U.S.A.
May 21, 2018
Crazy Rich Asians changes everything
By Lindsey Bahr
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
breaks new ground
AP Film Writer
By Lindsey Bahr
OS ANGELES — It’s been 25
years since a major Holly-
wood studio released an
English-language film with a
primarily Asian cast. The last was
Wayne Wang’s adaptation of the
generational tearjerker The Joy Luck
Club, which was released in 1993.
But that dry spell is about to end
with the release of the opulent
romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.
The film is based on Kevin Kwan’s
best-selling book about a Chinese-
American woman who gets a culture
shock when she meets her boyfriend’s
family in Singapore.
Veteran producer Nina Jacobson
said that when she and her Color
Force partner Brad Simpson (The
Hunger Games) read Kwan’s manu-
script, they knew it had to be a movie.
“We just tore through it,” Jacobson
said. “It was so specific that it became
really universal: Anybody who has
ever faced in-laws who felt that they
were not worthy of their beloved.”
However, they knew the film would
likely never survive the studio
development process. They decided to
have a vision, a script, and a budget to
sell as a package before going to the
marketplace. Warner Bros. would
ultimately sign up to partner with
them and release the film.
“Hollywood has done a bit of a
disservice by not taking us into these
worlds that we’re just now seeing
between Black Panther and things on
TV,” Simpson said. “There is a hunger
for not just token representation but
to really dive into the world of
different ethnicities and races.”
Meanwhile, Jon M. Chu, who
would eventually sign on to direct
Crazy Rich Asians, was hearing
about this new book from family
members. And he understood why.
His last name is the same as that of
the main character, Rachel Chu, and
they’re both from Cupertino. There’s
even a reference to his family in
Kwan’s book.
“I think a lot of Asian Americans go
through the same journey ... I relate
to having that dual cultural identity
of being full-on all-American,
all-California boy, but having a
Chinese side to me,” Chu said. “I
remember going to Asia for the first
time and there’s a very specific
emotion that you feel that’s like, ‘Oh,
this feels like home but it’s not my
home and these people don’t see me as
being part of this.’ Then when you’re
home you start to notice people may
not see you as part of that either.”
Having known Jacobson and
Simpson for years, he knew they
would “protect” the film and do it
AP Film Writer
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OS ANGELES — Kung Fu Panda 2 director
Jennifer Yuh Nelson was the first woman to solo
direct an animated feature for a major Hollywood
studio and the first woman of color to direct a film with a
budget of $150 million. While she has broken a number of
glass ceilings, she insists she never realizes it until
someone tells her.
“I go, oh, really? That’s cool. I don’t know. I don’t think
about it. I just enjoy doing the work,” Nelson says.
Now, Nelson is taking another big leap, into live-action
with the adaptation of author Alexandra Bracken’s young
adult novel The Darkest Minds for 20th Century Fox,
which comes out on August 3. It’s a transition that few in
the industry make, from animation to live-action. But
Nelson had always dreamed of working with the tangible.
The story imagines a world where teenagers develop
mystical abilities, and fearful adults imprison them.
Amandla Stenberg plays the lead, Ruby, who helps form a
resistance group. Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie,
and Bradley Whitford also star.
“The film itself is not going for the same dystopian
young adult ride that people have gotten used to,” Nelson
says. “There is sort of an optimistic, empowering,
friendship-driven story about kids who are facing some
really dire and dark situations.”
While Nelson might not rest on her laurels, she will
occasionally stop to reflect on what she’s been able to
accomplish when she gets letters from students in film
school or art school who admire her. They’re often women.
“It’s true there aren’t that many people they can point to
and say that person looks like me or has the same
experience as me or want the same things as me and are
doing what I want to do. They tell me it’s encouraging to
them to realize it,” she says. “And that makes me feel
really good.”
L
CULTURE SHOCK. This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows (L-R) Michelle Yeoh,
Henry Golding, and Constance Wu in a scene from Crazy Rich Asians, which opens in theaters Au-
gust 17. It’s been 25 years since a major Hollywood studio released an English-language film with a
primarily Asian cast. The last was Wayne Wang’s adaptation of the generational tearjerker The Joy
Luck Club, which was released in 1993. But that dry spell is about to end with the release of the
opulent romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians. (Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
right. He signed on to transport
audiences to an unbelievable world of
wealth, privilege, and tradition —
part Edith Wharton, part “Gossip
Girl.”
Chu brought on Malaysia-born
screenwriter Adele Lim to give the
script an Asian specificity and set off
to assemble his dream cast. The
worldwide search had casting
directors looking in Canada, New
York,
Los
Angeles,
Beijing,
Shanghai, Hong Kong, London,
Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia.
All had to be English-speaking — and
have the right accents, too.
Constance Wu was chosen to play
the lead, Rachel. They found an
unknown to play her boyfriend, Nick,
in Henry Golding, a handsome and
charismatic TV host who had the
perfect English accent to play the
London-schooled heir, and landed on
Michelle Yeoh to be his disapproving
mother, Eleanor. But even this
handpicked ensemble caused some
consternation on the internet over
the specific ethnicities and whether
they matched exactly with what the
book laid out.
Chu said that there’s even a
discussion is important. A film
having a female Asian-American lead
and also a majority pan-Asian cast is
significant. A University of Southern
California study found that 44 of the
top 100 films from 2016 featured no
Asian-American speaking char-
acters.
“Since I’ve graduated from drama
school, I never get to play the lead,”
Wu said. “The fact that Asian
Americans never get to center the
narrative means that their parts are
always going to be not as whole and
fleshed-out.”
That made it an emotional
experience for many on the set.
“Everyone had gone through the
process of what it’s like to be an Asian
American in Hollywood or around the
world,” Chu said. “You could see the
difference between someone like
Michelle Yeoh who literally said, ‘I’m
the majority where I’m from so I don’t
understand the plight that you guys
are going through.’ It was very
shocking for her to see how it affected
these young actors and how people
would just cry on the set and how
happy they were that they got to do
this.”
Jacobson described it as a “joyful
sense of purpose that we all shared.”
Wu, who is an outspoken advocate
for Asian representation on social
media, said the film is significant for
differentiating the Asian experience
and the Asian-American experience.
“You show that our culture is more
than just skin-deep,” Wu said. “You
show our similarities and how we’re
different.”
Although the film doesn’t open
until August 17, excitement is
growing with the new trailer and
some extremely positive reactions
from an early screening in Los
Angeles for the press.
“I hope people go see it because I
think we have a great movie and if
they go see it, it changes things,” Chu
said. “People have to show up. I
guarantee four new stories of Asian
Americans will be greenlit in two
weeks if it comes out and does well.
That’s what’s on the line and that’s
what I think is still up in the air.”
“I think we have to take control of
our own voice and our own story,” he
said. “And we won’t be perfect, this
discussion is ongoing the more stuff
that gets made, the more discussion
we can have about what we want. We
just never had the privilege of having
that conversation.”
AP writer Marcela Isaza
contributed from Las Vegas.
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#53949
# 33
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
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Solution to
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Puzzle #94213 (Hard)
All solutions available at
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