Hacker Cinema
Crazy Rich Asians
2018 · Film · 121 min
Directed by Jon M. Chu
An American-born Chinese economics professor accompanies her boyfriend to Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to get thrust into the lives of Asia's rich and famous.
2 positive8 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
Same here, it was one that captured the vibe of the Virgin America perfectly and the only one I actually recall watching. It was directed by Jon M Chu, who subsequently directed Crazy Rich Asians, In The Heights, Wicked, and more.
In 2022, it seemed like every Asian American raved about how good the movie is, just like when Crazy Rich Asians came out in 2018. I believe I'm in the target demographic for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
I fell asleep halfway through the movie and I tried my best to stay awake, even after my friends woke me up. The most interesting parts of the movie existed in the real-world plot but the movie kept running away from it. Even then, all universes (real-world included) had cringe-worthy levels of cliché metanarrative. It was a chore to make it to the end.
It's even worse that any criticism of the movie was actively shut down and nothing negative about it could be found online. If you did find a shred of criticism, viewers either accused you of ignorance, unappreciative of art, or racism.
I liked the actors playing the parents. I thought Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan were good in the real-life scenes.
The point you are trying to make is starting to require a lot of caveats. She might be director not a writer, she's a producer not an executive producer, etc.
Also, Lim lists herself as a director of the film in her Twitter bio[0], so it seems like a lot more than a maybe at this point.
[0]: https://twitter.com/adeleblim?lang=en
Separate from all that, I don't understand your larger point about Lim. She went from Crazy Rich Asians which grossed over 200 million, and then went directly to work on Raya, which grossed over 100 million, and now is directing and producing her own movie with hand chosen writing talent. Where exactly is she struggling? And where are writers being forced on her?
I know a few dozen struggling screenwriters who are trying to get (a) their screenplays produced or (b) contracted to write scripts. Note that these are all female screenwriters with an actual track record in industry (in this case, episodic broadcast TV).
It really boils down to a few gatekeepers (mostly old white guys) giving the screenwriting jobs to the same idiots over and over again. For example, the guys who wrote Morbius have never written a successful film that made money back at the box office but already have 1 new screenplay in production and have been contracted to write several more; meanwhile the screenwriter of Crazy Rich Asians (which not only outgrossed Morbius but nearly grossed as much as Morbius' screenwriters' other films combined) has only been hired for a single film (Raya and the Last Dragon) since.
> You cannot transfer money out of country legally, pretty soon can't invest in other countries's stocks. Not true.
> You should not get rich (1/3 of billionaires have died or disappeared) Also not true. FuErDais are praise on TV, movies, etc... Crazy Rich Asians , the movie , was a huge hit in China for example, etc... Money and superficiality have always being huge in China (even to get married, you need to buy a house , a car, and give the girl's family money (CaiLi)). > You have to work 9-9-6. Which is why many citizens are lying flat Highly depends on where you work. But is not standarized, and there have been recently a huge push back from the goverment about this. > You cannot go beyond China's intranet Literally that's what VPNs are for, many chinese companies offer VPN services to mainland users, etc.
All other points are more or less right. Also, p*rn is illegal in most places. I wouldn't live there, but posting lies here wont help anyone.
Booksmart was the first thing I thought of too when he said, “since 2012, the only successful comedies have been animations aimed at young children.” (edit: I mean to say, you can still see movies with originality even if they're not "successful" i.e. blockbusters)
In 2018 when I originally got AMC A-list subscription, I tried going to 3 movie a week at first, so I went to a lot more movies I was unsure about but they were very original and memorable, but they weren’t super popular (at least I was the only person I personally knew who had seen it).
Sorry to Bother You ($18 million)
Blackkklansman ($93 million)
Eighth Grade ($14 million)
Crazy Rich Asians ($238 million)
I am not a Chinese person but I have came across "banana"[1] in multiple places, most famously in the movie "Crazy Rich Asians"
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana,_Coconut,_and_Twinkie
> Which kind of Asians are being under-promoted? Satya, Sundar, Arvind?
This rather specious argument comes up so often I am going to start calling it the "Satya-Sundar fallacy" (sorry Arvind!). Do you also dismiss the concerns of women not being promoted into management roles by citing the examples of Mary Barra and Marissa Meyer?
The US as a whole is very different from Silicon Valley. If the number of people making cow worship jokes at various jobs (here in the middle US) I have heard is any indication, I have a hard time believing they are also simultaneously giving Asians a fair shake at promotion.
Regarding your points – I do believe that East Asians are likely underpromoted relative to their number in tech. One question that's not covered in there is language – of my friends who are first-generation immigrants, the South Asian ones generally have better English than the East/South-East Asian ones.
> there are plenty of Asians in tech.
I...wasn't arguing otherwise. My point was about not being promoted as fast as their counterparts, and into management roles.
> Yet no asian parents are lamenting that their kids didn't get an audition are they?
I don't know about parents, but plenty of South Asian actors have had problems getting auditions. Read about how Kalpen Suresh Modi's auditions skyrocketed when he Anglicized his name to Kal Penn [1], and how Aziz Ansari has had trouble with roles where he's required to fake an accent [2]. East Asians have had a hard time with getting roles in movies that are about East Asians, which was why Crazy Rich Asians was such a landmark (in that it actually had an Asian cast). [3]
[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/obama/articles/2009/04/08/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-kal-penn
[2] https://ew.com/article/2015/10/25/aziz-ansari-transformers-audition-indian-accent/
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/08/movies/crazy-rich-asians-cast.html
One of my Seattle coworkers was one of the specific people who I was thinking of when writing the above comment, actually.
I think it's less common now due to stuff like pictures of Marina Bay Sands going viral over the past several years, as well as movies like Crazy Rich Asians "educating" people that Singapore is a modern city. But around ~2010, not so much.
This is a brand new podcast from Gimlet Media, where Alex Blumberg talk to people who have done hard things.
I've listened to the first four episodes, and I'm hooked. These episodes Alex talked to Andrew Mason (Groupon founder), Sophia Amoruso (Nasty Gal founder) and Nina Jacobson (Very Successful Movie Producer, of Hunger Games, Crazy Rich Asians etc fame).
They have all been very open and frank about their journey, and I found it really interesting to listen to them. So I thought this might also be interesting to the HN crowd. Recommended!