Crazy Rich Asians Is Going to Change Hollywood

[Randy W]

from Time

 

Crazy Rich Asians Is Going to Change Hollywood. It's About Time

 

The much-anticipated movie signals a major step forward for representation―and for the industry

 

To many in Hollywood, Crazy Rich Asians might look like a risky bet. It’s the first modern story with an all-Asian cast and an Asian-American lead in 25 years; the last, The Joy Luck Club, was in 1993. It’s an earnest romantic comedy in a sea of action and superhero films. It features two leads who are new to movies: Wu, an actor most recognizable for her role on the ABC series Fresh Off the Boat, and Henry Golding, a virtual unknown who last worked as a travel host for the BBC. And it makes use of a multilingual script that flips seamlessly from English to Cantonese to Mandarin and back again.

 

. . .

 

It has already won over critics: the film has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

[Randy W]

from Variety.com

 

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Flops at the Chinese Box Office

 

 

Hollywood summer hit “Crazy Rich Asians” will be lucky to score more than $1 million in its opening weekend in China.

Afternoon admissions Friday had ranked the romantic comedy in fourth place. But by Friday evening, it became apparent that mainstream Chinese audiences’ interest was barely flickering for the movie, and on Saturday, exhibitors began ditching it in favor of other titles.

. . .

Large numbers of potential mainland Chinese viewers have already “Crazy Rich Asians” abroad or pirated online by this point. Others have been baffled by how what they see as a film full of Asian stereotypes could be celebrated as a coup for on-screen Asian representation.

“The plot is passable, the quality of the production is also fine, but I still wanted to vomit a bit,” one Chinese user wrote Sunday on major review platform Douban, where the film has a middling 6.2 out of 10 rating – mostly from people who saw the film months ago. “So Chinese people in the eyes of Europeans and Americans are just about clans, extravagant snobbery, a blind sense of superiority, and stubbornly clinging to outdated rules and ideas?”

Another user dismissed it by saying it pandered to hot-button U.S. issues of ethnic identity and inclusion without depicting anything that felt recognizably Chinese to mainlanders: “Well, guess it keeps the Americans watching it happy.”

 

. . .

 

Still, getting a release in China was important from the producers’ point of view. They aim to shoot the sequel, “China Rich Girlfriend,” at least partly in Shanghai, and possibly as a co-production.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Inkstone

 

“It’s a banana version of Cinderella,”

https://www.inkstonenews.com/arts/crazy-rich-asians-tanks-chinas-box-office/article/2176134?fbclid=IwAR2pEAX2cge7KU6Z8XrBsqOYV7z8mhWHmRb9Y-EQ569LVvbvdoovBk8uh5E

I thought they were a couple of wet T-shirt contests shy of a "Girls Gone Wild" video with some of the scenes, but here's a more in-depth review from a Chinese source on Sixth Tone

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002961/why-chinese-audiences-may-not-go-crazy-for-crazy-rich-asians

[Randy W]

Crazy rich Asians of Singapore

South China Morning Post

 

 

 

 

640K Views · about an hour ago ·

Crazy Rich Asians was a hit this year. We went to find out where the real crazy rich Asians hang out in Singapore.

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/344017673085153/