"Crazy Rich Asians;" The Return of the Romantic Fairy Tale

I went to see "Crazy Rich Asians" today. With all the hoopla about this film, the fact all the characters were Asian, the first time since 1993, is merely a romantic story of the mega rich who just happen to be Asian. Go to Hong Kong sometime. Great, almost staggering wealth co-exists beside grinding poverty. Tesla Model S's are like Chevrolet's here ... and right hand drive to boot! This is in fact, I sheepishly admit, a kind of Hallmark romantic movie (you KNOW it will have a happy ending), from  what I saw, it is and does.

     Having just watched the old Black and White classics "Bringing Up Baby" and "The Philadelphia Story" and recently Hallmark's romantic movies on the weekend, and "Baby Steps" about a Gay Chinese and white American who attempt to get married and have a child, I couldn't help but make comparisons.

Ice Queen Momma!

     It's a classic story ... boy meets girl, girl loves boy, the boy has a family problem of some sort accepting his girlfriend, usually an uncompromising mother, especially an Asian Ice Queen, like in "Crazy" and "Baby Steps" and finally at the end there is a happy ending. Just like in a fairy tale. Of course there is the day after and .... 

The rich ARE different! Here in the late 1930's.

     The fact that "Crazy" has essentially a totally Asian cast is quickly forgotten. You are quickly transported to a world most of us will never know.  No matter who you are, we all 

have friends such as these, maybe not so wealthy but certainly as zany. In fact, I felt that the wealth often got in the way. A side story is one of the sisters was married to a commoner who couldn't accept his place in this rarified atmosphere. He had a loving, doting wife but felt marginalized and in the end the marriage dissolves. The New York Chinese-American girlfriend had no inkling her boyfriend was not only rich but ultra rich. This is a story as old as time. However, in some ways, the wealth got in the way of the story. There is no doubt though that it did add the tension needed to proceed.

I don't know about you but I have never, ever lived
in a house like this. The closest? An historical tour.

     There is no doubt that the rich don't live and  don't behave like the hoi polloi. The girlfriend was considered a commoner not fit for marriage to the heir of the family fortune any more than the groom in "The Philadelphia Story" could accept what he felt was unproper, upper class morals. The telling scene in "Story" was when the groom to be saw and thought the James Stewart character not only swam drunk with his fiancée but bedded her as well. When she reads his letter aloud to all her friends where he states he is ending the ceremony because of her behavior it was instantly apparent the middle class and rich live in two different worlds, not unlike the spectacle we see everyday now in Washington, DC.

Bride and groom Batchelor party with fast cars,
helicopters and fast yachts.

     The rich are different. Americans hope and yes, pray, that they can move ever upward into this stratospheric atmosphere because, well, isn't that the American dream? Samples of it surround us daily and in our history. That this wealth was accumulated often under shady circumstances is the elephant in the room we don't talk about.

    What makes "Crazy" so interesting is that the ice cold, scheming mother was herself a commoner and points out it took decades to be accepted. "You," she points out to the girlfriend," don't have it." There is more to this plot but you get the jest.

     My college sociology professor pointed out that the morals of each class are quite different. Oddly, though, the poorest and the wealthiest morals are often the same. Why? The rich don't raise their children, nannies do. Where do nannies come from? The poorest class. Every Sunday in Hong Kong is the maid or the nanny's day off. The parks and byways are filled with throngs of mostly women from the Philippines. They are everywhere. Hidden during the week working, they have a day free and escape their six-day-a-week prisons to meet, rest and relax before yet another week begins.

     So while all the secrets of the ultra rich are not shown here but they are in "Baby Steps" where the Gay couple cannot find a suitable surrogate mother to carry their fertilized egg and enlist the help of the Taiwanese mother's maid to carry the baby.
     What does get lost in all the glitter and vapid spending is that all the wealth in the world cannot buy happiness, self worth, self-esteem. The wonderful sister can't keep her husband who feels that he is a mere boy toy. His wife doesn't give him the "care" he needs as she helps others and buy expensive items she feels compelled to hide. When confronted with his affair she seems to have no emotion, and he wants her to care, to feel something. So, money can't buy you love.

     I love a happy ending. There are too few of them in life. Possibly in these tense and stressful times this is exactly what we need. However, along with the happy ending there needs to be something more. An emotion, love that comes from inside, love that cares. An exotic location, a love story and after despair a happy ending that means something. Tell me, can we ask for anymore?

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!