Crazy Rich Asians

Rachel goes to meet with the women invited to Araminta’s bachelorette party. All the young women are heiresses and rich socialites, and Rachel struggles to fit in with them. They take Araminta’s mother’s new plane, which is equipped with beautiful, white leather seating, a media room, a library, and a yoga studio. A girl named Parker Yeo asks Rachel if she’s a Taipei Plastics Chu, and again, Rachel says that she isn’t. She asks Parker why everyone keeps asking her that, but Parker just smirks and runs off to tell the other women what she’s learned.

The plane takes the women to Samsara, the private resort island that Araminta’s family owns. Araminta allows the girls to go on a timed shopping spree in the resort’s dress shop, letting the girls keep any five pieces they can grab in 20 minutes. The girls go wild in the boutique, but Rachel only grabs a couple of things, feeling uncomfortable with taking advantage of Araminta. In the dressing room, Rachel overhears two of the girls badmouthing her. She panics and starts to leave, but runs into Araminta, who compliments her taste in dresses and insists that she take them. Rachel almost does, but she sets them down to look at a pair of shoes. When she turns around, the items she chose are gone.

At Colin’s bachelor party, the men wait for Bernard Tai, the over-the-top person throwing the party, to take them to the party location. Bernard takes them to Macau, where he intends for them to watch an illegal dogfight in a back-alley club. Nick and several of the other men protest, finding the idea of watching dogs fight and hurt each other deplorable. Bernard calls them anti-gay slurs and rudely attempts to bully them into staying. Colin suggests that Bernard stays to watch while he takes the rest of the men to the hotel. Bernard complains about having taken them to the dogfight for Colin’s sake, but he eventually relents when Colin makes it clear that he doesn’t like dogfights, either.

Bernard makes a stink at the hotel when their rooms aren’t ready, and Colin suggests that they go gamble at the casino while they wait. Nick recalls a moment from when they were kids: After being shoved to the ground by Bernard, Colin, a kid he’d never met, came to his rescue and stood up to Bernard. Then, when Nick’s parents didn’t come to pick him up from school, Colin’s grandmother gave him a ride. Colin and Nick have been close friends ever since.

Eddie is getting ready for a photo shoot with his family for Orange Daily. He tries on his suit for the Khoo wedding, but it’s too tight. He loudly tells his wife Fiona that the tailors must have made the suit too small, but it’s obvious that he just gained weight. He makes Fiona get the kids ready for the shoot. Meanwhile, he tries to hide the fact that his pants aren’t buttoned. Eddie demands that Augustine wear his Gucci loafers. He then yells at the child for asking which ones, because he is appalled that his six-year-old would think that black shoes could go with his outfit. He yells at Fiona as well and criticizes her for the dress that she selected. After the photographer arrives, he changes his tone, taking credit for the looks that his family is wearing.

He calls his sister Cecilia following the photo shoot to ask what everyone in the family is wearing to the Khoo wedding. Cecilia says she doesn’t know and that she didn’t even buy a new dress. Eddie insists that he wants everyone to look their best and offers to send Cecilia the color scheme that he produced for their family. Cecilia tells Eddie that their younger brother Alistair already left for the wedding and that he’s at Colin’s bachelor party. Being left out upsets Eddie even more than the idea of Alistair bringing his actor girlfriend, Kitty Pong.

At dinner during the bachelorette party, Rachel overhears one of the women, Francesca Shaw, criticizing another woman about her fiancé. Francesca breaks down how his meager net worth will not sustain her lifestyle and tells the girl that she’s not going to be pretty much longer, so she shouldn’t waste it and should instead let them introduce her to a Beijing billionaire. The girl leaves in tears, and Rachel is shocked by the conversation. She then overhears some of the women discussing Alistair’s relationship with Kitty Pong, criticizing Kitty for her plastic surgery. Rachel asks who Alistair and Kitty are, but the girls want to know how she met Nick. She tells them how a colleague at NYU set them up and calls Nick a “total catch” (281). Francesca pays attention to those words.

After dinner, Rachel goes to the bar to get a beer, where she meets Astrid’s cousin Sophie. She’s a Chinese girl with an Australian accent and is nothing like the pampered, stuck-up girls attending the party. Sophie tells Rachel that Astrid sent her to look out for her. The two bond easily, and Rachel shares what it was like growing up in America with a single mom who moved around the country working in Chinese restaurants. After drinking together, the two decide to retire to their rooms. When Rachel gets to her room, she finds a bloody fish in her bag. On the wall above the vanity mirror are the words “CATCH THIS, YOU GOLD-DIGGING CUNT!” written in blood (225).

In Shenzhen, Eleanor meets a man at the Ritz-Carlton to buy the information that she commissioned about Rachel’s background. Lorena comes along to translate for Eleanor. The man asks for 30,000 yuan, or about $4,500. Eleanor refuses and negotiates down to 10,000 yuan. Another man comes with a suitcase containing the information. Eleanor is shocked by what she sees and offers to pay them 30,000 yuan if they can take her immediately to validate the information.