In an ideal world, I wouldn’t give a shit about Crazy Rich Asians. I’d be hazily drifting through post-collegiate underemployment, rereading Murakami novels and halfheartedly attempting to quit drinking coffee, until around noon when I get a headache and make myself three cups and stay up till two in the morning reading Wikipedia articles about ethnic cleansing.
But alas, I am an Asian-American with free time and an internet connection and Hollywood hasn’t made a movie with an all-Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club 25 years ago, so I’ve spent the past week or so reading about Crazy Rich Asians and watching it with my mom, who hated it and said it was ??????, which Google Translate tells me means “absurd” or “fantastical.”