By Monique
(L-R) HENRY GOLDING as Nick and CHRIS PANG as Colin in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and SK Global Entertainment’s and Starlight Culture’s contemporary romantic comedy “CRAZY RICH ASIANS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo credit: Sanja Bucko
Crazy Rich Asians opens in theaters nationwide this week! If the hype wasn’t already enough, the film has been given–and has maintained–a rare 100 percent fresh rating!
If you’re one of those who like reading movie reviews before spending your hard-earned money, give these reviews for Crazy Rich Asians a whirl. While there are tons of reviews to choose from on Rotten Tomatoes and elsewhere, the reviews featured below are all by members of the Asian diaspora. Similar to the call-out to read Coco reviews by Mexican film critics, it only makes sense to urge you to read reviews from people who are reflected in Crazy Rich Asians. While John Doe might know tons about pan-Asian cultures, it makes more sense to listen to the opinions of those within the diaspora first, does it not?
With that said, here are seven such reviews. Of course, these aren’t the only Asian film critics out there, but these reviews will give you a good baseline as to how the film stacks up as a moviegoing experience and as a pivotal socio-political moment in our entertainment history.
Now, onward to the reviews!
“[I]t’s clear nobody had faith in the fluffy rom-com about the lives and loves of Asian people going down smoothly without a heaping spoonful of affluence porn…Luckily Crazy Rich Asians is, at its heart, a fish-out-of-water story, and it has a lot more going for it than its literal money shots.”–Emily Yoshida, Vulture
“In a deeper way, Crazy Rich Asians is truly groundbreaking (especially now, in our xenophobic moment), paying attention to cultural nuances that rarely make the multiplex. To hear your mother’s regional Chinese dialect spoken in a major Hollywood film is an occasion for no small amount of pride.”–Danny Yu, Time Out
“I’m sure I won’t be the only Asian-American viewer who felt at home when the movie mined for humor in the space between Asia and Asian Americans, as well as what the blog Ask a Korean! calls the ‘immigrant time warp,’ (http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/09/mysteries-of-buffets-and-koreans.html) i.e., the fissure between the version of the Old Country that the immigrant remembers when they left decades ago and the contemporary Asia they no longer know as well as they think.”–Inkoo Kang, Slate
“The commercial triumph of recent movies as varied and culturally specific as ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Get Out,’ Hidden Figures’ and ‘Coco’ may have shattered boundaries, but what really needs shattering is the notion that people of color should have to earn the right to see themselves depicted in the first place. In a better world, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ wouldn’t have to prove or represent anything but itself. But here we are.”–Justin Chang, L.A. Times
“Its overt ‘Asianness’ isn’t a gimmick that’s shoved into our faces–it’s a cultura subtext that exists simply because these characters do. These Asians exist and this is their fun romantic comedic story. Simple as that.”–Tracey, Geeks of Color
“I feel like I’ve been screaming from the rooftops for something just like this. Why did it have to take 25 years for this kind of major studio-backed all-Asian movie? In absolute truth, it’s not just good for an ‘Asian’ film. It’s just plain good. And it is exactly what we needed.”–Melissa Slaughter, The Nerds of Color
“Crazy Rich Asians could be one of the most important films of the year. No, the decade. While that may be one of the boldest statements, it is a film that means a great deal to the Asian community in a time where there is a call for having more representation in films than ever before.”–Michael Lee, That’s It LA
Crazy Rich Asians opens in theaters nationwide Aug. 15.
Julian 