Last week during the September school holidays, finally GG and I caught Crazy Rich Asians. I had read the book a few years back when it first released and was actually looking forward to the movie when it was announced.

The film was super hyped here in Singapore and probably rightly so since the movie is set in this city-state and would bring tremendous world attention, especially the tourism dollars here.

The movie, to me especially, didn’t live up to the book. But then, that’s me and there’s rarely any movie which lives up to the movie in my head, so I’ll let that ride. The film is an unabashed and cinematic depiction of Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board should be happy with the outcome of the dollars they have spent on this movie. The movie is a celebration of Singapore and even though I am sure not all scenes shown as Singapore has actually been shot here, it was fun to see familiar landmarks on the big screen and try to decipher where a particular scene could have been shot.

Crazy Rich Asians follows Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), a Chinese American economics professor at NYU who’s been dating fellow professor Nick Young (Henry Golding) for over a year. For their spring break, Nick invites Rachel to visit his home of Singapore, where he’s returning for his best friend Colin’s (Chris Pang) wedding. Rachel decides to join him, meaning it will be the first time she’s met his family, including his mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh). Plus, it gives Rachel the chance to visit her college best friend, Peik Lin (Awkwafina), who also lives in Singapore. However, when Rachel and Nick are upgraded to first class on their flight, she quickly realizes her long-term boyfriend hasn’t been completely upfront about his family – particularly how wealthy they are – and it takes her by surprise.

Once they arrive in Singapore, Rachel is quickly accepted by Colin’s fiancée Araminta (Sonoya Mizuno), and she’s invited to the bachelorette party, while Colin and Nick must suffer through a bachelor party thrown by their former classmate Bernard Tai (Jimmy O. Yang). However, Rachel’s approached by Nick’s ex-girlfriend Amanda (Jing Lusi) and feels less than welcome. Things only get worse when Nick introduces Rachel to Eleanor, who decidedly doesn’t think Rachel is good enough for her son. With the help of Peik Lin – and some allies in Nick’s family, Nick’s cousin Astrid (Gemma Chan) and second cousin Oliver (Nico Santos) – Rachel must decide if she wants to fight for Nick, or escape from the extravagant world of Singapore’s rich and famous in favour of her relatively quiet life in New York City.

The film is fun, light and frothy and I loved Rachel’s character. She is a smart, well read and an independent woman who is not afraid to call out Nick when he is wrong. Another strong woman on the show was Astrid played by Gemma Chan. I loved her in the book and though her character was not as well fleshed out as I would have liked it, I am looking forward to her story in more detail when the sequel comes out.

Someone watching this movie may think Singapore is filled with Chinese millionaires and billionaires as almost everyone in the film is Chinese and a millionaire. You would be hard pressed to find other races in the film (Singapore is a multi-cultural and multi-racial society), not even in scenes which show them socialising (except for the one where Rachel befriends the Malay princess Intan).

All in all, this is a fun film and for those who don’t know Singapore, this is a good starting point. Singapore is shot very well and I am sure the STB will use parts of the film as marketing campaigns moving forward.

My verdict: Do go and see the film, you won’t regret it!