How to be a Crazy Rich Asian and conquer Hollywood

in movies •  6 years ago 

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Someone told me that China is becoming the dominant empire, and that it will soon displace the United States. I replied: "And why don't you become Chinese? I have not seen a visa lottery to go to China, to work like a slave, sleeping in the same factory, in a litter with a hundred other workers, making telephones that later will be sold to the empire, that is, to the United States. " I said that imperialism is also a mental colonization: for example, everyone wanted to be Roman, because Rome brought them roads, baths, theaters and a protective army. Nobody wants the card of the Chinese homeland, everyone wants the gringo greencard, the ideology of the USA is idolized by the world, and sold through Hollywood. The Chinese did not invent the Simpsons, and every time a Chinese man becomes rich, he sends his son to study in the United States.
But the Chinese try, we will not deny that merit, even venturing into Hollywood.

Chinese tales

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The Chinese have always had an epic cinema, beautiful, with an aesthetic attached to the official political ideology, that is, Marxism. In films like "Hero", they copied the majesty of the old Soviet cinema, and in films like "Not one less", they are able to move the audience with the story of a teacher who is going to look far away for a student who has disappeared from her class, a show of solidarity and social realism, kind of Chinese neorealism, really spectacular. But many of those films were for the critics, acclaimed in festivals, which you can watch on channels like Sundance on a Sunday afternoon, but they were not a Blockbuster hit. My friends always asked me: Hey, Matute! Do you think that the Chinese will ever make a romantic comedy in the Hollywod style? And I doubted, although I did not consider it discarded.

Crazy tycoons are here...

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But well, the Chinese are persevering, and here is that from a best-seller, the romantic novel Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, they have launched a modest production of just 30 million dollars, who has given a stick to the box office in all the world, more than 235 million dollars collected since August, which makes it the most successful romantic comedy in a decade. The second part, the sequel, is already being prepared, but beware ...!
My opinion? It is a beautiful, impeccable movie, worth seeing in the theatres, with your gang, with your girlfriend, with the respective combo of Pop-Corn and Coca-Cola.
I love well-made romantic comedies, like "The Wedding of my Best Friend" or "Notting Hill". And as a scriptwriter, I am a maniac of perfectly structured scripts, with the journey of the hero as a track rail, with the structure of 5 turning points of Syd Field, and with the engine of unstoppable action, as recommended by Bobby McKee. That is, the classics of Hollywood screenwriting.
And the movie Crazy Rich Asians has them, and very well put in their place.
It is a glamorous comedy, a typical romantic story, Cinderella, that could perfectly happen in New York or London ... but what happens in Singapore. It allows us to discover that this Asian municipality is an emporium of capitalism, of luxury, of excess, as cosmopolitan as Tokyo or Paris, but in Chinese language.

But they are not Chinese ...

Now, to dismantle the belief that I just put into your brain (final dramatic turn of the article), I'm going to show you that it's not a Chinese movie, but a Hollywood one.
First, because the capital comes from Warner Brothers. Second, because all the actors, although they are descendants of Asians (and this is a very problematic concept), I repeat All the actors! (except the funny Granny) speak in perfect English, some with an American accent, others with an English accent, but the film is fully spoken in English, with some lines in Mandarin to capture the Asian nationalist audience.
The protagonist Constance Wu, is not only American, but her role is that of a teacher of theory of the game in the school of economics of NYU, which is the most fancy of New York, and that is not a Chinese story, I know it preety well because I studied at NYU with a Fulbright scholarship.
Henry Ewan Golding is a British actor of Malaysian descent, and his role as Nick Young is that of a millionaire educated in London, not an entrepreneur who has sweated to start a business in China.
The director is Jonathan Murray Chu, the author of the book, Kevin Kwan, is American of descent from Singapore, the writers are Peter Chiarelli (American Italian) and Adele Lim, who is from Malaysia, but American, she writes TV series , and is a member of WGA, the Hollywood Screenwriters Union.
In short, it is, as the page of the film on Wikipedia says, an American romantic comedy-drama. Point for the empire.

Empire has died Long live the empire!

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In short, it is not that the Chinese are conquering Hollywood, but that Hollywood is conquering the Chinese, and in English, not to lose the rest of its global market with this film, which is very beautiful, I repeat, and that It has very good reviews and tremendous succes in the box office.
My recommendation is that you go to see it, but try not to embark yourself with the inminent part 2, because there is nothing else to tell, and second parts were never good, with the exception of "The Godfather"
And long live good movies, dear readers of Steemit.

Óscar Reyes-Matute
(Samuel Ibn Motot / שמואל אבן מתת)

Video recommended
Cracy Rich Asians, Trailer

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It is my understanding that films must have a Chinese production company to be released in China. Not positive on this. But I believe that is why we are seeing so many non-Asian films with H-Brothers and listed in the opening credits. Hollywood is playing the game. Your points line up perfectly with that.

You are right, my friend. Actually, the three main producers are Color Force, SK Global and Warner Bros. Like you, I'm not noticed clearly if there are Chinese companies involved in the production to release it in China, but the more important are the WB offices in Singapore and Phillippines. A real Chinese one is, i.e., Animal World. Surely you have commented it already. By the way, you have a great blog. I've upvoted your recent articles, I'm following you and I'm sharing (re-steeming) your excellent posts. Good for the good cinema...

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