Overall, fans report, the film version of Crazy Rich Asians was very faithful to the book. And, in spirit at least, the recently released movie based on Kevin Kwan’s 2013 debut novel stays very true to the book. But there are significant differences you might not notice if you’re not watching for them. From Business Insider:
Considering how rarely Hollywood green-lights movies with Asian casts, what’s remarkable about “Crazy Rich Asians” is really how little changed between Kevin Kwan’s book and the movie. The protagonist Rachel Chu, an American-born NYU professor, wasn’t turned white, as some producers initially suggested, and her boyfriend Nick Young’s crazy-rich extended family acts in pretty much the same way that they do in the book series.
The scope of the film, however, demanded some modifications. BI outlines those differences, including the reduction of Astrid’s (played by Gemma Chan) story and the addition of a big confrontation between Eleanor and Rachel that seems to represent the conflicts that are ongoing between those characters for much of the first book in Kwan’s trilogy.
As Business Insider says, Crazy Rich Asians is a “rom-com with social satire.” For movie-goers in 2018, nothing could be more on the nose.
The full story is here.
Leave a Reply