Review of Crazy Rich Asians (2018) by Clarisesamuels — 23 Dec 2018

A somewhat offbeat yet still traditional love story about a couple who meet in New York City, this is a kind of modern-day Asian Romeo and Juliet. Rachel Chu (played by Constance Wu) is a hard-working Chinese American, whose single mom put her through school and watched her daughter graduate with a PhD in Economics and then go on to become the youngest economics professor at NYU. This plot may also qualify as the Asian version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, because Rachel is unacceptably poor (that is to say, middle class) and inappropriate for the family of her intended, Nick Young (Henry Golding). He is the heir apparent to the multibillionaire real estate empire built by his Singaporian parents and grandparents. Rachel is blissfully unaware that Nick is the “Prince William of Singapore” (more like the Donald Trump, Jr. of Singapore) because in New York City, he acts normal and likes to play basketball at a sweaty, grimy YMCA. Due to return home to inherit his family’s dynasty, the prodigal son shocked his family the year before by deciding to spend another year in New York with Rachel. As the film opens, he tells Rachel over a deli platter followed by dessert that he wants her to come home with him and attend the wedding of a family member. It will also be an opportunity for Nick to unveil his new love to his family.

The most prodigious obstacle to the match is Nick’s mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) who is bound by tradition, culture, and family loyalty. Eleanor Young, now separated from her husband, is cold and arrogant. She is, like all the billionaires of Singapore, mired in the lifestyle of the outrageously rich and surrounded by senseless luxury. She is preoccupied with materialism and social status, notwithstanding that she started out in life as an Oxford law student. She has almost lost her soul in this insipid world; however, her love of family, country, and culture will prove to be her only deliverance.

The charm of the plot is the innocence of Rachel, who is down-to-earth, humorous, and spontaneous. Underneath her naive and fun-loving exterior, she is an intellectual Wonder Woman, who can, if provoked, sustain a game of wits based on lifelong discipline, direction, and academic training. Rachel has a hidden strength, and she has a secret weapon. She has a PhD, which she wields like a magic lasso. Billions of dollars cannot buy Rachel’s level of intellectuality. Hollywood has a long history of indicating intelligence in a woman by giving her a pair of glasses. Rachel doesn’t have glasses, but she has x-ray vision. She can see through the superficiality of ostentatious riches. A kind of Chinese Cinderella, at the end of the story, she is the only woman whose delicate foot fits into the glass slipper, and she is the true princess who will live happily ever after—in between publications, academic conferences, and teaching classes on game theory.