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 "I've been driving around town seeing posters for 'Crazy Rich
Asians' and it gives me a real thrill. It's like, Wow! Do white
people feel like this all the time?" said Yu, who has been
writing his Angry Asian Man blog since 2001.
The romantic comedy, based on the best-selling book by
Singapore-American Kevin Kwan and opening on Wednesday, is the
first all-Asian Hollywood studio movie since "The Joy Luck Club"
in 1993.
"Crazy Rich Asians," which stars Michelle Yeoh, will be joined
by two others this month in a breakout moment for Asian
filmmaking that will test whether U.S. audiences will turn out
en masse to watch.
Sony Pictures indie thriller "Searching," featuring an
Asian-American family and directed by an Indian-American
newcomer, opens in U.S. theaters on Aug. 24, while the Netflix
adaptation of young-adult novel "To All the Boys I've Loved
Before," starring an Asian teen, will be released next week.
"I hope it's Asian August. I think this is the start of a new
movement," said Jon M. Chu, director of Warner Bros.' "Crazy
Rich Asians."
"The audience needs to decide. If they show up on opening
weekend, that sends a very clear message to the studios that
more will be made. They are sitting at their desks right now
with movies that have not been greenlit," Chu said.
PRESSURE IS HIGH
Asians make up 5.8 percent of the U.S. population, according to
the 2017 census, but a University of Southern California study
showed that 37 of the top 100 grossing films in 2017 had no
Asian characters.
When they do appear on screen, Asian actors are often cast in
martial arts sequences, or as the token ethnic best friend or
other stereotypical roles.
Worse still, Hollywood has a history of whitewashing. Emma Stone
was cast as a Hawaiian-Chinese character in the 2015 film
"Aloha" and Scarlett Johansson played a role meant for a
Japanese woman in last year's "Ghost in the Shell."
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Amid the anticipation among the American-Asian community at the
sudden spotlight, the pressure is on.
"There is a lot riding on this," said Guy Aoki, founding president
of the Los Angeles-based Media Action Network for Asian Americans.
"On one hand you are excited and on the other you go 'Oh God, I hope
this does well' because if it doesn't, we are screwed."
While "Crazy Rich Asians" is set in the world of the super wealthy
in Singapore's ethnic Chinese community, "Searching," starring John
Cho, could have featured any ethnicity.
"We're the first contemporary mainstream thriller to ever have an
Asian-American lead. That is crazy because it's 2018," said director
Aneesh Chaganty.
WIDER THEMES
Author Jenny Han insisted on casting an Asian as the lead in the
adaptation of her novel, "To All the Boys I've Loved Before."
"It wasn't that she needed to be Asian; it's just that she was.
Never in my life have I seen an Asian-American girl star in a teen
movie before," Han said.
The makers of "Crazy Rich Asians" are stressing the movie's wider
themes, aware that the estimated $20 million budget film must
succeed outside the Asian-American community.
Yet Aoki and Yu say it is unfair to place the future of Asian
filmmaking in Hollywood on one or two films.
"One romantic comedy with two Asian faces on the poster having to
hold up the dreams and hopes of an entire community is just not
fair," Yu said.
(Corrects title of Media Action Network in paragraph 12)
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Bill Tarrant and Richard
Chang)
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