Where Was 'Crazy Rich Asians' Filmed?
This week, Crazy Rich Asians makes history as the first major Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast since 1993's The Joy Luck Club. Better still, it actually films in Asia: The story, originally a book by Kevin Kwan, follows Asian-American Rachel Chu as she heads to her boyfriend Nick's hometown of Singapore for a friend's wedding, only to find out his family is one of the wealthiest on the entire continent—and Nick's mom is very hard to impress. Drama, Awkwafina one-liners, and a fashion montage follow, of course. Singapore plays its own part in the movie—we counted at least four Merlion shots in 120 minutes of screen time—and some of our favorite spots made the cut. "I was fascinated by this idea of the city of the future, with its mix of nature and modern buildings, that at the same time has this tropical colonial style about it," says director Jon M. Chu (who also directed Now You See Me 2 and Step Up 2). "The island is just such a mishmash of commerce, of cultures, of food, of fashion. I wanted to show that both visually and through the characters."
With major scenes set at recognizable Singapore spots like the infinity pool of Marina Bay Sands towers; Gardens by the Bay, a futuristic urban park with 16-story-high "supertrees," and Raffles, the city's most historic hotel, the tour of the island is thorough, to say the least. But the cast and crew didn't just stay in Singapore. One of the movie's most breathtaking set pieces, the Young family home, is one country over. "There were certain aspects to Tyersall Park, where Nick's grandmother lives, that you couldn't find in Singapore. That's what makes the fictional Tyersall Park, this sort of Central Park within the tight squeeze of Singapore, such an amazing location in the book, because those properties just don't exist anymore. So we had to go to Malaysia to film that part, and since we were there, there was a lot we could find," Chu said. (Financially, moving a lot of the sets to Malaysia made sense too, he says.)
From Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and far-off Malaysian archipelagos, the Crazy Rich Asians cast and crew zipped across Southeast Asia to make their $30 million film a reality. Here are nine spots you can visit for yourself to live out your over-the-top Singaporean romance.