Crazy rich asians (2018)

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

Crazy Rich Asians (CRA) is not your typical chick flick.

CRA follows the well laid out formula of boy meets girl, they fall in love and overcome challenges to their relationship. Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) followed her boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding) home to Singapore to attend his best friend's wedding. That is when she finds out that Nick actually comes from one of Singapore's most affluent family.

The first half hour of the movie where Rachel lands in Singapore was actually very heartwarming to watch. As a Malaysian, knowing that some scenes were filmed in Malaysia as well as the cultural similarities with our neighbouring country, it was a moment of representation. It was also very exciting to see and recognise Southeast Asian actors involved. The best ones were those who didn't try to fake their accents.

Both Rachel and Nick were really good examples of Third Culture Kids (TCK). Rachel who grew up as a Chinese immigrant and Nick who spent a good number of years in England, inferring from his accent and the opening scene where a young Nick (pun unintended) smirks into the camera after his family acquired an old luxurious English hotel.

Central to the movie was the struggle between western individualism of chasing your own happiness, and eastern traditions of familial obligations. The reconciliation of which would be familiar for a lot of TCKs. Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh), Nick's mom accuses Rachel for not being "自己人" (our own people). To Eleanor, Rachel's American ideals would mean that she will never understand the sacrifices that is required. Clearly, there are a lot of assumptions going on here.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

Eleanor goes as far as to hire a private investigator to look into Rachel's past. Disgraced by Eleanor in front of Nick and his grandmother, Rachel runs away from the wedding party. It is also revealed that Eleanor herself has a strained relationship with her mother in law.

The movie follows one of the most basic themes in Chinese storytelling, the relationship between daughter in laws and mother in laws (婆媳关系). Prevalent even in Astrid's, Nick's cousin subplot was the concept of social economic compatibility (门当户对). Astrid's husband cheated on her because he was insecure about his status.

Watching the movie gets a little confusing at some point. Is it American? Is it Asian? And then you realise that this is what TCKs go through.

CRA is quite a lot to process when you relate to so many contrasting elements. But if you do recognise it, you probably have quite a few things to figure out anyways.