Wicked director Jon M. Chu’s smash hit Crazy Rich Asians is now streaming on Netflix.
If you’ve seen the film but need some explanation of the ending, here’s what you need to know to make sense of the film’s climax.
First a little synopsis of the film: Constance Wu stars as Rachel Chu, an economics professor from New York City who falls in love with Nick Young (Henry Golding), someone she thinks is like her–someone who has worked their way up to living comfortably.
The plot of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’
After Nick invites her back to his home in Singapore for his friend Colin Khoo’s (Chris Pang) wedding to Araminta Lee (Sonoya Mizuno), she learns the real truth–that Nick’s family is one of the richest, most influential families in Singapore.
Rachel is happy to go to Singapore to not only meet those closest to Nick, but to catch up with her college friend Peik Lin Goh (Awkwafina), who comes from one of the “new money” families in the country. But, as Rachel meets more of Nick’s circle, including a former girlfriend who hates that Rachel is the woman in Nick’s life, Rachel begins to feel more out of place. Nick’s mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) is the icing on the cake; she feels Rachel isn’t good enough for Nick and does what she can to sabotage their relationship by insinuating Rachel should leave her son alone.
The truth behind Rachel’s family in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’
That feeling gets magnified when the family finds out the truth behind Rachel’s family. For all of her life, Rachel has believed that her mother Kerry (Tan Kheng Hua) was widowed before moving from China. But Nick’s mom and grandmother finds out that the story is that Kerry got pregnant during an extramarital affair and abandoned her husband for New York City. However, when Kerry arrives, she tells Rachel the truth; Kerry’s husband was abusive, and she conceived Rachel when she had a relationship with an old classmate. She decided to leave because she was afraid of her what her husband would do. At this point, Nick feels terrible about how his family has treated Rachel and to show how serious he is about their relationship, Nick proposes.
The ultimatum in the film
Rachel is faced with a personal ultimatum–does she fight for her relationship and go against Eleanor, or does she accept Eleanor’s opinion that Rachel is too poor and too culturally different for Nick and go back to New York? Rachel decides to face Eleanor over a mahjong game. However, instead of pleading with Eleanor to treat her better, Rachel tells Eleanor that she has declined Nick’s marriage proposal since she doesn’t want to be the reason Nick never talks to his family again. Rachel also uses Eleanor’s words against her, saying that Eleanor will always remember that whoever she decides Nick should marry, it will be because of a poor lowly person like Rachel. In other words, Rachel was saying that Eleanor’s happiness will be because of her, not the other way around. She also reveals that she actually had the winning mahjong hand, owning Eleanor in both the game and in life.
Nick proposes again
Rachel and her mother do prepare to leave Singapore, but Nick gets there just in time to propose once again. However, this time, he has Eleanor’s ring, which means he has her blessing to propose to Rachel. Eleanor, who also felt dismissed and looked down upon when she first married into the family, learns that she has found an equal match in Rachel. At the end of the film, Nick and Rachel hold a lavish engagement party in Singapore, with both Rachel and Eleanor finally giving each other respect.
What did you think of Crazy Rich Asians?
