Cinephile № 855 “Crazy Rich Asians”

Recommendation: 4/5 Stars, SHOWTIME

Plot: “This contemporary romantic comedy, based on a global bestseller, follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend’s family.” -IMDB

Review: Thanks to my aversion to anything I perceive to be a romantic comedy, I must apologize for ignoring this film when it was first released. With this out of the way, my review…

Presented as a romantic comedy, “Crazy Rich Asian” does a pretty brilliant job of peeling back layers of class, culture, and nationality.

Focused on Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) and Nick Young (Henry Golding), this film begins innocently enough with a date and an offer to travel to Singapore for a wedding so the family can meet the new girlfriend. Filled with relatable excitement and nerves, Rachel agrees. Flash forward a bit and our young couple finds themselves sitting in first class on an international trip. This is when Rachel discovers how insanely wealthy Nick’s family is. This is when our story becomes beautifully complex.

Unbeknownst to Rachel, she is entering a foreign world on multiple levels. As an Asian-America, from a working-class household led by a single mother, she and her relationship will be measured by an impossible yardstick. Instantly, she will feel the people of Nick’s world looking down…