CRAZY RICH ASIANS (2018) IS AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT!! MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching!
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01:10All right, guys, if you're listening to us on Apple or Spotify,we say that because we have an Apple or Spotify account.That's where these reviews podcasts go.Leave us a rating.If you're listening to us on YouTube, leave a like if you haven't done so already.Tara Erickson, the whitest woman.here of the channel. What did you think about crazy rich Asians? I love this movie. I feel like it isthe story of a self-made girl being raised by a self-made woman coming into a circumstance that
01:48I mean being self-made means she made it to being a professor and her mom was also self-made, right?and then her walking into a situationthat seems so farout of reach for her in meetingthese crazy rich Asiansand his mother.But his mother is alsoa self-made woman
02:11who justideally madea really large sacrificeand didn't actually get to live outher life like our maingirl would.And I think thatshowing that
02:26It was such a fun journey.And we didn't see, obviously, the similarities in the beginning, really at all.We're just seeing like, oh, my God, wait, what?He's rich.They're in love.Oh, wait, her friend.Oh, my God, these other people, they're unhappy.And, like, they basically showed us a lot of examples of how the extremes of having money would do.
02:48Like, the rich guy that on the helicopters, but he hasn't really found love.He's just, like, farting through life.and then the guy who feels really overshadowed by his very rich wife,so he ends up cheating on her and sort of throwing it away because he feels very belittled.He couldn't even just like let his wife shine.You're just like, it's fine, you're the moneymaker.I think that all of these side plots didn't distract.It just added to the main idea that they're trying to get across,
03:16that there's a lot of ways that having this a massive amount of moneycan change your life for the good and the very.very bad um and i i really loved i loved how this was shot i love the pacing i love the music i amnot surprised that john got the job to direct wicked like this movie is great yeah i forgetwhat else he's direct every time i see he's directed something i usually end up liking it yeahyeah i mean with what you're taught i wrote down societal pressures that happen with wealth as likewhat you're totally yes of how as a guy there there is often debate like it's usuallyexpect at least out here in the states right it's expected the man is the one who should be the one
03:58who provides right the money i mean there are some marriages or relationships or it's not the caseand it's okay but right that can do something to because of how society raises meant to be likeyou have to be the breadwinner and some there are some people who really believe that there's somecouples who do believe that is the way it should be absolutely and even though like jemma chan'scharacter astrid was okay with it not being that way right he was not it still gnaws at him andmakes him feel less than yeah which is a terrible feeling um but even to the extent of protectingthe family image and the i forget what in henry golding's family's the name is already butprotect young the nick young is his name yeah protecting the young family image of like you can't
04:45marry this rachel woman because look at her past and where she comes from and what this would do toour family of how you know like this idea of protecting wealth right can often come at theexpense of sacrificing your own integrity yeah your own happiness too and her character goes onthis journey of being challenged with something where she can essentially sacrifice her integritybut she she doesn't she never does and having to face up to all these things of liketradition versus more than just American, just being adaptable and making changes.Like Henry Golding, he's not American, but he's not exactly just someone from Signapur either.Like he grew up in London. However, I like the way this movie handles that because it shows that
05:42it's not like we need to get rid of tradition entirely. It's not that everything in tradition is bad.But it's okay to change. It's okay to adapt.at the end of the day, like happiness and love can be a very important thing.Like, I like this sort of internal journey that you see Michelle Yo's character going on throughout this film.If she really sticks it to Rachel throughout the whole movie.Totally.But at the very end, she ends up realizing that her son's happiness is more important than anything else.Because at the end, she keeps talking about, like, you're not what's good for Nick.
06:19and trying to protect Nick but really she's just like protecting herself and this other shit that doesn't matterand they even keep that a constant thread going of the grandma she seems really loving and everything but then when she finds out she's like no we can't have rachel be a part of the familyand then you see that grandma put down michel yo and this is part of her breaking that chain now right of not because it's kind of like a generational traumathat keeps occurringeven if you're married into itlike the generational trauma continuesso I think it's just very well layeredwhile being
06:54an incredibly fun movieagreelike I also feel that MichelleYo's character finally met her matchwithin Rachel especially at the very endwe see it very literally on the tablethat she has met her matchin more than
07:09a multitude of ways but sheshe just wasn't willingto give her the creditit because of the background that she is not responsible for.Like, that's not her fault that, like, you know, her mom married an abusive guy and fell inlove with someone else and ended up getting pregnant.Like, that has nothing to do with her, but it's unfortunate that we hold these standards topeople and in looking at their families.
