Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Where was crazy rich Asians filmed?
The film was announced in August 2013 after the rights to the book were purchased. Much of the cast signed on in the spring of 2017, and filming took place from April to June of that year in parts of Malaysia and Singapore. It is the first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority Asian American cast in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993.[5] Despite praise for that, the film did receive some criticism for casting biracial actors over fully ethnically Chinese ones in certain roles. Additional criticisms were directed at the film for failing to have non-Chinese Singaporean ethnic groups—notably Malay and Indian actors—as characters.
In Singapore, where the film takes place, Crazy Rich Asians grossed over $5 million.[90] The first-week ticket sales for the film, $2.5 million, were considered unusually high. Large numbers of organizations and individuals buying out theaters to host screenings, as well as general interest in seeing how Hollywood portrayed the city-state, were noted as major contributors to the film's high Singaporean box office totals.[107]
In China, however, Crazy Rich Asians was met a tepid reception among viewers despite initial high expectations from Warner Bros. Pictures.[89] Multiple possible reasons were cited for its failure to resonate with Chinese moviegoers. The film's discussion of excessive wealth felt off-putting to audiences due to the start of an economic slowdown,[90] and the themes of ethnic and cultural identity were unrelatable and possibly bothersome to viewers.[91] Unlike in the film's country of origin, the United States, an all-Asian cast was not considered novel in China, and the film lacked notable Chinese stars, other than Michelle Yeoh and Lisa Lu.[92] The delayed release of about three-and-a-half months was also said to have hurt ticket sales, as much of the film's potential audience had pirated it or viewed it overseas.[92] Even with its lackluster reception, a Chinese theatrical release was deemed important by producers, as China Rich Girlfriend, the second film in the series, was planned to be partially filmed in Shanghai, potentially as a Chinese co-production.[93][91]
"Crazy Rich Asians" was released in the United States on August 15, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures and August 23, 2018, internationally. It is noted as the first film in the modern setting by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority Asian cast since 1993's "The Joy Luck Club". The film has grossed $83 million worldwide and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances and the production design. A sequel is in development.
Kwan published the first sequel to "Crazy Rich Asians" entitled "China Rich Girlfriend" in June 2015. Similarly to "Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend" became an international bestseller. On August 15, 2018, it was reported that even before the release of the film adaptation of his first novel, Kwan had already been tasked with developing a film from the sequel "China Rich Girlfriend".
At the time the film was released, it was anticipated that Hollywood would begin to develop more films around the Asian experience, but this did not eventually happen. "Flower Drum Song", released in 1961, was the first film to feature a majority Asian cast telling a contemporary Asian-American story. "The Joy Luck Club" (1993) was the second, a third of a century later, and the latest was released a quarter century later in 2018, "Crazy Rich Asians".
Crazy Rich Asians is a 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim. The film was accompanied by both a soundtrack album (with contributions from various artists) and an original motion picture score album (composed by Brian Tyler). The film stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Nico Santos, Lisa Lu, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh and follows a young Asian-American woman who travels to meet her boyfriend's family and is surprised when she discovers they are among the richest in Singapore. 
Tourism to Singapore increased following the release of Crazy Rich Asians, attributed in part to the numerous attractions showcased in the film, such as the Marina Bay Sands and Raffles Hotel. The 2018 North Korea–United States summit held in Singapore, however, was also said to have increased tourist numbers.[94] Sales of the original novel saw an increase of about 1.5 million copies after the film's theatrical release.[95]
In contrast to those calling for Chinese or East Asian actors to fill its roles, others, particularly those in Asian countries, expressed disappointment in the film's lack of ethnic South and Southeast Asians, who have prominent presence in Singapore.[146][147] Kirsten Han, a Singaporean journalist, said that the film "obscur[ed] the Malay, Indian, and Eurasian (and more) populations who make the country the culturally rich and unique place that it is."[148] Some were critical towards the omission of the country's Malays and Indians—the second and third largest ethnic groups in Singapore, respectively—thus not representing its multiracial population accurately.[149]
Crazy Rich Asians grossed $174.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $64 million elsewhere, for a worldwide gross of $238.5 million, against a production budget of $30 million.[4] In October 2018, it became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the last 10 years, and the 6th-highest-grossing ever.[6]
Crazy Rich Asians is a 2013 novel by Kevin Kwan.
In 2015 Lau was featured in the television film "Love is Love; Sunrise" as the character Shelley. She portrayed Celine Lim, also known as Radio One Asia, in the 2018 film "Crazy Rich Asians", based on the novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan. She was the only Singaporean to be featured by "Vanity Fair" in "The Must-See Looks from the Crazy Rich Asians Premiere" and was featured in E!'s "Best Dressed" list. She received media attention for being the only cast member from "Crazy Rich Asians" to wear a dress by Singaporean designers on the red carpet at the film's premier.
After graduating from New York University, Loke moved back to Singapore and auditioned for the role of Kitty Pong in the 2018 film "Crazy Rich Asians". She was cast as Fiona Tung-Cheng in "Crazy Rich Asians", making her studio-film debut. In September 2018, Loke confirmed that she was signed to portray Fiona Tung-Cheng in the "Crazy Rich Asians" sequel, "China Rich Girlfriend".
