Crazy Rich Asians, etc.

[cahn]

So, for Reasons (beta reasons), I read and watched Crazy Rich Asians last November/December. It's the first movie I've watched since... umm... the seventh Star Wars movie? (I will watch the eighth one soon, as E is asking to watch it.) And, although lately I've been having a lot of trouble with movies (I just don't have the staying power lately, it seems -- I bail out after about ten minutes), I loved it.

The book was hilarious and I really liked it, although it's honestly not very good. The writing is reeeeally pedestrian, the characterization is pretty flat (Rachel, for instance, is introduced as a professor of economics, but you would never know it from the entire rest of the book), and all in all I don't think I could possibly recommend it with a straight face. But what it does do really well is, very breezily, give us a snapshot of an extremely rich society (which -- that alone I am willing to read poorly written books for; I just get a kick out of them) where everyone in the society pretty much acts like my family. I mean. I would put up with a lot for that.

The movie fixed a lot of things that annoyed me about the books -- Eleanor Young got much more of an arc (and it was really good); Rachel actually got a couple of bits where it was relevant that she was an economist; the sheer idiocy of Nick never talking about his family with his girlfriend was addressed. Also, like -- I have actually never felt overly-interested in or invested in characters who looked like me in movies. (Probably a lot of banana-mentality going on there.) So I was surprised when it moved me way more than I had expected to see a mainstream, popular movie where everyone looked (and acted, ha) like me and my family, and no one remarked on it. I mean, it was like part of me had been waiting for a movie like this my whole life, and I suddenly completely understood why it's a big deal.

I just read the two sequels China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems. China Rich Girlfriend was my favorite -- I felt it was better written than Crazy Rich Asians, or possibly I just am more used to Kwan's style, because I had many fewer moments of "wow, this is terrible writing and although I am super enjoying it now I don't think I ever want to read it again." In fact I would go so far as to say I'd probably read it again :) Characterization continues to be paper-thin, but who reads this for the characterization?

Rich People Problems was my least favorite of the three, because it was depressing -- the first half of the book revolves around the impending death of a character, and the second half of the book revolves around everyone fighting over what's left. The tone continued to be light and breezily humorous, at odds with the more serious subjects, and it was a bit of whiplash sometimes. Kwan tried for emotional resonance sometimes but... mostly failed, and everything got really quickly wrapped up at the end.

Comments

[lokifan]

I was surprised when it moved me way more than I had expected to see a mainstream, popular movie where everyone looked (and acted, ha) like me and my family, and no one remarked on it. I mean, it was like part of me had been waiting for a movie like this my whole life, and I suddenly completely understood why it's a big deal.

That makes total sense to me! Especially the acting-like-them and it not having to be explained/remarked on - it's not purely visual (much as that's important in itself). I mean, I'm white, but e.g. with Star Wars - I didn't expect to care very much what happened, and then Rey picked up the lightsabre and I burst into tears.

[cahn]

*nods* I'm watching my first cdrama right now (Nirvana in Fire) and everyone looks like me but it doesn't seem to matter that much, really? As opposed to even the first scene in CRA where the women were arguing about whether they should have taken a taxi or not, hee.

[rachelmanija]

I mean, it was like part of me had been waiting for a movie like this my whole life, and I suddenly completely understood why it's a big deal.

Isn't it great when that happens?

I really enjoyed the movie, but I probably won't check out the books. Incidentally, I saw it at a theatre that inexplicably used a seat-vibrating effect every time there was a motor vehicle onscreen! That effect is really cool in something like Dunkirk, but I can't think of a less appropriate movie for it than Crazy Rich Asians.

[cahn]

It is!

Yeah, I would dis-rec the books unless it's the sort of trashy thing you happen to like reading (which my sense is it's not for you, though it totally is for me). I thought the movie was really good. The books are... not.

Okay, the seat-vibrating thing is hilarious!

[rachelmanija]

No, the books really don't sound like my preferred type of trashy reading. They're kind of in the chick lit meets Jackie Collins genre, right?

I literally jumped every time someone got in a car. After a while the entire theatre started bracing themselves every time character said they were going to go somewhere.

