The Bukit Batok connection to Crazy Rich Asians

SINGAPORE — Billed as the first Hollywood film to feature an all-Asian cast since the Joy Luck Club and lauded for its accurate representation of Asian characters, Crazy Rich Asians showcases Singapore in more ways than one.

Shot in several key locations on the island and featuring household names like Tan Kheng Hua, Pierre Png and Fiona Xie, the screen adaption of its namesake novel by Singaporean novelist Kevin Kwan also gave an aspiring 30-year-old Singaporean filmmaker her first big break into the movie capital of America.

It was sheer serendipity that Ms Janice Chua joined American production company Ivanhoe Pictures in 2015 just after it had acquired the rights to Mr Kwan's story.

"The material needs an executive that is well versed in both (Asian and Western) cultures," said the Ngee Ann Polytechnic graduate, who snagged herself the role of associate producer in the movie.

"I never thought that my identity as a Singaporean would one day pay off," she told TODAY in an interview at her Bukit Batok family home.

Concerned with giving the movie an authentic flavour, director Jon Chu and the producers not only relied on Ms Chua to scout for filming locations on the island to "showcase Singapore", but they also counted on her input during the script development phase.

"I even got some Hokkien lines into the dialogues!" said the self-professed heartland girl.

Never in her wildest dream did the alumnus of Da Zhong Primary School and Choa Chu Kang Secondary School imagine she would one day make it to Tinseltown.

The eldest of three children of a taxi driver and waitress, Ms Chua came from a Chinese-speaking family and had a poor grasp of English until she discovered a love for English literature in secondary school after reading Chinese-American author Adeline Yen-Mah's autobiography Falling Leaves.

Determined to improve herself, the teenager pored over English books and even pushed herself to participate in a public speaking competition to brush up her spoken English. This desire to push herself beyond her comfort zone became a recurring theme that propelled her to where she is today.

Her love affair with the silver screen, however, was kindled in secondary school as well after she caught a screening of Ang Lee's critically acclaimed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

"It's amazing how watching a movie can change your life in just under two hours," she said. "Pop culture is all about instant gratification … I felt that if you could channel positive messages through it … then that would be a very powerful tool and I wanted to be part of that."

It sealed her decision to enroll in Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Film, Sound and Video diploma course in 2004, where she learnt the technical skills of the trade, and became a freelance video editor in her early 20s.

In 2010, bowing to societal pressure to obtain a degree, she enrolled in Chapman University Singapore, a private university that partnered Ngee Ann Polytechnic to offer a two-year degree programme in creative producing.

There, she got her first taste of Hollywood when she secured an internship with Santa Monica-based independent entertainment company Myriad Pictures.

Post-graduation, despite being a competent video editor, she was unable to secure a job with any film distribution companies in Singapore that allowed her to put what she had learnt in university to use.

Partly driven by desperation, coupled with her willingness to take a leap of faith, she uprooted herself and went to Beijing in 2012, where she found a job as a sales assistant for a production company, representing Chinese films to be sold to a Western audience.

"It was always on my mind (to try working overseas). I figured it was better to take a shot and fail at 24 than later," she said.

Still, it was not an easy decision. She constantly questioned herself if it was the right choice. But her parents were both supportive and gave their blessings.

In Beijing, her pay was barely enough to cover her student loans back home, as well as rent and personal expenses.

"I was so stressed out," she said, relating an incident where she tore her ligament but could not afford to visit a hospital to get it treated. She hid her injury from her parents as she was afraid they would ask her to return home.

Fortunately, a friend from Singapore happened to visit and offered to pay for the treatment. It was friends such as these who kept her going on the days when she doubted herself, she said.

Her break finally came when she found a mentor in Hong Kong producer Terence Chang, whom she was working with on Hong Kong director John Woo's The Crossing.

After teaching her the ropes of being a producer, Mr Chang reminded her not to get too comfortable in China, and pushed her to spread her wings to the US to "experience what filmmaking is".

It was with the help of mentors like Mr Chang and her own willingness to push the envelope that Ms Chua said she is allowed to grow to who she is now.

It came full circle when she met Ivanhoe Pictures' president John Penotti when she was the director of international department at Chinese film and television production company Beijing Galloping Horse.

She subsequently joined Mr Penotti's company in 2015 to build a slate of local language projects for China.

Once in Hollywood, new challenges came in the form of boardrooms that were dominated by male Caucasians who would ignore her as the fresh-faced petite Asian female. They sat up and took notice of her only when Mr Penotti shared her credentials.

"I had to pay my dues and show that I was equally capable," said Ms Chua who struggled to find a sweet-spot between the Asian aversion to speaking too much of oneself and Western self-confidence.

"Market yourself too much and you might be seen as arrogant. Keep quiet and they might mistake you as someone with no opinion."

While Hollywood made her keenly aware of her identity as an ethnic minority, she said her experience of working with Crazy Rich Asians has been surreal and gratifying.

"We had all these Asians … (from around the world) coming together in one room to work on the movie. We're all different, but we shared a common family upbringing, such as parents not wanting us to be actors or screenwriters. We shared a common journey (of wanting the project to succeed). To arrive at a place to bring this film to a global audience is just inspiring."

Ms Chua said she and the others who were involved in the movie hope it will break the typical Hollywood movie tropes of Asians as "geeky engineers" or "mystic fortune tellers". More importantly, they hope Crazy Rich Asians will be the turning point for more diverse stories to be told.

Even though Ms Chua has since left Ivanhoe Pictures to pursue a career as an independent producer in Los Angeles, she told TODAY her goal is to one day bring back to Singapore all the knowledge she has accumulated and tell more stories from a local perspective.

"We have such amazing talents in Singapore … the next challenge is to create commercial films in Singapore for an international audience," said the bubbly 30-year-old, who counts Mr Boo Junfeng as one of her favourite local directors.

Mr Boo's 2016 movie The Apprentice received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and he recently directed this year's National Day Parade.

For now, Ms Chua who is back in Singapore for a two-week-long vacation is just relishing being with her family again. She intends to take her parents to the Singapore premiere of Crazy Rich Asians on Tuesday (Aug 21) at Capitol Outdoor Piazza.

The red carpet event will be graced by lead actor Henry Golding, director Jon Chu, her ex-boss Mr Penotti and Singapore actors Pierre Png, Tan Kheng Hua, Koh Chieng Mun, Fiona Xie, Selena Tan, Janice Koh, Amy Cheng and Constance Lau and others.

Crazy Rich Asians opens to the public on Wednesday.

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