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Crazy Rich Asians, etc.
Mar. 12th, 2019 05:25 pmSo, 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.
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.
