Crazy Rich Asians: Why I love It and the Mahjong Scene
It’s been two years, and I’m still in love with Crazy Rich Asians directed by Jon M. Chu less so for the plot but more so for all the deliberate and thoughtful work put into its production. I actually wanted to have a discussion with a few friends, but they said I was too passionate and just left so I’ve resorted back to tumblr for a source of all my feelings.
To this day, my favorite scene is still the mahjong scene. Prior to watching the movie, I had never played mahjong and never knew the rules. Yet I enjoyed every moment of that scene. The medium of movies restricts an ability to explicitly portray the significance of a piece or even a symbol. But I think Chu does an excellent job of overcoming this barrier and managing to convey a message even if you’ve never played mahjong before. Everything is deliberate, from Rachel’s monologue to the framing of the shot. It zooms in on the piece, quite literally showing that she has the winning hand for viewers familiar with mahjong. The set up line “there is no winning, you made sure of that” was a literal lead in to the main message--she was willing to lose to Eleanor in both the game and in regards to Nick because she loved him dearly. As she puts the piece in her lineup, allowing us to see that it was definitely PLAYABLE, we understand that she has the upper hand. Yet she forsakes it all, handing over the exact same piece that Eleanor needs to win. Taken at a glance and as a snapshot of the film, it seems carefully crafted and wonderfully thought out. But I think the foundation of the beauty of this scene was laid from the very beginning. We open with Rachel playing poker. She is introduced as ambitious and a risk taker, strong and capable. She knows very well what is going on. As a professor of game theory, she literally tells her students “he wasn’t playing to win, he was playing not to lose.” This mentality may initially be viewed as a weakness, the cause of Kurtis losing to her entire bluff. But by the end of the movie, this mentality is a sign of strength for Rachel. She didn’t view Nick as a game or something to win, which allowed her to win over the heart of Eleanor. Every time Rachel stuck to who she was as a passionate professor, she was able to stand her ground. She didn’t impress anyone by her attempts to meet their standards--she did so by her own achievements.
I think to the naked eye, many unimpassioned by Asian American issues and representation view that the movie is an inaccurate and flowery display of Asian’s attempt to enter mainstream Hollywood, at least so my friends think. They didn’t quite want to discuss, so here’s my opinions now. I think that Crazy Rich Asians was a far cry from that. I think it represented so much unity and collaboration. Seeing all these faces felt like a huge production made by cousins that plays at a family reunion. We had Asian representation from all across the world and I think that uniting in a similar cause evokes so much passion that every time I watch the film, I feel so celebratory.
From the cameo by Kina Grannis and the soundtrack including a young Asian American doing a beautiful cover to reclaim the symbol yellow, I think ultimately the film is a delicately, beautifully hand crafted gift to an extended family that is covered by the flowery displays of Hollywood. The fancy extravaganza of the movie challenges the typical one dimensional view of Asians, but I think the ultimate message is that: we are all family who will support each other.
And that is why, to this very day I will always rewatch Crazy Rich Asians with an overwhelming surge of pride of what they accomplished. No matter the criticism, I want to always recognize what it meant for others and I just want to share that.