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 301 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With a terrific cast and a surfeit of visual razzle dazzle, Crazy Rich Asians takes a satisfying step forward for screen representation while deftly drawing inspiration from the classic—and still effective—rom-com formula."[112] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[113] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 85% positive score and a 65% "definite recommend".[102]
In 2018, Chan co-starred as Astrid Leong-Teo in the film "Crazy Rich Asians". She first heard about the novel "Crazy Rich Asians" from a text from her sister, read it on holiday, and "fell in love with Astrid".
—Costume designer Mary Vogt on costuming the film (2018)[69]
The film was released domestically on October 25, 2018, alongside "Grass" and Hollywood film "Crazy Rich Asians".
Director Jon M. Chu said he would be eager to direct a sequel if the first film was a success, stating, "We have other stories outside of the Crazy Rich Asians world that are ready to be told too, from filmmakers and storytellers who haven't had their stories told yet."[80]
The film was well received by Singaporean audiences, though some felt it overrepresented and dramatized the wealthy families living there.[87] Writers and producers in the British film and television industry expressed a hope that Crazy Rich Asians' positive financial reception would lead to more East Asian representation following the film's release in the United Kingdom. The film was considered especially notable due to the presecene multiple British actors of East Asian descent acting in the picture.[88]
Scott Mendelson, writing for Forbes, found the film to be below average and to have an uneven plot line with contrived humor similar to his opinion of the 2002 film My Big Fat Greek Wedding stating: "Without having read the book, I might argue that the core flaw of Crazy Rich Asians is that it's so determined to be the Asian-American version of the conventional Hollywood romantic comedy that it becomes a deeply conventional romantic comedy, complete with the bad, the good and the generic tropes. It's well-acted and offers plenty of cultural specificity, but the supporting characters are thin and the need to be universal hobbles its drama".[124] He was joined in his criticism by Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail, who wrote: "As the obscenities of wealth accumulate while a large cast of Asian and Eurasian actors render their many silly characters, the source of the laughter becomes troubling."[125] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter gave a mixed review, in which he criticized the film's pacing as "uneven" but nevertheless similarly praised the performances and chemistry of Wu and Golding, and singled out Wu's performance as the film's real heart.[126] Tony Wong of Toronto Star argued the film "doesn't blow away stereotypes. It reinforces them. There is little room for subtlety here—the title underlines the mission statement. Asians are rich, vulgar and clueless."[127]
In 2014, the US-based Asian film investment group Ivanhoe Pictures partnered with Jacobson to finance and produce Crazy Rich Asians.[36] John Penotti, president of Ivanhoe, stated "For us, the book fell in our lap kind of like, 'This is why we're doing the company.' Unlike the Hollywood second-guessing, 'Oh my God, will this work? We don't know. It's all Asian,' it was exactly the opposite for us: 'That's exactly why it will work.'"[30]
Time magazine published an extended cultural review of the film by Karen Ho, which compared the high fashion appeal of the film to rival the best of previous films such as The Devil Wears Prada. Ho summarizes the film's success as a notable uphill battle against the season's predominantly superhero oriented audiences: "To many in Hollywood, Crazy Rich Asians might look like a risky bet. It's the first modern story with an all-Asian cast and an Asian-American lead in 25 years; the last Joy Luck Club, was in 1993. It's an earnest romantic comedy in a sea of action and superhero films...In fact, it seems destined to be a hit."[116] In the same magazine, Stephanie Zacharek called the film as "simply great fun, a winsome romantic comedy and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags," while at the same time hailing the film as a breakthrough in representation and lauded the performances and chemistry of Wu and Golding as well as the supporting performances (particularly Yeoh, Ken Jeong, Nico Santos and Awkwafina).[117]
Other critics defended the film's portrayal of ethnic representation. Ilyas Sholihyn, a Malay Singaporean writing for Coconuts, stated that "it’s hard to imagine the story is even relatable to most Chinese Singaporeans" due to film's focus on the extremely wealthy, noting that Crazy Rich Asians was not made for native Singaporeans, but rather "a high-fantasy Hollywood film made for maximum appeal to East Asian-Americans". She did, however, criticize the film for certain decisions regarding representation, notably that the scene of at the Newton Food Centre lacked cultural diversity in the chefs and food portrayed, and the roles for the limited number of non-Chinese Singaporeans, such as guards and valets, suffered from tokenism.[150] Surekha A. Yadav of the Malay Mail defended the film's lack of diversity, describing it as an accurate portrayal of Chinese Singaporeans, particularly wealthy ones, who, per statistics from the Institute of Policy Studies, have minimal and even discriminatory interactions with Singaporean minority groups. Regarding the film specifically, Yadav explained that "it is the extremely privileged edge of this upper segment of Singapore society that Crazy Rich Asians depicts. In reality, this is a world where minorities play a very small role."[155]
Crazy Rich Asians was released in the United States on August 15, 2018, after previously having been scheduled for August 17.[79] An early screening was held in April 2018 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, garnering strong emotional reactions from the audience; other advance screenings were held in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and New York City.[31] The film premiered on August 7, 2018 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.[80] The social media hashtag #GoldOpen was used to bring attention to the film.[81] Internationally, Crazy Rich Asians was released in Singapore on August 22, 2018,[82] and was scheduled for a later release in parts of Europe, although the planned November 2018 U.K. release date was moved forward to September 14, 2018.[83][84] Later that month, on September 28, 2018, Crazy Rich Asians released to 75 theaters in Japan.[85] In October 2018, it was announced the film would be released in China on November 30, 2018.[86]
The 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon M. Chu, featured several Asian American actors in prominent roles, alongside other actors of Asian descent.