07:36If your family is, you know, a little bit off or has done things differently, that youare responsible for that in some way when it's.really it's not a culmination of any of your choices it's just what you were given um and i thinkin that moment especially with the game us getting a literal game theory match that the mom hadfinally seen that she is the best match i think overall not only for the family to grow and recognizeand learn but also for her son yeah yeah i think thismovie handles everything it set out to do really really well i like the flow of the movie a lot yeah oh godthe pacing is just perfect i was think just thinking about it it starts off um okay like you're watching
08:30like a like a general romantic comedy and then we get thrown into the luxurious lavish lifestylebecause like her encounter with michelle yo and the conflicts that start arising that doesn't reallyhappen to like the midpoint of the film so everything before the midpoint is kind of likegetting lost in in the style of the movie yeah like a lot of the text looks like an actionmovie totally there's this like old school vibe to it like you're just having a blast there's anenergetic like funness yeah then eventually it things start to take a stride where it startsbecoming more grounded and more real and less like cool editing less less on the surfaceof what we're expecting this this picture of crazy rich Asians to be and gets real yeah i mean
09:23right to the with the confrontations with the mom with michel yo with uh the way she's treated at thebachelorette party like it's still will dip in and out like when she's getting the dress on forthe wedding but it for the most part the last half of this takes a much more serious grounded approachand i like the way they handle that because they do get you kind of absorb into the fun of it but thenwhen they want to be fun again, especiallywith Aquafina, that's kind of what I noticedthey would do is, in the lasthalf, they were a little more dramatic
09:54than the first half. Yeah. They were, like,a lot more dramatic, but then they woulduse Aquafina toto lighten it up. Yeah, to relieve some of the tension.So I feel, and I feel like she just reallyhelped break that tension in such anatural way. Like, Aquafina washilarious. She was great.
10:10She's so freaking. I know she could be debatablefor people a lot of the time.On this movie, she's fabulous. I think she is.so freaking funnythis movie. Yeah. And I think when it got reallyreal is they made thatswitch right sort of in the middlewhere she's at the wedding.
10:26And that is when you gowhat? Like I'm really feelingstuff between them, themlooking at each other. This moviedoes a really good job of throwingus into what life would be likein this family going to these partiesthe point of view what that would
10:42feel like. And then also the pointof view of being in love withlike how they feel about each otherthey give us that in the wedding with no wordsthey just show us that and you feel thatso when that match happenswith the mom and that game happensit's like you also feel heartbroken
11:01like I got teared up when she walks awayand then her mom stands upit's so nice that her mom is there for herbut her sacrificing all of thatbecause of the picture that they showed usthat we also believethat they're made for each other.We're in the same position as her.
11:20And they make us feel that way.They did just a very good job of that.Yeah, I think that Mahjong scene is so great at that ending scene.Because I think it works on so many layers without them saying anything.And there's a lot of ways to kind of have a takeaway of it.A lot of that conversation is about sacrifice, of course,because that's what Michelle Yo keeps coming back to.And in that moment, when she is seeing Rachel,
11:46And her mom, she is looking, like, A, it's, it could be a recognition.I've been very judgmental.Yeah.B, too, like, this woman is a, she's, she did sacrifice everything for her child.Exactly.And Michelle Yo has to learn what to sacrifice for her son now.Yep.And so I think the inspiration of that is very profound.
12:07I think Constance Wu, as Rachel, is an incredibly strong performance.Her character arc, the way.she handles the comedy every bit of uncomfortable interaction that she has there'sthere's usually a lot in the family dynamics there's constantly like while there's a smile going onthere's something else going on underneath the surface yeah underlying awkwardness yeah i think she'sreally really great in this movie um and she she does carry the film like this is her movie this isher story and she carries it really well oh she did a great job and you find yourself like genuinelyrooting for her yeah i think that's why
12:46I got teared up, you know, like towards the end there of like, oh, okay.And then, you know, when he finally, you know, is on the plane and they're saying like, yes.And then we see at the very end when she looks at the mom and they have that nod.I'm like, oh, it's so moving because we were so rooting for her to get what she wants because there's no reason for her not to.Yeah, and also the Mahjong sing is the moment that Aquafino was talking about was not getting liked but being respected.And that's what she earns in the end is her respect.Absolutely. And that's the biggest thing that you could do.That's a hard thing to earn, you know.
13:27And Henry Golding is very charming.He's very charming. He's a very charming actor.Good looking guy.Very good looking guy. And it's, I think I really do, I think I got that right that this was his first acting role was like playing a character.It's wild.And to have the main guy role and to actually seem very natural.Like, although a lot of the scenes don't require like the most insane emotional depth.Not, that's not discrediting the performance because he still comes across incredibly natural.
