Advertisement
Advertisement
American cinema
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
From left: cast members Henry Golding, Constance Wu and author Kevin Kwan. Photo: Reuters

‘Asian August’ comes to Hollywood but will it last?

The makers of Crazy Rich Asians are stressing the movie’s wider themes, aware that the estimated US$20 million budget film must succeed outside the Asian-American community

Phil Yu is excited. The Los Angeles-based blogger saw an advance screening months ago of Crazy Rich Asians and now the first Hollywood movie in 25 years with an all-Asian cast is about to arrive in theatres along with two other predominantly Asian films.

“I’ve been driving around town seeing posters for Crazy Rich Asians and it gives me a real thrill. It’s like, Wow! Do white people feel like this all the time?” said Yu, who has been writing his Angry Asian Man blog since 2001.

The romantic comedy, based on the bestselling book by Singapore-American Kevin Kwan and opening on Wednesday, is the first all-Asian Hollywood studio movie since The Joy Luck Club in 1993.

Crazy Rich Asians, which stars Michelle Yeoh, will be joined by two others this month in a breakout moment for Asian filmmaking that will test whether US audiences will turn out en masse to watch.

Sony Pictures indie thriller Searching, featuring an Asian-American family and directed by an Indian-American newcomer, opens in US theatres on August 24, while the Netflix adaptation of young-adult novel To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, starring an Asian teen, will be released next week.

“I hope it’s Asian August. I think this is the start of a new movement,” said Jon M. Chu, director of Warner Bros’ Crazy Rich Asians.

“The audience needs to decide. If they show up on opening weekend, that sends a very clear message to the studios that more will be made. They are sitting at their desks right now with films that have not been greenlit.”

Asians make up 5.8 per cent of the US population, according to the 2017 census, but a University of Southern California study showed that 37 of the top 100 grossing films in 2017 had no Asian characters.

Actress Michelle Yeoh. Photo: Reuters

When they do appear on screen, Asian actors are often cast in martial arts sequences, or as the token ethnic best friend or other stereotypical roles.

Worse still, Hollywood has a history of whitewashing. Emma Stone was cast as a Hawaiian-Chinese character in the 2015 film Aloha and Scarlett Johansson played a role meant for a Japanese woman in last year’s Ghost in the Shell.

Amid the anticipation among the American-Asian community at the sudden spotlight, the pressure is on.

“There is a lot riding on this,” said Guy Aoki, founding president of the Los Angeles-based Asian American Media Action Network. “On one hand you are excited and on the other you go ‘Oh God, I hope this does well’ because if it doesn’t, we are screwed.”

While Crazy Rich Asians is set in the world of the super wealthy in Singapore’s ethnic Chinese community, Searching, starring John Cho, could have featured any ethnicity.

“We’re the first contemporary mainstream thriller to ever have an Asian-American lead. That is crazy because it’s 2018,” said director Aneesh Chaganty.

Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell. Photo: Handout

Author Jenny Han insisted on casting an Asian as the lead in the adaptation of her novel, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

“It wasn’t that she needed to be Asian; it’s just that she was. Never in my life have I seen an Asian-American girl star in a teen movie before,” Han said.

The makers of Crazy Rich Asians are stressing the movie’s wider themes, aware that the estimated US$20 million budget film must succeed outside the Asian-American community.

Yet Aoki and Yu say it is unfair to place the future of Asian filmmaking in Hollywood on one or two films.

“One romantic comedy with two Asian faces on the poster having to hold up the dreams and hopes of an entire community is just not fair,” Yu said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Asian filmmaking moves into spotlight and pressure builds to wow audiences
Post