Crazy Rich Asians is Pretty Crazy (and Revolutionary)

**SPOILER WARNING**
After watching a good romantic comedy, the people out there with hope for the world can't help but feel all ooey-gooey inside. Romantic comedies bring out the loving sides of most people who watch them, and if you take them with their cliches, they can truly be meaningful works of art. With the recent release of the movie Crazy Rich Asians, which is not only a romantic comedy but could also be argued to be a satire, it can clearly be seen that romantic comedies CAN have more depth than people usually think they do. I am not arguing that every rom-com has much depth to it, but Crazy Rich Asians definitely does.

Crazy Rich Asians fits the classic Aristotle definition of a comedy- it features a main character (Rachel Chu, played by Constance Wu) who is of the "lower class" and goes to meet the family of her boyfriend (Nick Young, played by Henry Golding) who is of a high class wealth wise. By Rachel having to go to Singapore and face all of Nick's family, most of which do not accept Rachel because she does not come from the same wealthy background, the audience is presented with a conflict because we see that though Nick does love Rachel, he also loves his family and that it isn't easy for him to go against them. It also fits Aristotle's definition of a comedy because it does have a happy ending, where Nick's mother finally accepts Rachel for who she is. In one of the last scenes, Nick comes running onto the plane as Rachel is leaving to go back home to America, and proposes to her with his mother's ring (which signifies not only that his mother has agreed to the proposal, but that she's willing to give up her own ring). Crazy Rich Asians enhances the understanding of the world by showing the audience that by standing up for yourself and what you need for yourself (as Rachel does), you will get both what you need and what you want in life. If Rachel would have let Nick's mother's words get to her, she would have run out long before then, defeating her chance to be with the man she loves. Through Rachel standing her ground, Nick and Nick's mother realize that she is the real deal, and from there she is respected by them even more. The film is also able to incorporate many good discussions about the extent of wealth also, and what is excessive. This adds to the list of important things that the film discusses, because it shows that though wealth is desirable by most, it doesn't always lead to happiness.