The movie Crazy Rich Asian has taken the world by storm. Even preceding its release, the movie has been hyped so much, appearing in all sorts of form in social media, articles and news coverage. Despite that, I wasn’t actually interested in the movie. But when the movie was released, it was all over my Instagram feed, everyone was talking about it and my friends kept asking me to watch the movie. So I did.

Directed by Jon M. Chu, this movie is based on the best selling novel “Crazy Rich Asian” by Kevin Kwan. This is the first Hollywood movie in decades with an all Asian cast, which is probably the main reason it is so major. The lead roles are played by Constance Wu as Rachel Chu and Henry Golding as Nick Young, with the re-known star, Michelle Yeoh, as Nick’s Mother.

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As a romantic-com, this movie is mainly about Rachel and Nick’s relationship. The opening scene has the couple chatting in a bar, where Nick asked Rachel to go back to Singapore with him, his home country. A girl who eavesdropped spread the news online and it everyone in Singapore knows in no time. Here, we’re introduced to most of the characters we need to know in a quick-paced and witty way.

Of course, the fun starts in Singapore. Where the “Crazy Rich” part begins. From a superstar cruise party, diamonds, high-end designer brands to guarded lavish mansions, the movie does not disappoint in feasting our eyes and hurting our hearts a little. The cinematography of this movie is also something I hold very dearly, as they were beautiful, engaging and fun. The transitions between shots were creative (such as those where the news was spreading all over Singapore), there were so much colours, as well as screen animation (such as text bubbles, collages, etc).

Then, there was the wedding scene. It was such a wonderful scene that I was sitting in my chair, hands to my chest and was holding back my tears. First of all, the music. It was the real-life singer Kina Grannis singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, her voice was so pleasing to the ear and was simply accompanied by guitar and violin as the background music, which was perfect. There was a total silence at one point, where the bride was about to enter the hall, before Grannis’ voice starts to fill the silence all over again. The visuals were spectacular. This scene bombarded us with shots over shots capturing the laughter and tears of everyone in the hall, specifically the groom and bride’s, but mostly Rachel and Nick, exchanging loving looks and reading each others’ lips, which was incredibly heartfelt and emotional. We also have these beautiful cinematography at work. The soft and warm colour, the cuts between each shots, to the captivating set itself. My favourite has to be the water flowing into the aisle, with rose petals floating on top, surrounded by all these gorgeous flowers on both sides, and if that wasn’t enough, we have these elegant branches that glows at the tips the audiences are holding. And there you have it, a magical scene.

The plot of the movie itself may seem pretty cliche. A rich guy and an ordinary girl who is opposed by the guy’s parents, in this case, mom. The movie though did a really good job in delivering this what seemed to be a “meh” story into something actually engaging and fun. As a rom-comedy, this movie promises a good laugh, especially through the performances of Awkwafina as Rachel’s friend (Peik Lin) and Ken Jeong as Peik Lin’s father. The movie also incorporates Chinese languages and its branches, such as Hokkien, which I myself speak, as well as a lot of Chinese traditions that I’m familiar with, therefore this movie really hits home.

However, there are some controversies regarding this movie, such as the absence of race other than “Chinese” in the movie, knowing the fact that Singapore is pretty diverse. Some critics also pointed out some plot holes, like how it didn’t make sense for Rachel not to research on Nick before they got to this stage.

Nonetheless, in terms of production value, this movie is amazing. There are some parts that are not so great, and I do not expect everyone to love it, but I believe this is a movie worth your money and time. So I hope you guys who will be watching this will love this movie as much as I do.

Here’s the trailer!

xx