[cahn]

On the other hand, I forgot to mention that there is food porn. A lot of food porn, like, I don't know anything about Nick or Rachel's hobbies after reading three books about them, but I sure do know what restaurants they like and what is served there :)

[seekingferret]

I ended up writing more about the book vs. the movie in the comments to grrlpup's post about the movie: https://grrlpup.dreamwidth.org/59906.html

[cahn]

Interesting! I can see that coming to it with my own lenses is a Thing here. I will admit that I saw the movie pretty much immediately after reading the book, so in some sense I approached it more of an illustration of the book than its own entity. So I was probably primed to be more annoyed with the book in general. But Nick: I mean, you live in the US, you have a life there, you are supposed to figure out the norms of these kinds of things, cultural conditioning aside, especially as a tenured professor of history whose whole... career?... revolves around understanding how cultural norms differ?? I am also coming from a cultural lens in which I had to figure out a whole bunch of these kinds of things myself (not the wealth thing, ha, but other similar types of "WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS" or "WE NORMALIZE THESE THINGS") -- it wasn't nearly the same, since I was born in and grew up in the US, and Nick didn't, so I'm obviously being too harsh on him, but I'm very sure that fueled my annoyance with him for not figuring them out.

I was rather annoyed with Astrid's storyline in the book, because it was clear that there was no real resolution to it, that Michael hadn't really changed, that she totally needed to get rid of him, and that the arc of storyline was going to eventually bend that way, after more heartache (which indeed happened in the second book). So although it was more complex, which I enjoyed (and I understood sacrificing that complexity so the movie wasn't super long -- I mean, see also my super short attention span), on balance I didn't like it any more than I liked the movie storyline. I also seem to remember Charlie not being so much of a thing in the movie? which I also approved of, as I also have sort of a kneejerk reaction to storylines where the next love interest is queued up. (...which is hypocritical of me, but hey, sometimes I want to watch people making more emotionally healthy life decisions than I did at that age :) )

I agree that the men are passive (and more so in the movie than the book), but that's a convention of the genre so it really didn't bother me (it in fact bothered me more that Rachel was such a cipher in the book, because you can get away in a romance novel/movie with the guy being a black hole, but not the girl). I also, after reading both the book and the movie, have no idea what Nick likes, besides various kinds of food. (Man, the food porn in the books is pretty great, I must admit.)

[iberiandoctor]

Heh, as the fortunate recipient of your beta services I am most grateful you decided to subject yourself to this movie and book ;) As you know, I thought the movie was infinitely better — the movie dialogue was much snappier than the book’s prose, Eleanor gets an actual arc and Rachel gets an actual fleshed-out backstory and career, both of which culminated in the excellent mahjonng scene at the end that isn;t in the book, and it was visually gorgeous and meticulously authentic, from the food porn to the Peranakan interiors. It was also self-aware enough to poke gentle fun at itself as a product of commercial pop culture (as i think you first pointed out!), and though the plot steers pretty true to its roots as a standard cliched romcom, I thought it did have some new things to say about Asianness and our culture of putting family before self — although I realise I can’t be entirely objective about a mainstream popular Hollywood movie about my city and culture!

I vaguely remember the Astrid storyline is more fleshed out in the book (principally because she becomes the protagonist in the next book?) and I realise the writing is supposed to be funny, but I just couldn’t get past Kwan’s terrible style — I mean, I love a trashy light read as much as the next person but I couldn’t even make it to the end. I’m intrigued to discover that you actually quite enjoyed the sequel, enough to possibly give China Rich Girlfriend a try... though I might just spend my hard-earned Singapore dollars on the movie instead ;)

[cahn]

Yes! I also think the movie was infinitely better. I thought it did have some new things to say about Asianness and our culture of putting family before self -- maybe that's the thing; I feel like coming to it as an Asian (or at least in my case Asian-American) meant that there was a lot of shorthand there that maybe wasn't clear to someone who didn't have that cultural background. And yes, it was gorgeous!

Ahahaha, I probably just got inured to Kwan's terrible style, so I would NOT recommend you get the book. I'm interested to see what happens in the movie sequel, though -- the deviations in the first movie mean that it could go quite differently in the second movie, which would be interesting!