“These people aren’t just rich. They’re crazy rich,” the best friend exclaims, breaking it down for our heroine Rachel in Crazy Rich Asians. The line serves as both a primer and an invitation to one of this summer’s most anticipated movies: You’re in for a frothy, eye-popping spectacle of outrageous wealth, inter-generational family drama and soapy high society pageantry like you’ve never quite seen it before – Asian-style – with an all-star international cast, plenty of glamorous eye-candy, and some good old-fashioned rom-com heart. Ready or not, here’s everything you need to know before Crazy Rich Asians hits theaters on August 15.
The Crazy Plot
Based on the global best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians follows economics professor Rachel Chu, an American-born Chinese New Yorker who agrees to tag along with her boyfriend, Nick Young, to his hometown of Singapore, where his best friend is getting married. No big deal, right? No. Big deal. Before long, Rachel learns that Nick has neglected to mention a few major facts: not only is his family unfathomably wealthy, he is perhaps the most eligible bachelor on the continent. On top of all that, Nick is serving as Best Man in The Wedding of the Century – and all eyes are now on Rachel, the girl on his arm. Thrust into this viper’s den, she quickly finds herself the target of elite-class scrutiny, scheming and snobbery, not least from Nick’s disapproving mother, Eleanor.
It’s not exactly Girl meets Boy. It’s more like Girl meets Boy’s ridiculously rich family – and all the fun and drama that come along with it. Kwan’s beach read – the first in a trilogy (sequel potential!) – offers a deliciously detailed and pitch-perfect plunge into a fantasy world of Asia’s ultra-wealthy, down to every last couture sequin and stitch. Adapted for the big screen, Rachel’s outsider struggle to navigate the toxic combination of family, money, status, and excess is the stuff great rom-dramedies are made of.
The Crazy Cast
When’s the last time you saw two Asian romantic leads pictured on the poster for a major Hollywood movie? There’s a good chance your memory doesn’t go back that far. Crazy Rich Asians is being touted as the first big studio film to star an all-Asian cast in over a decade, since 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha. And a dozen years before that, 1993’s Joy Luck Club. Since we’re counting, it’s worth noting that Crazy Rich Asians features a gorgeous all-star ensemble of veteran and up-and-coming Asian actors to populate its crazy rich world.
While television fans might know Constance Wu best as Jessica Huang, the headstrong family matriarch on ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat, her cinematic turn as Rachel should leave no doubt that Wu is a bona fide movie star. The same goes for newcomer Henry Golding, who stars opposite Wu as the dashing Nick. With no previous film credits, the British-Malaysian TV host was plucked from relative obscurity for the role after a worldwide casting search, but he’s already been tapped to star in the upcoming feature films A Simple Favor and Monsoon.
Crazy Rich Asians also includes legit Asian film legend Michelle Yeoh (Supercop, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Tomorrow Never Dies), looking downright regal as Eleanor Young; British actress Gemma Chan as Nick’s gorgeous, taste-making cousin Astrid Leong; actress/rapper Awkwafina, fresh from her scene-stealing turn in Ocean’s 8, as Rachel’s best friend Peik Lin Goh; and funnyman Ken Jeong (Dr. Ken, Community) as Peik Lin’s father. The international cast is rounded out by Jimmy O. Yang (Silicon Valley), Chris Pang (Marco Polo), Sonoya Mizuno (Ex Machina), Nico Santos (Superstore), Remy Hii (Marco Polo), Jing Lusi (Stan Lee’s Lucky Man), Ronny Chieng (The Daily Show), Harry Shum Jr. (Glee) and Lisa Lu (The Joy Luck Club).
The Crazy Director
In some ways, Jon M. Chu was destined to direct Crazy Rich Asians. Or rather, author Kevin Kwan gave destiny a little writerly nudge. At one point, his book makes subtle reference to one of Rachel’s relatives – a nameless hard-working Chu cousin who makes movies in Hollywood. Kwan later personally confirmed that it was indeed a literary nod to the director, written long before a film adaptation was in the works. “I was like, ‘Whaaat?! What are you talking about?’” Chu told Entertainment Weekly in 2016. “And I was just like, I’m supposed to do this movie.”
Working from a script by Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli, and shooting on location in Singapore and Malaysia, Chu was tasked with bringing the world of Crazy Rich Asians to life, from assembling the all-Asian cast to capturing the blinged-out opulence of Southeast Asian high society. Food! Fashion! Fast cars! Not to mention an abundance of really attractive people. (The film’s trailer boasts no less than three gratuitous shots of shirtless, chiseled abs.)
With a resume that includes G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Now You See Me 2 and multiple Step Up movies, the director was no stranger to super-sized spectacle. But Crazy Rich Asians also offered Chu, the son of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, an opportunity to do something deeply personal that he’d never tried before: a decidedly Asian-American take on the contemporary romance. The fish-out-of-water themes of Rachel’s story reflects aspects of his own cultural identity and family history.
“As an artist you grow and want to explore new parts of your soul and how you want to tell your stories,” Chu says in a 2016 interview with the Center for Asian American Media. “This side of me that’s so strong – because of my family, I’m really close to them – I never explored.”
Soul-searching aside, it’s also a great excuse to throw one heck of a party on the screen. Did we mention the spectacle? Between all the culture clash, family drama and rom-com antics, Crazy Rich Asians promises a fun, popcorn-fueled glimpse at a world that moviegoers too rarely get to explore at the multiplex. It’s perfect summer fare – and you don’t have to be crazy, rich or Asian to enjoy it.
