TCCF: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ author Adele Lim talks cross-cultural stories: ‘We want to fly it wide’

Adele Lim, screenwriter of Crazy rich Asians and writer and director of joyridespoke about the reality of bringing Asian stories to a mainstream global audience in a panel discussion titled “Asian Rising Power in Hollywood” on the second day of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF).

Born in a small town in southern Malaysia, Lim said she studied in the US and after graduating decided to work in Los Angeles because she wanted to become a writer, eventually landing a job as got a script assistant on an American television show.

“Growing up in Malaysia, I felt that I was at a disadvantage in the beginning because I was not close to the cultural center of the world, which was America and England at the time, although that has all changed,” says Lim, who was also associate director. – Scripted Disney animations Raya and the last dragon.

“When I came to the United States, I realized that growing up in Asia had tremendous benefits and, most importantly, made me much more multicultural.”

Janice Chua, vice president of Imagine International, who now lives in LA and moderated the session, said she had a similar perception as a child in Singapore: “Every time we think of film and television, we think of Hong Kong or Hollywood. – We never realized that we could make a living by writing films and screenplays from our own countries.”

Lim said that when she started her career, she was surprised that there weren’t more Asian-Americans in writers’ rooms, especially when Joy Happiness Club was already successful and found that most places can still only tell white, male stories. “There was a perception in America that Asians couldn’t be the heroes of history.”

But she said since films like … everything has changed Crazy rich Asian mans, which was a global success, and global streaming content such as Korean series Squid gameIt helped tap a global audience and changed perceptions among Hollywood executives.

“We’re at an interesting turning point in our industry where it’s not about one or two major world cultures dictating entertainment for the rest of us — we have a wealth of untapped stories that have the potential to be very cross-pollinated.” .” to have. cultural appeal,” Lim said.

“It’s something that Hollywood is trying to crack, and for many of us it’s a unique opportunity to create stories that aren’t tied to the fact that we have to shoot in the United States or just tell stories from one point.” . can really start blowing it wide open.

Lim also talked about some of the scenes she included in the script Crazy rich Asians which were not in Kevin Kwan’s original book, including the dumpling making scene and the mahjong scene.

“The book was great and incredibly entertaining to read, but a lot of it is expositional, with two characters talking to each other in a room, and filmmaking is a visual medium, so we had to take it in a different setting before we could do it.” Place it. on the screen,” said Lim.

The dumpling scene was a way to show the cultural conflict between Eleanor (played by Michelle Yeoh) and her potential daughter-in-law Rachel (played by Constance Wu), who she believes is not Chinese enough and influenced by American values. The mahjong scene was an opportunity for Rachel to prove to Eleanor the strength of her values.

Chua, who served as the film’s producer, said an unnamed director wanted to kill the opening scene, in which Eleanor is turned away by a hotel porter as she arrives in London soaking wet during a downpour, in order to later buy the hotel. said Chua, who served as a producer on the film.

The director argued that the opening scene had nothing to do with the main story, but Chua said: “I had to fight for that opening because it has everything to do with the main story – it sets the tone as young Nick (played by ).Henry Golding as an adult) sees his mother exercising her power identity abroad.”

Lim added that the opening scene helped create sympathy for the main characters: “It was born out of a desire to show the world that we are people to be taken seriously. It’s easy to dismiss rich characters as “why should we care about them?”, but it’s not just about people who have a lot of money and act weird. But the things that move these characters are the same things that move each of us.”

Comedy adventure joyrideabout a young Asian American woman exploring her heritage in China with three friends, was an opportunity for Lim to tell a story for herself rather than for other people: “As Asian Americans, we grow up with this portrayal of Asians movies about who’s either really good girl or computer geek, but you’re never the super hot guy or the super nice girl, and we wanted that representation of us to be on screen.

Originally, there were plans to shoot the film in Taiwan or Korea, but when the pandemic broke out, the film had to be shot in Vancouver.

Although Vancouver has a large population of Asian descent, it doesn’t look like Asia at all, so Lim said the production was able to work around that by hiring department heads “who knew our culture inside and out, as much as we could. “Not taking the audience on an authentic journey, it will feel authentic because the heart and soul are beating.

Lim also said that she recently started a production company with a producer friend to give her the freedom to work on many different types of stories. “Obviously there will be obstacles along the way, but I’m very excited about the potential.”