Crazy Rich Asians

Netflix offered artistic freedom, a greenlit trilogy and seven figure paydays for every stakeholder, all up front. Kevin Kwan and Jon M. Chu turned it down for a Warner Bros. release in cinemas. The mahjong table at the close is not in Kwan’s novel; it was written for the film. Chu brought in a mahjong choreographer and the tiles were planned one by one so the hands would match the lines. It was shot at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang, Malaysia; most of the rest is Singapore. The Coldplay song over the finale did not come easily. The band first refused permission for Yellow; Chu wrote a letter about what the word had meant in his own life, and approval came within 24 hours. Katherine Ho sings the Mandarin version. The Singapore here is almost entirely its wealthy Chinese side. Critics noted that the Malay and Indian populations, the country’s second and third largest communities, appear neither in the cast nor in the locations. A good fit if you know the real conflict runs between Rachel and Nick’s mother rather than Rachel and Nick, and do not mind an ending that turns on one move in a game whose tiles you have to read. Not for you if you want Singapore in its actual mix.