The movie I watched last night made my cheeks sour with laughter.
As a no-brainer popcorn movie, I personally think it is absolutely qualified, and it is not an exaggeration to say that I like it very much. After looking through the film reviews for a long time, I couldn't find anything particularly useful, so I just wrote one myself on this rainy afternoon.
Probably I took the film as a live-action version of Asian Cinderella and made my psychological expectations, so I really felt that it exceeded my expectations in all aspects.
First of all this is definitely not a Cinderella story.
Rachel is smart and confident, strong and cheerful, has a career she loves and is good at, and has a close mother and friends. Such a girl who is satisfied with her existing material level and is extremely rich in spirit, the possibility of finding a person who is equal to her and achieve happiness is far greater than the perfect prince Nick, who is sitting on a fortune, finds a sincerity that fits the family and is satisfied with each other. spouse.
Rachel followed her lover back to Singapore to meet her parents. Although she loved him very much, it was not that she could not live without him. Without him, she is still her, even if she loses anyone, she is still her. You have the ability to grasp happiness yourself, and you don't need to rely on the breath of others. The independent personality shines and does not need any prince to save.
Nick's birth in a rich family seems to be a gift from God, but it is not a difficult mode in another sense of life. The most beautiful family, love, friendship, trust, and freedom in the world all face various tests in the face of huge money and wealth. He received the best education, but was raised by his mother to his grandmother since he was a child. He was considered the heir to the family business, but no one asked him what he wanted. He has to hide the fact that he was born rich as much as possible in front of his girlfriend, because 'like himself to be with her'.
He may outperform her materially, but in spirit they are equal, and he even looks up to her sometimes. He knew that she was capable of coping with the family's dissent and embarrassment against the two, and the point was whether she was willing to wade through this muddy water for him. He wants to make sure she thinks she deserves it.
Is it more like a story of a Valkyrie helping the prince tame the dragon?
Is it a very independent woman, is it very Hollywood, is it American value.
Secondly, it is indeed not Chinese, as many comments say, but it is still very Singaporean. There are all kinds of jokes in it that are really funny.
Maybe my expectations are relatively low, but it is unrealistic to expect that the Hollywood adaptation of Singapore light novels can represent the whole of Asia or the Chinese. I really think that part of the reason why the author named Crazy Rich Asians is that he is really embarrassed to write Crazy Rich Singaporeans cheekily. The subtext that people from other Asian countries are poor is not good for marketing.
From my limited experience, although Chinese in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Nanyang practice Western capitalism, their personal concepts are far more traditional than those of the mainland people. When I was studying, the idea that shocked my young mind was that this life is just a link between the past and the next, and the tangible and intangible wealth inherited from the ancestors, not to honor the ancestors, at least to be handed over to the next generation intact. At that time, I was touched and admired and mixed with WTF's complex emotions, which are still vivid today. So I don't think the Nick family's traditional and conservative mate selection for heirs, as well as their natural hostility to outsiders, is too exaggerated. I can even accept most of the critics in the film, including the chain of contempt between the rich and the middle class that is far more naked and direct, and the exaggerated stage of the most frequently criticized big red children. The challenges to mainland traditions and class concepts in those ten years made loyalty, filial piety, etiquette, and benevolence almost abolished. Trying to jump out of the Chinese perspective and look at it from a broader perspective, there is actually nothing strikingly inappropriate about the unfolding of the film.
Third, the character of the heroine Rachel is very good.
The one who can tell the flight attendant candidly that you made a mistake that we are in economy class, the one who recklessly says that the pajamas on the plane are better than all the pajamas at home, and the one who tells her boyfriend and mother that I am not leaving Because I am afraid but I am willing to think about you. Even if she has a little bit of inferiority, she can't do this.
Neither humble nor arrogant, advancing and retreating moderately, is the most rare.
Although the wealthy family facing her boyfriend was like Alice falling down the rabbit hole at first, but I appreciate her confidence in her bones and know that she is good enough to be worthy of anyone's bearing.
If you think you are unworthy, no one will recognize you.
Nor is this a story about teaching people not to care about being able to have. The price of Eleanor's current status in the family is her own career. The reason why Rachel was acquiesced by her future mother-in-law was that she was willing to take the initiative to give up her cherished love. If she did marry Nick, she would only give up more things along the way. However, isn't it precisely because of this that he thinks that the extra precious money he has obtained will not be exchanged.
Love may be born in the moment of flint electric light. The long-term dedication to each other and the hardships experienced together are the only way for the illusory love to take root and blossom. Nothing of real value can be easily possessed without giving.
Finally, I have to say that there is something unnatural about the development of the plot. When I watched it, I felt that the transformation of the male protagonist's mother was a bit blunt at the end, but after reading it, I felt that it was not unreasonable. In the first act in 1995 in Eleanor, London, I was watched by the front desk of the hotel. Some people said it was sad, some said it was refreshing, but my only thought was that she was delicious enough to live with her husband... She met her in the phone booth in the rainstorm. Her husband shouted, "I don't care, you can fix it for me". In connection with the following plot, I think her husband must love her very much, he must have given her enough respect, support, understanding and encouragement, and he must be very recognized for her dedication to the family effort. It must be someone she thinks worthy. And their handsome and good-looking, sunny and considerate personality, both high-minded and self-reliant, they didn't fall from the sky... This can only be a loving and respectful family. There is a world of difference between a cousin's family and a family that would be interrupted by even the wife's introduction to herself.
I think the reason why Eleanor will let go is because he hopes that his precious son can have the love he enjoys. As long as the other person is a worthy person.
So I let go of this bluntness.
Regarding the many discrimination issues discussed, those who have lived abroad understand that it is impossible to be free from discrimination. Discrimination against such a secular thing that can no longer be secular, can only break the three common things in life: money, beauty, and ability. It's not wrong to hope to be recognized by the mainstream, it's not to belittle yourself, and there's no need to be sad, it's the normal psychology of being a human being. So I think the all-Asian cast is a victory. Although it is not a great victory, one step is always one step closer, and I am sincerely happy.
Blood, social rank, wealth, surely they show who we are to the world, but we are so much more than that. We know we all are.
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