It’s crazy that “Crazy Rich Asians” receives good reviews

“Crazy Rich Asians” (CRA) does not deserve the good reviews. Heck, it's not worth the 90%++ Rotten Tomatoes score, cos it would put it in the same level with Wonder Woman and Black Panther for God sake! But this is a system that also puts down Batman vs Superman and Justice League, so I suppose objectivity in not in RT’s dictionary.

But CRA is also well-praised by other reviewers, which gives me a headache. HOW COME those reviewers not see how mis-representing this movie is?? How come, echoing the Guardian, they cannot see how only Chinese Asians are represented as rich Asians in the movie, and that the only “prominent” dark-skinned Asians were security guards at the Young’s place? And how come they are okay with such a display of wealth in the movie that makes me sick in my stomach? The money thrown away for a pair of earrings, bachelor and bachelorette parties etc.?



It’s sickening.
It’s not balanced at all.
It paints a skewed picture of Asians.
And yet this movie receives high review scores.
The world has really turned topsy.



(btw, I am not against Chinese Asians at all. I love Hong Kong movies, enjoys C-dramas, and I think Singlish accent is adorable. I just dislike the underrepresentation).

The only funny scene of CRA is in the beginning of the movie. Funny, as in, truly representing the phenomenon in Asia, which is our love for gadgets. The scene where a very wealthy, over-dressed young woman texted her friends about Nick Young dating a Rachel Chu? That was funny. Because the woman pretended to do a selfie (a TOTALLY acceptable phenomenon now), whilst she actually was taking a photo of Nick and Rachel together. What followed was a series of texts that truly represented what we do in Asia, i.e. gossiping via SNS. When a guy texted “So many Rachel Chu laaaah!”, I burst out laughing, because that was Singapore accent there! So funny!

And then that was the end. I didn’t hear much of the unique Singlish accent anymore across the movie. No scene of the Singapore markets for instance, no scene of Singaporeans bargaining etc.

The movie then described the crème de la crème of the Singaporean society, whereby it’s okay to throw $ for a pair of earrings, the same amount that can be donated for research to cure cancer. It’s okay to throw $$ for bachelor and bachelorette parties, which again can be donated to other humanitarian causes.

One can argue that Astrid is – ahem – a humanitarian because she knelt down in front of a child, and that she had some humanitarian projects, but WHERE are those projects??

At least Bruce Wayne really had orphanages and charity projects all over the place.

Even Michelle Yeoh, the reason for me watching this movie, cannot save the movie for me. Her depiction of a cold matriarch (well, second matriarch, because grandma is still alive) is spot-on. Her mah-jong was impressive. For a moment I wish she would whip a Captain Phillipa/Emperor Georgiou Star Trek fighting scene there to spice things up.

But then, the conflict was so minimum to me that I was left with “what, really, that’s it??”

Even the airplane boarding scene was so predictable, that it wasn’t even funny anymore.

Oh well, the movie makes me want to go to Singapore to eat those street food, but I am wise enough to realise I won’t be invited to CRA-type of parties, and frankly speaking, I’m not interested in it.