If there is something vaguely familiar about the plot of Crazy Rich Asians, perhaps it is because it is a modern spin on the classic fairy tale Cinderella. Or perhaps you read the book, in which case it should be more than familiar. I myself have not read the book, which I think will allow me to digest and analyze the movie on it’s own merits, without the clutter of comparing it to the book, what’s different, what was left out, the usual pitfalls of comparing movies to their novel source material. But I digress to my original point, this movie is a very interesting update to the Cinderella story. For my money it focuses on some very interesting questions that the original fairy tale never dealt with: what happens after Cinderella and Prince Charming get together?
Indeed, by the beginning of the movie Constance Wu’s Rachel Chu (our Cinderella) and Henry Golding’s Nick Young (Prince Charming), have already been dating for a year. Yes, this movie skips the central plot of the original Cinderella fairy tale, the meet cute, the search for the mystery girl who has lost her shoe, all of that. No, in this version for the modern times we find out that Nick has chosen not to reveal his families background to Rachel. Nick likes Rachel for who she is and really appreciates that she likes him for him, not for his family name, status or money. When we first meet them, Nick is asking Rachel to come home to Singapore for his friend’s wedding and to meet his family. Little does Rachel know what is in store for her.
Rachel has no idea what she is getting herself into coming home with Nick. She is completely unaware of his family’s extreme prominence or wealth, basically the equivalence of modern day royalty. So the basic premise of the movie is set up. How will Prince Charming’s friends and family accept his girlfriend who is well below their social stratosphere. It is worth noting here that Rachel is far from a peasant, she is a young professor of economics at NYU. She is intelligent, funny, beautiful and self made, coming from a humble background and working herself through university. In almost any romantic comedy set in North America, Rachel would be the unattainable female lead. In Singapore, however, among all of the elite families in Asia, she is just that, a peasant. She is not weighed against her merits or achievements, but against her family name, because in this circle all that matters is who your family is and how wealthy they are.
Enter Michelle Yeoh’s Eleanor Young, Nick’s mother. In this retelling of Cinderella, the wicked stepmother is swapped for the wicked would be stepmother. Eleanor does not want Rachel anywhere near her son Nick, clearly believing her to be beneath the Young family and their social peers, and she is not very subtle about it either. Eleanor is essentially the gatekeeper into Nick’s life and Nick doesn’t want to acknowledge that fact to begin with. Eleanor even goes so far as to tell Rachel to her face that she is not worthy of Nick.
We even get a couple of stand ins for the fairy godmother in the form of Awkwafina’s Peik Lin Goh and Nico Santo’s Oliver T’sien. Of course there is no magic involved her, no pumpkin chariots or mice turned horses and no magical gown and glass shoes that revert to their original form at the stroke of midnight. Piek is an old university friend of Rachel’s and Oliver is a cousin of Nick’s and they serve to help acclimatize Rachel to her new social environment. They also take charge of dressing Rachel for formal soirees, receptions and ceremonies, such as Nick’s friends wedding. Peik is often in charge of Rachel’s transportation, driving her to several functions. They make sure our Cinderella is equipped to attend these elite social functions.
Crazy Rich Asians works so well as a modern adaptation of Cinderella because it addresses the issue of how Cinderella, or Rachel, is accepted by Prince Charming’s family and friends. It explores the social and economic barriers that stand in the way of Rachel and Nick ending up together and getting married. Will Rachel quit her job as a professor in New York? Will Nick give up the business empire that he is expected to inherit? Who’s world will they live in? Will Eleanor excommunicate and cut Nick off from the family wealth and name if he chooses to spend his future with Rachel? Such questions offer a welcome modern complexity to the classic Cinderella fairy tale that are well worth exploring and certainly worth the price of admission.