(copypasting from Twitter)<\/p>\n
So I finally watched Crazy Rich Asians and I actually really enjoyed it + recommend everyone else go watch it too. I think the heart of the movie is really Michelle Yeoh\u2019s portrayal of Eleanor Young, which is unlike anything you typically see in a Hollywood film<\/p>\n
I felt a surge of pride and vicarious happiness for all the Singaporean actors in the show – people I\u2019ve seen on the little screen for decades, finally getting a big break on an international stage. Was really cool to see Kina Grannis too<\/p>\n
It *was* frustrating and upsetting that there was a scene literally devoted to \u201cOMG scary Indian guards\u201d. That was so unnecessary. And of course the only other scene with dudes that look like me has them opening car doors. I\u2019d rather not be represented at all than like this<\/p>\n
But despite that, it was lovely to see my city on the big screen. Wife and I were irrationally happy to see Singaporean trees! Not the big fake supertrees, the literal trees alongside the expressways<\/p>\n
I also thought Awkwafina and Ken Jeong didn\u2019t really fit, as characters. But it doesn\u2019t break the show. I suppose it\u2019s like how Narcos must be jarring to Colombians for the incorrect accents, etc. But these are somewhat forgivable I think. Funnily I thought Jimmy Yang was spot on as a rich Chinese wanker<\/p>\n
CRA raises some interesting questions about diaspora, immigrants, tradition vs modernity. In a way Nick Young is almost a MacGuffin – meant entirely to facilitate Rachel\u2019s experience of the clash of civilizations. Which she handles masterfully, and I love her for that<\/p>\n
CRA also has a wealth of women\u2019s perspective, which is pretty rare. Young Sr = MIA. Nick\u2019s privileged ignorance fails to prepare Rachel for the conflicts. Astrid has to clean up after the mess of Michael\u2019s insecurities. Rachel\u2019s mum had it rough, as did Eleanor<\/p>\n
The nuance in Eleanor telling Rachel \u201cyou will never be good enough\u201d in a way that\u2019s simultaneously a general statement about life for asian women (motherly advice, in a way) AND a plausibly deniable dismissal – that was *so* skillfully executed<\/p>\n
And you see that Eleanor isn\u2019t being a jerk because she enjoys it, but because she has values and standards, and is subject to those forces too (when Ah Ma tells her that her dumplings aren\u2019t good, and that she\u2019s responsible for Nick)- I\u2019m so glad all of this nuance was reflected<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a shame then that such incredible nuance is reserved for a Chinese matriarch but literally none whatsoever for the brown folks meant to open doors and scare girls<\/p>\n
But anyway it\u2019s a good film, refreshingly different, and y\u2019all should go see it. It\u2019s a good time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(copypasting from Twitter) So I finally watched Crazy Rich Asians and I actually really enjoyed it + recommend everyone else go watch it too. I think the heart of the movie is really Michelle Yeoh\u2019s portrayal of Eleanor Young, which is unlike anything you typically see in a Hollywood film… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[827],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-3dt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}