking that.

However, what it means to win is what this movie wants us to consider. Can victory be declared if one merely vanquishes their opponent? Well, certainly – but there’s that whole saying that ends “…but lost the war”. To see Rachel’s world-view, truly winning cannot occur if one is only worried about protecting themselves or their assets. To truly win at anything – business, love, life – one has to be willing to go all-in. This means remaining true to who you are, and this means being able to take a leap when it matters most.

Most of all, playing to win means betting on someone, instead of betting against everything else. It’s a bold game strategy – one not many people are daring enough to make. That might explain why so often people believe they are winning, when in-fact, they are merely not-losing.

Families are complicated, traditional families even more-so. Wealthy traditional families might be the most complicated at all. What’s amazing about CRAZY RICH ASIANS is the way it is able to use representation to distract from what should be a story that should be uninviting (the plot, after all, is about the squabbles of a family of billionaires). The point, of course isn’t that they are crazy-rich, but that they are asian and an accurate representation of a culture so often marginalized on-screen. Usually relegated to being a stereotype, a cheap-joke, or – in the worst cases – both.

Here, we watch a story unfold that looks at life as-it-is in a culture too often ignored on American screens. It reminds us that there are so many facets to it, so many machinations. It’s just trying to tell us that a family like The Youngs are traditional, but that there is a history there that is shaping the present, and posing a challenge for the future. Every generation of it had to struggle to get what they wanted most, and every generation after will face a similar fight. This movie handily could have been a melodrama or a straight-up comedy; instead it is an amazingly complicated tale of the various paths the women of the film had to walk to get where they are in life.

This is a story about rich people, yes…but we are so much the richer for having heard their story.

Matineescore: ★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of ★ ★ ★ ★

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