13:56Yeah.And a lot of the scenes.Absolutely.And very, very genuine as well.It's a rather sincere performance.And that's really hard to do in your first, like, man, it's your first, like, it's a leading role.Yeah.I was thinking like, oh, him being a home.
14:12really plays to like you you really just have to be yourself when you're a host to be a good oneso I think that played into his strengths of just like just be yourself and then hopefully you canmemorize lines and get it get it across but what I think was most impressive to me is the genuinenessthat you feel once this movie takes a dramatic turn he didn't have a lot of that that depthhe wasn't holding that that's Michelle yo and Constance Will more so um and andBut he did have some moments there where I was like, oh, if you were like not really in it, but he felt grounded.And sometimes that's even hard for like actors who've been doing it for a minute to feel grounded in like on camera.So I think he did a really impressive job.
15:00And that may also be John Wu as like also a great director and obviously got, yes, John M. Chew, sorry.Got him there in that place, which I think is.great. Yeah. John Hsu's a fantasticdirector. I thought the movie was editedso freaking well. Like theyspan so many different locationsand you're coming around to so many different storylines and it'sreally easy to feel like this
15:24this storyline deserves more time.I especially feel like for the Gemma Chan story.A story like that and usuallyin this kind of movie wouldbe the one that you walk away goingI feel like we needed more time to developthis story. But they managed to actuallymake it very impactful
15:40without itfeeling like you needed more.Absolutely. I mean, I, like no joke, I would be very surprised if I didn't see an articlewhere John M. Chu says that he is not a fan of love actually.The pacing and the tone and the storylines, this is not exact.Like, don't, like, but you get the vibe that I'm like, and there's some things that happen,meaning when she tells her husbandI can't even compare you to a man
16:14right that whole speechbravo the speech in love actuallywhere it's basically the same thing and she tells her husbandin a certain way it it just reminded methere's a lot of things that remind me I wouldI would love to be like John are you a fan of love actuallyand I guarantee you he'd be like yeah yeah you know what I reallylike about the way they wrote this too
16:36is that they didn't ever I never felt like they were talking to me about the cultureno never it just showed us yeah they like the dot even even sometimes the dialogue does becomelike self-aware especially an aqua fina's character yeah it it never felt like they werebreaking to be like this is what it's like we're gonna teach you what it's like or here's thedifference between America and Singapore it really just told its story and it let itits characters sound the way the characters sound.Agreed. Without it feeling like they're evertrying to do a stand-up comedy bit
17:13towards me or educate me.I agree. You just like let it unfolded, let the storyhappen. And I thought that was actually a really great way toapproach it when you're doing a movie that hasAsian people behind the camera, in front of the camera.It's really easy to take that opportunity to be like, well,it's time to teach people, but they didn't actually do that. And that'sactually a stronger way to like kind of inform and teach people.
17:36I agree. There wasn't any weird exposition in this movie where you're like, oh, that's really exposition. We didn't need it. They did it in a really smart way. They trusted the audience's intelligence to be to know like, we don't need a bunch of words in you to tell us how it is. Just show us.Yeah, I think a lot of the very visual storytelling moments can kind of can go overlooked here. But that's a big part of what actually allows this passage of time and the amount of storytelling they're doing in different locations to actually really be.be effective in work is because those other moments where there's not dialogue are actually reallywell handled yeah so yeah I loved it I thought that was great I don't remember jack shit about thatit must have been high or something when I watched because there's a great movie well the thing is whenyou watch movies in the theaters or at home like when we're watching here we're we're semi becausewe're commenting on it as we're watching yeah so we're we're paying attention a little more so it becomesmore ingrained in your memory because there's a consistent reflection on what you're going through.
18:41Yeah, we're not high on dike, broken popcorn and red vines.We're not just like watch it and leave and be like, that was fun, let's go.So I feel like now it'll really stick with me.And it kind of dawned, I mean, I'm like, why do I forget movies?But I remember when I watch here.And then that's what hit me.Anyway, yeah, what do you guys think about crazy rich Asians?Leave your thoughts down below.
19:02I don't know.I feel like they were setting up a sequel in some way.but I also feel like they don't need a sequel.No, they don't need a sequel.I think they were just trying to show us like she's going to be great.She's going to be, it's fantastic that she left her husband,she's doing all the right things, and look at her go.What a pig.
19:18You're a tiny pig, little man, little boy.Anyway, thank you guys.We'll see you soon.Get your reject sweater.Yes, please.Bye.Bye.
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