Crazy Rich Asians: The Asian American experience

 

The release of the 2018 film, Crazy Rich Asians, introduced an Asian American experience to mainstream media. The fully asian cast allows a surface level view of Asian and Asian American experiences. Although this film attempts to display these characters as a fully developed people, it does not succeed in many ways. 

Hollywood films rarely stray away from the structure that they are accustomed to. There is a conflict to overcome, and in this case the conflict is being accepted as a poor foreigner into a wealthy home. The characters react according to their surface level character traits. The male lead is supposed to take over the family business while his love interest attempts to leave in order to give him that future. The tropes that this film uses allow the audience to already know the conclusion, because a Hollywood film needs a happy ending with everything wrapped in a bow. 

Although casting a fully Asian cast is an achievement for Hollywood, it feels the same way as the release of Black Panther. Both of these films were released in 2018, and they both use the goal of monetizing the 'badass' or 'luxury' within marginalized groups. The dilemma of whether films that feature POC casts has been entirely beneficial for representation in media is something that must be deciphered in order to promote representation in Hollywood films.

In Ian Reyes and Justin Wyatt's article, On the Banality of Transnational Film, they express the hollow promise of diversity in Hollywood, and whether Hollywood is capable of creating diverse stories that center POC characters. "One assumption made by much of the critical reception around these films seems to be that big box office will lead to change in future film production, distribution, marketing, and messaging. All too often, these successes tend to be isolated events despite the promise of a shift in cultural representations."  

This may be a downfall of Hollywood overall. It is difficult to promote realistic representation in Hollywood due to the stiff structure and the monetary value that it is used to. These problems are not as significant in independent cinema, allowing more freedom in the stories being told. This is why you are more likely to see accurate representation in independent films, because the restrictions that are set up in Hollywood prevent the stories of marginalized groups from being told. It is difficult to know whether the releases of these Hollywood films were for the monetary value of including POC. Without the certainty of monetary success, would Hollywood still attempt to include stories that promote the inclusion marginalized groups?