We Saw Crazy Rich Asians

Yesterday noon, my brother-in-law drove us (Paul, my sister and I) in his shining black BMW X5 to see Crazy Rich Asians in Cortlandt Town Center. After securing our tickets, and about an hour and half's time to spare, we were treated to a King Buffet lunch.

Courtesy of Cosmopolitan

According to the ticket boy, the movie was no longer quite as hot as its first weekend. Nonetheless, we found Theater 6 quite full at 1:30 pm when commercials started. The audience consisted chiefly of the curious elderly and young generations for Crazy Rich Asians, book 1 in Kevin Kwan's Rich novels series.

I was prepared to see an updated edition of The Joy Luck Club, or a modern version of a dragon lady. To a great extent, the show does not disappoint me: there is a mahjong game, and there are several dragon ladies, Nick's mother Eleanor in particular. She is an Oxford-educated modern woman, but because of traditional values, she has totally given up her academic ambitions by taking care of family affairs, husband and a pair of children. But she is always the number two choice, due to her humble family background. Seeing almost a carbon copy, or worse, of herself in Rachel Chu, she cannot help but discourage the young woman from becoming her daughter-in-law.

What Eleanor fails to anticipate is that today's Cinderellas are stronger than ever before. If Megan Markell can celebrate her first 100 married days with Prince Harry in Britain, Rachel can be proposed to by Nick Young of Singapore. A woman's humble origin is no longer a roadblock, but a badge of honor, as long as they have beauty or intellect. Those young millennials, real or fictitious, are entering royal palaces, and super-rich families. It is a brave new world!