Did anyone watch "Crazy, Rich Asians"? What did you think?

Imagine If wrote:

Imagine if anyone made a movie "Crazy, Rich, Jews"?

All Hell would break loose.

There have been plenty of movies making fun of rich Jewish people (and rich people of pretty much all shapes, sizes and religions etc)

So if all hell would break loose, it should have broken by now.

BS wrote:

Imagine If wrote:

Imagine if anyone made a movie "Crazy, Rich, Jews"?

All Hell would break loose.

There have been plenty of movies making fun of rich Jewish people (and rich people of pretty much all shapes, sizes and religions etc)

So if all hell would break loose, it should have broken by now.

Maybe you didn't read my comment:

Imagine if anyone made a movie "Crazy, Rich, Jews"?

All Hell would break loose.[/quote]

didn't impress me much wrote:

also, no one would care that a movie was called Crazy Rich Jews if it were made by Jewish people based on a book by a Jewish guy and starred an all-Jewish cast.

Which would never happen.

Just LOL wrote:

Chinese people are not admirable because they sell mountains of cheap plastic crap to America. They also need to learn to use condoms. 1.4 billion people

You mean savvy because they find US idiots to buy it.

Wow - didn’t take long for this thread to degenerate. To answer the OP, I personally found the movie very entertaining. And as an Asian, the movie had special resonance to me because it is one of very few Hollywood movies ever made with a cast of people who look like me and contained nice cultural touchstones like the dumpling making and mahjong scenes (read up on the latter scene - there was more going on in that scene than just two women talking).

Was it a masterpiece? No, but it was a nice change of pace from all the sequels and comic book movies Hollywood is obsessed with these days. Was it supposed to accurately reflect the experiences of all Asians? No, it’s a movie obviously exaggerated for dramatic purposes and that’s asking too much of one movie to be THE Asian movie.

didn't impress me much wrote:

The mahjong scene is ridiculous (but I admit I have no idea if it would have been better if I knew anything about mahjong).

It would help.

Basically, Rachel had the game won with the piece she kept holding, but put it down and let the mother win. She then flipped her pieces showing the mother that she had the game won, but chose to lose on purpose. (as explained to me by my father-in-law)

in-laws are crazy middle class asians wrote:

didn't impress me much wrote:

The mahjong scene is ridiculous (but I admit I have no idea if it would have been better if I knew anything about mahjong).

It would help.

Basically, Rachel had the game won with the piece she kept holding, but put it down and let the mother win. She then flipped her pieces showing the mother that she had the game won, but chose to lose on purpose. (as explained to me by my father-in-law)

Thank you for that.

But I'm not sure that makes me like the scene any more than when I thought what was going on was that that tile was Rachel baiting the mom into thinking the mom won, but then Rachel showing the mom that she had tricked her when she turned over her tiles.

didn't impress me much wrote:

also, no one would care that a movie was called Crazy Rich Jews if it were made by Jewish people based on a book by a Jewish guy and starred an all-Jewish cast.

Seinfeld. OK the characters aren't rich but the actors/producers certainly are.

It's a romcom, which isn't my movie of choice. But went with my Asian wife and I liked it mostly, light, predictable but funny.

I liked Joy Luck Club better per my memory (saw that with my wife when we first started dating).

While I thought Crazy Rich Asians wasn't very deep, the mahjon game at the end was full of symbolism (and Chinese are really into symbolism), which I didn't fully appreciate until I read the article below, so quite clever:

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/17/17723242/crazy-rich-asians-movie-mahjon

Correct, but it was more than that, as you can read in the Vox article. Down to Rachel sitting West while Dragon Mom sat East. They put some thought into it, so I think it worked on different levels (like, well, the Simpsons ;-))

in-laws are crazy middle class asians wrote:

didn't impress me much wrote:

The mahjong scene is ridiculous (but I admit I have no idea if it would have been better if I knew anything about mahjong).

It would help.

Basically, Rachel had the game won with the piece she kept holding, but put it down and let the mother win. She then flipped her pieces showing the mother that she had the game won, but chose to lose on purpose. (as explained to me by my father-in-law)

I watched it with my Asian American (born in US) wife. I thought it was a cute Rom-Com. She loved loved loved it. Sure, there were lots of over-the-top stereotypes and silliness, but that is true of most any ROM-Com or comedy in general. We both saw a lot of her family in the movie. Sans fortune, of course :-( My wife particularly liked the Mahjong scene. If you know the game you could see that she was purposely letting the mother win but at the same time letting her know who was going to call the shots. And that's just how the story plays out.

goijdgdfgd wrote:

Pretty amusing.

I thought it was a pretty good movie.

I initially didn’t like the song “yellow” near the end- I don’t understand Chinese and the Chinese lyrics don’t sound so great to my non Chinese ears. But having read the back story on the song and hearing the song again on YouTube, I appreciate it more than I did when I watched the film.

The cast was pretty good overall especially the leads... and the female co stars were hot.

notrump wrote:

didn't impress me much wrote:

also, no one would care that a movie was called Crazy Rich Jews if it were made by Jewish people based on a book by a Jewish guy and starred an all-Jewish cast.

Seinfeld. OK the characters aren't rich but the actors/producers certainly are.

Seinfeld would have to have been called Crazy Rich Jews to meet my original supposition

I thought it was great, fun and funny and ridiculous, and it reminded me a lot of the experiences I've had with Chinese friends (I'm a white guy). Dumpling making and Mahjong, getting tons of delicious street food dishes, and there were a bunch of other little things that I can't quite put my finger on right now. I liked that there were lots of covers of songs in English and Mandarin (reminded me of this restaurant I used to go to in college), that two of the main male characters were muscular Asian dudes and that none of them were nerdy. It subverted a lot of common tropes.

Pretty goo if you ask me wrote:

I initially didn’t like the song “yellow” near the end- I don’t understand Chinese and the Chinese lyrics don’t sound so great to my non Chinese ears. But having read the back story on the song and hearing the song again on YouTube, I appreciate it more than I did when I watched the film.

This is a weird criticism to me because there was more than one English song with Chinese lyrics, did you not notice the others?

There are lots of stories where a commoner and a prince fall in love, but their quality is determined by the details along the way and I thought they did a good job here.

Honestly the only thing that made me chafe is that the main female character was supposed to be a born and bred New Yorker, but as a born and bred New Yorker who has spent some time in California, she really looked to me like she was from LA.

[/quote]

This is a weird criticism to me because there was more than one English song with Chinese lyrics, did you not notice the others?

There are lots of stories where a commoner and a prince fall in love, but their quality is determined by the details along the way and I thought they did a good job here.

Honestly the only thing that made me chafe is that the main female character was supposed to be a born and bred New Yorker, but as a born and bred New Yorker who has spent some time in California, she really looked to me like she was from LA.[/quote]

In the book, she grew up in California.

Learn your facts. China had a lower birth rate than America. We'd be better off if poor white trash in the USA learned how to use condoms.

I didn't like the movie. Old-fashioned script, and it was too long.

Imagine If wrote:

Imagine if anyone made a movie "Crazy, Rich, Jews"?

All Hell would break loose.

I got yellow-fever!

in-laws are crazy middle class asians wrote:

It would help.

Basically, Rachel had the game won with the piece she kept holding, but put it down and let the mother win. She then flipped her pieces showing the mother that she had the game won, but chose to lose on purpose. (as explained to me by my father-in-law)

WHOA! I had NO idea that's what it meant!! I wish I had known that while watching that scene because I was kind of confused as to why it mattered.