By Julia Pierrepont III
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- To make sure that the first Asian-American studio movie in 25 years would be seen in theaters, the producers of "Crazy Rich Asians" (CRA) took a financial gamble to release the picture through Warner Bros instead of accepting a lucrative deal from Netflix.
That risky gambit paid off.
Till Wednesday, with "Crazy Rich Asians" opening in Singapore, other Asian countries and regions a week behind its historic U.S. premier, the film is closing in on a box office of 40 million U.S. dollars - no small feat for a rom-com with no famous, white movie stars to promote world sales.
With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96 percent, the critical consensus is that CRA is a rollicking good time and hits all the requisite plot points that audiences crave in a romantic-comedy.
But, it's also been winning hearts, garnering a tsunami of public accolades, and topping the global box office for a more unexpected reason: representation and diversity.
Said CRA star and #Times Up advocate, Constance Wu, "CRA is the first ever major studio movie to star an Asian-American woman in a modern context. Ever. In all of history."
CRA is also the first studio picture since 1993's "Joy Luck Club" to feature an all-Asian cast. Instead of being a deterrent, that seems to be helping to drive droves of people into theaters to see it.
And not just Asians either. At local theaters around LA, mixed crowds of all races were filling the seats.
"I like seeing something different - different lifestyles, different races. It's more interesting," said moviegoer Michael McLafferty, a tall Caucasian-American visiting LA from Florida.
Asians have been an integral part of American culture for over 100 years and make up 5.6 percent of the total American population, with Chinese Americans clocking in at 3.79 million nationwide.
In Hollywood/LA, Asians represent closer to 15 percent of the total pop. Yet a recent USC Annenberg study showed, of the top 100 films in 2017, 65 had no speaking roles for Asians or Asian Americans.
Constance Wu asserted that the kinds of people audiences see and hear on screen growing up is hugely impactful on their own self-image.
"Asian Americans grow up in a country without a leading presence in culture, media, entertainment, sports, leadership, popular music," she explained.
"And in movies, the Asian Americans are always supporting roles. We are never the lead. Imagine how that lack of leading roles tells a young Asian-American girl about the worth of her being the star of her own story," she asserted.
Awkwafina, who co-starred in CRA, shared Constance's experience of growing up as an ethnic minority in America. "The first time I saw Margaret Cho on Comedy Central, she was like a unicorn. She was an Asian woman ... and so funny and unashamed and bold. I remember thinking, 'That is what I want to be'."
Celina Jade, the female star of the BO sensation "Wolf Warrior 2" told Xinhua, "I hope the success of "Crazy Rich Asians" will improve representation for Asians in Hollywood."
"Good roles for Asians have been hard to come by," Lewis Tan, co-star of the megahit studio pic, "Dead Pool 2," told Xinhua in an exclusive interview. Tan plays Shatterstar, one of Marvel Studio's latest superheroes - one of their only Asian superheroes to date, who plays a supporting role in "Dead Pool 2."
"I've had to turn down lots of parts that were too stereotypical or two-dimensional," said Tan, an outspoken critic of Hollywood's tendency to "whitewash" its characters - ie, by casting white heroes to save the day in ethnic-centric stories, such as Marvel's "Iron Fist."
"So, this is a huge win for all of us who have been working for years to break through those racial barriers so we can play any characters, not just 'Asian' characters," Tan told Xinhua.
The runaway success of CRA has other people feeling optimistic that Hollywood decision-makers will start rethinking their casting preferences.
Said Awkwafina, "At the box office, the numbers are very impactful ... I'm very optimistic about the changes to come." She urged Hollywood to hire more Asian writers behind the scenes and, "take a chance on opening up roles, even leads, for actors of color."
Jimmy O. Yang, CRA co-star, stand up comedian, and immigre to the United States from Hong Kong, played the out-of-control Singaporean Chinese billionaire, Bernard Tai, to show-stopping perfection.
Yang told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that making the movie was a revelation to him, "As a human being and as an artist, it felt so right. It was magical. The whole cast felt like we were doing something special - something that really mattered."
Yang wants to bring more Asian culture into the mainstream, starting with a TV series spun off from his own hilarious autobiography, "How to American: An Immigrants Guide to Disappointing Your Parents."
Though the movie has been widely well-received, a few critics contend that the film does not represent "Brown Asia," such as the 15 percent Malay or the 6.6 percent Indian population of Singapore.
"To us, 'Crazy Rich' should not just be about the opulence and luxury showcased in the film, but Singapore's actual richness in terms of our diversity," said Lynette Pang, a spokesperson for Singapore's Tourism Board.
One South China Morning article by critic Alex Lo went further, "Should we, as the audience and hoi polloi, be tantalized and awed by the display of mega wealth, which has been described, by most accounts, as accurate. Or should we rather be repelled?"
Director John Chu tried to manage expectations, pointing out that one film could not be expected to solve all cultural and racial underrepresentations in the media.
"We decided very early on that this is not the movie to solve all representation issues," he told the press. "This is a very specific movie, we have a very specific world, very specific characters. This is not going to solve everything."
Though there is some controversy over book author Kevin Kwan's recently disclosed draft-dodging status in Singapore, Hollywood sources say a sequel is already underway at Warner Bros, with the same creative team.
