If there is a director who knows how to both direct well and promote, that man is Jon M. Chu. If the name sounds familiar, then you might know him for overseeing the box office hit Wicked, and Wicked for good. So he for sure made at least two wonderful and popular movies. But he’s done so much more for the film industry, even before Wicked had even started production. Jon M. Chu also directed arguably the biggest romcom of the late 2010s. Crazy Rich Asians, a movie made from the 2013 book of the same name by Kevin Kwan. But the movie was far from anything like the other romcoms that came out before. At the time, Hollywood was in an all-time dry period for rom-coms, not much was coming out, and the things marketed as a rom-com didn’t really have that happy rom-com ending; the endings consisted of more depressing, realistic endings. Speaking in a general movie sense, realistic endings aren’t bad. Not every movie needs the happy Hollywood ending. But in the context of the smaller genre of Rom-coms, having every ending be a depressing, realistic, and sad ending takes away from the feel-good movie genre, just showing love for others. Something that has been increasingly harder and harder to come by in modern-day movies.
This is where the first major impact of Crazy Rich Asians is. Another romcom that was just expected to come out. The main point that made people interested was the all asian cast of the movie, apart from the racist white men in the first 3 minutes of the film. Something that hasn’t been done since the 1993 movie The Joy Luck Club, something that has been out but never really had a huge impact on the industry. So another movie coming out 25 years later is also about another attempt at a full asian cast. Yet unlike the past attempt at having a bigger impact with the casting, Crazy Rich Asians changed the whole perspective on not only casting but also stereotypes. Rather than falling into stereotypes, it completely changed their perspective on. In Hollywood, before this movie came out, it was so much more common to see a white woman as the main character and their asian counterpart being cast aside too often as a background character with the traits of nerdy, and on the poorer side of the wealth chain. Yet Crazy Rich Asians did the opposite; rather than dehumanising the characters to a stereotypical depiction of how Asians are typically depicted, it did what the Hollywood industry should do for every race: give them their own personalities.
Crazy Rich Asian’s also completely inspired the aspiring actors in the scene to act. Every main character in the film soon got their own movie or show with them as the main character because of this. Assassin Club starring Henry Golding, the actor of Nick, Hustlers with Constance Wu, who played Rachel, and Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn in everywhere, everything, all at once. Crazy Rich Asians was a movie that inspired Ke Huy Quan, who would have given up on his dream completely if it weren’t for the movie. Quan states, “When Michelle’s movie the Crazy Rich Asians, came out and that movie just hit me on so many levels. I remember watching it three times in the theatre, and I cried every single time, and I had serious FOMO (fear of missing out),” he continues, “when I saw the entire cast made up of entirely asian actors and I [went] wow, I wish I was up there with them. And so the idea of getting back into acting, that’s where it started,” (Entertainment Weekly). Because of the success of the movie, it broke the deep-rooted internalised racism, colourism, and prejudice occurring in Hollywood towards anyone who isn’t white passing.
Jon M. Chu not only broke the box office in Crazy Rich Asians but also in the duology Wicked. Wicked, already being a popular musical, was expected to be successful just like the Broadway theatre show had been. So far, both Wicked movies have been box office hits. The cast has gone viral for starring global pop star sensation Ariana Grande. With more awards than any musical movie that has come out. With a huge fanbase already and tons of positive feedback.
Both movies have had extremely positive feedback for each of their respective wedding scenes. Each has a mixture of glamour and nature. In Crazy Rich Asians, it was the swap, with gorgeous water and lit leaf butterfly lamps being held by wedding goers. While in Wicked, the lighter concept. The gowns are both beautiful and suited for both the wedding and the characters’ personalities.
Yet like every movie, each had its criticism. Crazy Rich Asians has been criticised for many things. Some believe the change in writing takes away from the plot and the lack of traditional values for some of the characters. On a Reddit thread, the poster jadad21 explains from their perspective on the values, “As an East Asian with friends that have affluent backgrounds, the film was causing all kinds of cognitive dissonance. For a film that talks about the cultural conflicts and importance of tradition in these communities, it failed to tremendously in conveying that message consistently through actual behavior amd world building. Awside from Eleanor Young, every other main character seemed like a bunch of white people partying non-stop like in Fast & Furious or The Great Gatsby but with Asian faces. People coming from countries with traditional values or even struggles with those traditional values dont act like that.” (reddit). As well as some criticism for the fact that the movie didn’t open a lot of opportunities for Asian American actors because of the plot line of the Young family going to a British private school.
Wicked’s criticism was also there, but less about the actual story and more about the actors. The cheating scandal between Ethan Slater and Ariana Grande definitely gave the general public a good reason to dislike the main cast.
Whether you enjoy Jon M. Chu movies or not, it’s undeniable that he’s changed the scene of Hollywood and what the job of directing means to the public.
