When a movie is made about Singapore, especially all the way from Hollywood, of course, everyone’s ears are going to perk up. And then everyone will have an opinion. And then noise ensues. It was interesting to watch the discussion around this seemingly straightforward romcom evolve in two different spheres, especially with me having friends from both Singapore as well as the Asian American circles in the US.  I intentionally took a long time from the movie release to write this post to make sure I wasn’t biased by hype. Is Crazy Rich Asians a good cinematic choice – sure. Is it a good movie? That’s worth a discussion.

For those of you who haven’t watched the movie, Crazy Rich Asians follows the story of Rachel as she travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick for his best friend’s wedding. She becomes increasingly aware of Nick’s enormous wealth and his family heritage, ending up in a battle of wits with Nick’s mother to gain acceptance into the exclusive circle of “crazy rich Asians” in Singapore. The story is all about family, love, and identity especially in a world where everyone is geographically mobile.

Let me start by saying I mostly enjoyed the movie. There are varying levels of comedy from the Ken Jeong physical comedy I will never get tired of to even the Singaporean flavor of ironic local caricaturing. The cast is all fantastic, especially Michelle Yeoh and Gemma Chan who play intense characters with such poise and intention. Even the cinematography conveys the grandiose of the moment and does a flattering visual job of Singapore. I had many American friends convey to me to their newfound desire to make their way here to see what this country is all about. But that’s also where I start having issues with the movie.

To start, I strongly disagree with the argument that Crazy Rich Asians is ultimately an Asian-American movie. While Kevin Kwan did write the original book in the US as a reflection of his own journey for identity, the movie has to be taken as its own product. We demand high standards from all movies that touch on topics of identity and culture these days and so too must Jon Chu face the evaluation of his decisions to either maintain, remove or enhance elements from the original story. Crazy Rich Asians, as a movie, is, in all honesty, a primarily Singaporean film. Most of the movie is spent tracing the heritage of Nick’s family, and the context is reinforced with Rachel playing the role of the outsider to an evolving Peranakan group. Rachel’s otherness is rarely in relation to her own Asian-Americanness but much more so in her inability to comprehend Singaporean Asianness. This increases the burden of authenticity on Chu, because while the storyline can take its comical twists and turns, he must ultimately portray his context accurately, especially given the historical misrepresentation of Asian settings in Hollywood.

This most personally connected misrepresentation is the utter lack of races in the entirety of the film. This is a movie set in my country and yet the only time I see a dark-skinned Asian is either as the security guard for the Young estate or as the valet at the iconic wedding. The retort given by those who claim the movie has no responsibility to represent Singapore accurately display the privilege and complicity of those who are no longer erased from the dominant narrative. I have been invited to my share of crazy rich Asian weddings. I know that even if I wasn’t there, there would definitely be a number of other dark-skinned Asians celebrating the memorable day of their good friends. It is dangerously misrepresentative to convey the story of the Young family as one that hardly interacts with anyone but the Chinese.  There are many other levels of laziness – such as the narrowed definition of Peranakan culture – but those have been well covered in other reviews of the movie.

Also a sticky sidenote: Nick is a horrible character. Besides being good-looking and ultimately sacrificial, he is clueless in the effects of his wealth on Rachel all the way till he finally sees her leave. What an underwhelming character arc.

Crazy Rich Asians has a high bar to hit because it is a breakthrough movie for an Asian narrative. The predominantly Asian-American cast is a cause for celebration because they definitely proved their mantle, but the context of Singapore cannot be simply used as a backdrop irresponsibly. We are allowed to demand more of our cultural icons and we should continue to do so. Knowing that there’s a sequel in the works makes me hopeful for many improvements on the next iteration.

Here’s my rating of the movie below:

Cinematography: 4/5

Screenwriting: 3/5

Musical Score: 4/5

Acting/ Performance: 4/5

Overall: 3.75/5