Majulah Singapura! We don’t get many opportunities to feel patriotic when it comes to Hollywood blockbuster movies, and understandably so, but we have high hopes for the upcoming 2018 adaptation of the novel Crazy Rich Asians. Set in the sunny island of Singapore, local author Kevin Kwan has imagined a universe inhabited by the unfathomably wealthy, narrating the perks and struggles that come with crazy price tags. The all-Asian cast features actors from across the world (is it that difficult to find Asian actors, LOL), including some familiar faces who’ve acted in our favourite Channel 5 and Channel 8 shows! As keen followers of updates on the production of the movie, we were excited to hear Warner Brother’s announcement late last month of its official release date, 17 August 2018.
Naturally, we couldn’t peel away from the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, featuring the lead actors of the movie on its front cover. Those gorgeous faces belong to Constance Wu, who we remember as the overprotective Taiwanese mom who speaks with that heavy Chinese accent, and together with newcomer Henry Golding, are set to play the romantic couple Rachel Chu and Nick Young. In the novel, Rachel is an ordinary Asian-American who is thrown into the trenches of dealing with Nick’s incredibly rich family and their particularly snobbish “friends.” Bar their lifestyles, the book actually captures the essence of the modern “Asian” experience — the struggles of love, which include extended family tradition and unwilling compromise.
Even beyond our favourite leads, the cast of Crazy Rich Asians is star-studded. From Michelle Yeoh to Ken Jeong, we especially want to mention Singaporean actors Pierre Png from The Little Nonya, Fiona Xie from The Champion, Tan Kheng Hua from Phua Chu Kang, Selena Tan from Dim Sum Dollies and Janice Koh from The Pupil. Director Jon M. Chu who helmed The Hunger Games series has been contracted to take on this movie, and we can only hope that the other two of Kwan’s trilogy of novels will get their moments on the big screen as part of a movie franchise.
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Read the full first look at Crazy Rich Asians on Entertainment Weekly.
Header image: Man Repeller
