More Like Crazy Rich Westerners (Asians)

Hey Laowinners!

I was planning a video review on this movie, but I had a few misgivings. I will instead post here about it where I won't be feasted on by ravenous folk looking for conflict. 

I must preface this with the fact that I was really excited for this movie, and really, really wanted to like it. My wife had the carried the same hype when entering the movie theater.

This is not a plot review, but why I think this movie failed in what it tried to achieve. Here are my beefs.

1. First off, the main character, played by Constance Wu, wanted to address the fact that there are no real movies with an all Asian cast. She felt the Asian world was underrepresented in the movie scene. However, I find this guilt grab a bit much. Asian Americans represent 4.8% of the population of the USA. Whites make up 72% of the population. Statistically, that would mean that most movies are dominated by white folk, however, if you look at statistics, Asians make up 5.3% of main roles. This would place it as slightly above the actual population percentage.
Furthermore, move it over to Constance's "mother" country of China, and I would safely say that nearly 99% of roles are filled by Asian people. That would pretty much match the 1% of foreigners who live in China. I don't hear many foreign people in China complaining that there are no white only casts in Chinese movies.
I have NO issue with an Asian only, black only, Indian only, middle eastern only, white only, or cartoon only cast, but I get a cheap feeling when this is one of the main premises of the film.

2. I think that this movie could have been an AMAZING opportunity to explain Chinese culture, or Asian culture in general, to a pretty ignorant audience. There is an issue with the western world, in that many of the interesting or overlooked aspects of Chinese/Asian culture are misunderstood or stereotyped. However, this movie convinced Vivi and I that the director has very little understanding of her own culture. This championing of traditional Chinese values was undermined by her constant push of her American spirit. Being born and raised in America, I found it admirable that she wanted to address, and bring China/Asia to light, but the familiar tropes like making dumplings, playing mahjong, and creating this very on the surface cultural elements forced reviewers to try and FIND some significance in these scenes. Her command of Chinese was elementary, and the Asian stereotypes were surface level at best. It left me wanting so much more to show the western world. 

3. The entire movie was a celebration of western culture, while the goal of the movie was to highlight Asian identity. Western fashion in the dresses and clothes. Western vehicles. Western values. Western styled parties. Faux western rich culture. Everything in the movie, save for the kitschy scenes mentioned above, were simply celebrations of western excess. The few scenes I appreciated involved disapproving parents in law who thought family was above love. Something I can relate to. However, there were so many places and things they could have shown to highlight Asia, and what real Asian people do. 

4. I liked the American spirit of the main character, and how she chose her own goals and love interest over the group mentality, but I think it clashes with her original goal. The jokes were 2/10 at best, and it was hard to leave the movie feeling you'd learned something about Asian values, and why they are important, and more like, wow, the American go get em spirit is awesome, and the best, and these Asian values are not valid.

I felt like the whole movie was Constance making a 2 out of 10 drama/comedy with a political and racially charged motive, which forced reviewers to give artificially high scores due to fear of calling out an entirely Asian cast. Many reviews I read had to try to find significant scenes that were powerfully asian to explain the intricacies of the movie's message. I think it really cheapened the cultural value it could have had, instead of emboldening already strong and proud opinions of western values over asian ones. My wife and I felt like Constance was trying to make sense of something she doesn't really begin to understand in the first place.