Film Review: Crazy Rich Asians (2018) - Non Caucasian Hollywood Blockbuster is something unusual
Updated: Aug 4, 2021
#FilmReview #CrazyRichAsians #影評 #我的超豪男友
‘Oh my God, will this work? We don’t know. It’s all Asian,’ the US-based Asian film investment group Ivanhoe Pictures stated in 2014. Asian film is seemed as art film in US.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) is all Asian-American casts Hollywood blockbuster since Flower Drum Song (1961). Its feature is not all Asian casts but it is all Asian-American casts. This point should not be ignored like the most of the criticisms against this film.
This film is an attempt to defuse Caucasian racial dominance of Hollywood movie characters. It is its advantage in its major theatrical release throughout the Warner Brothers's distribution lines world-wide.
From class society's political view point, Crazy Rich Asians (2018) has no blue collar workers as its main characters. All of them are not middle class, they belong to highest ruling class which constituted by billionaires of industrial giants.
Hollywood films ordinarily feature middle class characters however Crazy Rich Asians (2018) is fully described by high class billionaires. Its most important feature is well mentioned by its film title.
The story is that Asian American Rachel Chu moves to Singapore to marry with her billionaire boyfriend Nick Young after they solve strong objections from Nick's domineering mother Eleanor Sung-Young.
The ending is predictable. And important aspect of this blockbuster is that it takes Singapore as stage for this film despite its obvious Chinese domination of casts.
The most shriving city of Asia, where the most millionaires and billionaires live in Hong Kong in 2018. Thus, it should geographically be staged in Hong Kong instead of Singapore.
Avoidance of Mainland China and any other Chinese cities is a kind of political decision of Hollywood executives. The aim is to avoid giving political and psychological advantages to China.
Dir. Jon M. Chu could have filmed this in China if he tended to fully contribute to China, on the contrary, he did not, and made great compromise to the political reality of American film industry. It still keeps the nationality of being Asian Americans, not pure Chinese.
As the result, Crazy Rich Asians (2018) is not full Asian cast Hollywood blockbuster, but it rather be a full Asian-American Hollywood blockbuster. And it's obviously dominated with Chinese characters rather than various Asian races.
Racial diversity is still an issue in democratic formation of Hollywood filmmaking.
#CorporatistFilm #NonCaucasian #HollywoodBlockbuster #CrazyRichAsians2018 #FlowerDrumSong1961 #JonMChu #WarnerBrosPictures #Singapore #romanticcomedydramafilm #ChineseAmerican #RachelChu #ConstanceWu #NickYoung #HenryGolding #EleanorSungYoung #MichelleYeoh #GemmaChan #GenreFilm #USfilmmakers #MadeinUSA #AstridLeongTeo #ShangSuYi #LisaLu #Awkwafina #GohPeikLin #HarryShumJr #CharlieWu #GohWyeMun #KenJeong #Caucasian #AsianFilm #IvanhoePictures #artfilm #AsianAmerican #classsociety #bluecallerworkers #middleclass #rulingclass #HollywoodFilm #Hollywood #Chinesedomination #MainlandChina #China #DirJonMChu #Racialdiversity #filmmaking #filmreview #USFilm #ArtFilm #featurefilm
..................................................
Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission, provided attribution to the professional film writer Ryota Nakanishi as author and a link to www.ryotanakanishi.com is provided.
This film article is for educational purpose only.
