Little red dot makes big impact in Crazy Rich Asians
Here are the top 5 most notable appearances of Singapore in movie Crazy Rich Asians
With scenes showing baskets of durians, Housing Board flats and Changi Airport, the highly anticipated Hollywood romcom Crazy Rich Asians looks set to be a glorified, glossy exercise in Singapore-spotting.
The one thing missing to make this cinematic tourism ad complete?
American protagonist Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) and her Singaporean boyfriend Nicholas Young (Henry Golding) flying in a $24,000 Singapore Airlines first-class suite.
Instead, the two scenes set inside an aircraft feature the fictional Pacific Asean Airlines.
The film adaptation of Singapore-born author Kevin Kwan's best-selling 2013 novel Crazy Rich Asians follows Rachel as she visits Singapore with Nicholas to attend his best friend Colin Khoo's wedding.
She does not know her partner is the wealthiest bachelor in town, and being accepted by his scrutinising mother (Michelle Yeoh) is not easy.
Opening here on Aug 22, the movie is packed with scenes filmed in our little red dot.
Here are the five most notable ones we caught at yesterday's media screening:
MARINA BAY SKYLINE
Instead of getting blown up like in 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence, it has a chance to shine in Crazy Rich Asians.
From a climactic shindig held at the Sands SkyPark to taking a night drive through the Marina Bay area, Rachel is wowed by the island's breathtaking night view of Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Flyer and ArtScience Museum.
NEWTON FOOD CENTRE
In the book, the couple head for Lau Pa Sat as the best place to feast on hawker fare after touching down, but the movie showcases Newton Food Centre instead. Funnily enough, the latter was referred to as "only for expats and tourists" in the book.
CHIJMES HALL
What is Crazy Rich Asians without Colin Khoo and Araminta Lee's show-stopping "wedding of the year"?
Serving as the fictional First Methodist Church, the interior of Chijmes Hall is decorated with lush greenery but lacks the thousands of aspen trees suspended from the ceiling "meticulously arranged to create a vaulted forest floating just above everyone's heads", as described in the novel.
GARDENS BY THE BAY
The party proceeds to a dinner shindig at Gardens by the Bay's Supertree Grove, complete with a live band, with the supertrees lit up spectacularly.
MERLION PARK
No set-in-Singapore film is complete without a Merlion sighting or two, especially when it provides the backdrop for one of the most romantic scenes involving Rachel and Nicholas.
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