Crazy Rich Asians – Blu-ray Movie Review

Crazy Rich Asians is the story of a New York economics professor (played by Constance Wu) who joins her long-time boyfriend (played by Henry Golding) as they travel to his hometown of Singapore for his best friend’s wedding. Wu will soon find out that her boyfriend is from a family that is extremely wealthy. They are in fact the most wealthy family in all of Singapore which makes him among most eligible bachelors in all of Asia. It is against this backdrop that the drama will unfold.

This movie is classified as a romantic comedy but it is more dramatic and less silly than most movies of its ilk. The themes and the basic plot of this film are easily predictable from the start. Plus, this is one movie where it isn’t at all hard to accurately guess the ending. None of that dissuaded me from loving this movie in almost every way. I laughed, I cried and I was was genuinely touched by a few scenes. It was a well-done story brought to life on film. That the technical aspects were so well executed added further to the overall experience: I was immersed in this fantasy world throughout the movie. It is a real pleasure to find an engaging movie that is so fun and it doesn’t feature gun violence as a core thematic element. I’ll take it any day of the week!

This Blu-ray has a sumptuous and detailed image quality. I did not see any defects throughout and, in fact, I would rate this as an excellent demo disc for image quality. The film was shot in digital and it shows. There is excellent clarity in every shot. Add that the colors are properlay saturated and the image has a full dynamic range form the deepest blacks to the brightest whites. This is as well done as they come.

The audio is as equally accomplished as the video. There are some special audio effects in the movie but mostly the soundtrack is focused on dialog, environmental sounds, and the wonderful musical score. Everything is as it should be and the dialog in particular shines with a brilliant and clear audibility. I toyed with the idea of deducting half a star because some of the songs were apparently “noise-shapped” (a/k/a EQ’d) for a stronger audible impact. But this was not an issue with the disc’s audio as it simply passed what the film maker intended.

This package contains two discs – the Blu-ray disc and a DVD. The case also includes a digital code inside. The on-disc extras are fairly typical but quite entertaining:

Commentary with Director John M. Chu and Novelist Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Fun, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, and Trailers.