One Way That <em>Crazy Rich Asians</em> Is a Step Backward
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic, The Great Gatsby, the transformation of the working-class Jimmy Gatz into the upper-crust socialite Jay Gatsby is made possible through the assimilating veneer of decadence. Behind his impeccably tailored suits and grandiose parties, Gatsby masks his ambiguous ethnic origins, playing the part of an old-money Anglo-American elite to ultimately tragic results.
Watching the gauche opulence on display in Crazy Rich Asians, it’s hard not to think of Fitzgerald’s musings on the perils of conspicuous consumption. The new film (adapted from the 2013 novel by Kevin Kwan) follows the Chinese American professor Rachel Chu (played by Constance Wu) as she’s whisked away into the world of Singapore’s 1 percent to meet the family of her billionaire boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding). Replete with money shots of multimillion-dollar estates, super-yacht bachelor parties, and skyscraper-rooftop pools, the film flirts with messages about privilege, immigrant striving, and the disconnect between Asians and Asian Americans—before ultimately abandoning such ideas for a fairy-tale ending that cements the movie as a celebratory work of affluence-porn.
Just as Gatsby’sreflects a self-conscious announcement of the Asian American arrival on the Hollywood stage. Heralded as the first major American studio film to feature a majority-Asian cast in a contemporary setting since nearly 25 years ago, has been met with impossible expectations: If this film flops, audiences are , who knows how long Asian Americans may have to wait for another shot at the spotlight.
