Groundbreaking for being the first almost all Asian cast in decades, the movie is breaking records at the box office, too. The actors are delightful, especially Constance Wu (she was born in the USA to Taiwanese immigrants, and we loved her in 79 episodes of Fresh Off the Boat) as our heroine Rachel, who was raised in New York; Awkwafina (born Nora Lum in NYC to Korean and Chinese-American parents and was cute as the tech genius in Oceans 8) as her madcap college friend Peik Lin; and Nico Santos (born in the Philippines, he's a stand-up comic but best known to us for 56 episodes of Superstore) as flamboyant cousin Oliver.
Michelle Yeoh (born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, she has done good work in, among others, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) is noteworthy as the icy mother Eleanor of Rachel's boyfriend Nick, played by Henry Golding (born in Malaysia to Malaysian and English parents, he's making his feature debut). Sonoya Mizuno (born in Tokyo, she was last blogged for Ex Machina) is the enthusiastic bride Arminta in the $40 million wedding in the second act.
American-born director Jon M. Chu was most recently in these pages for Now You See Me 2, his seventh feature. He keeps the ball rolling from a script co-written by Peter Chiarelli (born in Tacoma, he doesn't look Asian at all, co-wrote The Proposal and Now You See Me 2) and Adele Lim (Malaysian/Chinese, her feature debut after producing many and writing a few TV episodes), based on the 2013 novel of the same name by the Singaporean-American author Kevin Kwan.
I do have to mention the beautiful cinematography by Vanja Cernjul (he's Croatian and I've seen his work on various episodes of 30 Rock, Nurse Jackie, Bored to Death, Orange Is the New Black, and The Deuce), production design by Nelson Coates (his work includes Living Out Loud (1998), Antwone Fisher (2002), School for Scoundrels (2006), The Proposal, Flight, The Guilt Trip, and a couple of the Fifty Shades sequels, the latter of which I didn't see) and his team, and costume design by Mary E. Vogt (noted for Crazy People (1990), Batman Returns (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), three Men in Black (1997, 2002, 2012), Inspector Gadget (1999), RV (2006), Dinner for Schmucks, and more).
Brian Tyler (composed the original score for Now You See Me 2) provides suitable rom-com music that can be streamed from this album on spotify, but you're much more likely to remember the tunes which are almost all in Asian languages--when I lived in LA I could sometimes differentiate one from another, written and spoken, but my exposure is now so limited I've lost that ability. Anyway, here's another spotify album of Asian covers of American pop songs. Notable among them are two covers of Jon Hendricks' (of Lambert Hendricks & Ross) I Want You to Be My Baby (one by Jasmine Chen and one by Grace Chang) (he wrote the song for Louis Jordan and here's Jordan performing it); two covers of Money (The Best Things in Life Are Free), first by Cheryl K and at over the end credits with Awkwafina joining her rapping in English; and Material Girl covered by Sally Yeh.
With Rotten Tomatoes' critics averaging 93%, its audiences coming in at 84, and actual audiences filling theatres around the world, you'll likely have no problem finding this locally. The photography alone is reason enough to see it on a big screen. But if you can't, it'll be available streaming and on disc in November, 2018.
I do have to mention the beautiful cinematography by Vanja Cernjul (he's Croatian and I've seen his work on various episodes of 30 Rock, Nurse Jackie, Bored to Death, Orange Is the New Black, and The Deuce), production design by Nelson Coates (his work includes Living Out Loud (1998), Antwone Fisher (2002), School for Scoundrels (2006), The Proposal, Flight, The Guilt Trip, and a couple of the Fifty Shades sequels, the latter of which I didn't see) and his team, and costume design by Mary E. Vogt (noted for Crazy People (1990), Batman Returns (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), three Men in Black (1997, 2002, 2012), Inspector Gadget (1999), RV (2006), Dinner for Schmucks, and more).
Brian Tyler (composed the original score for Now You See Me 2) provides suitable rom-com music that can be streamed from this album on spotify, but you're much more likely to remember the tunes which are almost all in Asian languages--when I lived in LA I could sometimes differentiate one from another, written and spoken, but my exposure is now so limited I've lost that ability. Anyway, here's another spotify album of Asian covers of American pop songs. Notable among them are two covers of Jon Hendricks' (of Lambert Hendricks & Ross) I Want You to Be My Baby (one by Jasmine Chen and one by Grace Chang) (he wrote the song for Louis Jordan and here's Jordan performing it); two covers of Money (The Best Things in Life Are Free), first by Cheryl K and at over the end credits with Awkwafina joining her rapping in English; and Material Girl covered by Sally Yeh.
With Rotten Tomatoes' critics averaging 93%, its audiences coming in at 84, and actual audiences filling theatres around the world, you'll likely have no problem finding this locally. The photography alone is reason enough to see it on a big screen. But if you can't, it'll be available streaming and on disc in November, 2018.
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