2018 film by Jon M. Chu
Crazy Rich Asians is a 2018 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, based on the 2013 novel by Kevin Kwan. The film stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh. It follows a Chinese American professor, Rachel, who travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick and is shocked to discover that Nick's family is one of the richest families in Singapore.
The film was announced in August 2012 after the rights to the book were purchased. Many of the cast members signed on in the spring of 2017, and filming took place from April to June of that year in parts of Singapore, Malaysia, and New York City. It is the first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of Chinese descent in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. Despite praise in the United States for its Asian representation, the film also received criticism for its casting decisions. Few of the actors were from Singapore, from Southeast Asia, or of fully ethnically Chinese heritage. The film also failed to portray the reality of Singapore's multiracial population, neglecting people of Malay and Indian descent, while also being seen by some to perpetuate stereotypes of East Asians.
Crazy Rich Asians premiered on August 7, 2018, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and was released theatrically in the United States on August 15, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film grossed over $238 million against a $30 million budget, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the 2010s, and received praise for the performances of the cast, screenplay, and production design. It received nominations for two Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy), three NAACP Image Awards (including Outstanding Motion Picture), four Critics' Choice Awards (winning Best Comedy), and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. As of November 2025, two sequels, based on the novel's follow-ups China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, have been in and out of development for over seven years.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.