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Mahjong is one of those household games
In East and Southeast Asia
Like hanafuda in Japan
Or backgammon in Europe and the Middle East
In other words, if you play it actively
You are either old, or you are young
But people laugh at you for having an old man hobby
(Beep)
Jokes aside
Mahjong is notoriously complicated
"If I 'chii', I get one of those free sets on the side, right?"
"Does it mean that if I have 4 chii's, and one pair of 2"
"Does that make it a tenpai?"
(Visible confusion)
This is why it is such a ballsy move for Crazy Rich Asians
To build its climax around a game of mahjong
Without explaining the game, at all
Sure, you can piece things together by context
"My mom taught me how to play"
But without knowing the rules and cultural implications
I'd say, you are missing half the story
"Only a fool folds a winning hand"
You know, I was never a big fan of Crazy Rich Asians
I was just happy that minority actors got more opportunities
But over the years
I've come to appreciate it more
Its modernized Chinese aesthetics
And its story about generational friction
Are all a bit more ahead of their time than I gave it credit for
So, I think it is time I give this movie the proper respect
Let's talk about mahjong
And explain to you why its usage in Crazy Rich Asians
Is more clever than it seems
[Mahjong & Crazy Rich Asians]
[Chapter One]
First, the cultural context
The history of mahjong is as complicated as the game itself
Indeed, we don't really know where mahjong came from
It is subject to much scholarly debate
In one story, a Qing Dynasty British consul
Wrote about his obsession with mahjong when he was in China
In 1861, he wrote
"It was not merely a game"
"But a fine medium through which to socialize"
Indeed, this is what mahjong really is to most people:
A means to socialize
In these Republic Era paintings
You can see the characters often aren't looking at the game
But at each other
The game is secondary
To the conversation
This is why whenever you see a mahjong scene in a movie
It is almost always a scene about gossips
"You said it."
These days, however
Mahjong is no longer as popular as before
Mass entertainment had become more readily available
Causing mahjong to lose some of its appeals
Additionally, mahjong has always been a gambling game
Which is not morally righteous in Chinese belief
This is why a lot of Chinese youths today
Don't actually know how to play mahjong
And our elders love that
Because it means we'll lose our money to them
Because of this context
A very specific cinematic trope emerged
"I realized, for the first time"
"They wanted me to take my mother's place"
In this trope, mahjong is seen as the domain of older generations
When a young character joins in
They are almost always going out of their ways
To bond with their elders
Sometimes, they'd intentionally lose to their elders
As a way to gain favor
"Let's see if you'll win"
"Oh wow, I actually do!"
But if they win...
"Apologies..."
"I won, again"
It'd be perceived as a daring, if not outright disrespectful way
To establish their dominance over their elders
Keep that in mind
We'll come back to it
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[Chapter Two]
Now, let's dive right into Crazy Rich Asians
And I'll explain the rules as we go
A quick recap:
Rachel is an Asian American game theory professor
Who grew up with a single mother in a poor family
She's been dating Eleanor's son
Who's set to inherit enormous fortune from his billionaire family
Eleanor, however, does not like Rachel
"You will never be enough"
After Rachel's boyfriend proposed to her
Promising to leave his family behind
Rachel calls Eleanor to negotiate over a mahjong table
Thus, commence the climatic game
It gets interesting right from the beginning
To start, Eleanor rolls for initiative
Making her the first dealer
In mahjong, the first dealer's seat is called "The East"
Rachel, sitting across from Eleanor Is thus "The West"
You see what they did there?
"You are a foreigner, an American"
"And all Americans think about is their own happiness"
The game begins with each player taking 13 tiles
Forming their hands
The goal is to create a winning hand
Which consists of 14 tiles, with exactly 1 matching pair
The rest have to be matching triples
And/or three number tiles that are in a sequence
Players take turns drawing new tiles
They can choose to discard the new tile
Or keep it and discard one from their hand
One tile at a time, each player builds towards a winning hand
Since discarded tiles are seen by everyone
You can deduce what tiles each player wants
And that's where the strategy comes in
More on that in a bit
Side note:
Mahjong rules differ greatly from region to region
We are only going over the relevant and most basic rules here
That is, assuming both players are only playing for the quickest win
With no regards for points
Because, let's be honest
Neither of them are actually here to play proper mahjong
Anyway, beyond drawing tiles
There is another way to build toward victory
"Pong!"
Here, Eleanor claims Rachel's discarded tile for her own
Yep, that's a thing!
When an opponent discards a tile
And you can use that tile to make a triple
You can call "pong" and claim that tile for yourself
There are also other ways to claim discarded tiles, too
But no other variations happened in this scene
So that's not important right now
Eleanor taking a tile from Rachel is certainly an assertive move
But take a closer look
Rachel discards a 9 of dots
Which someone else already discarded one in previous rounds
Since no one claimed that one
Rachel knows it is a safe play
Remember, she's a game theory professor
She knows what she's doing
Now, from Eleanor's perspective, things get interesting
There are a few possible explanations
One possible scenario is that
Eleanor skipped over the first 9 of dots to keep her hand concealed
As winning with a fully concealed hand gives more points
After the other 9 of dots was tossed
She either thought he concealed hand was no longer viable
Or more likely, she decided to throw away her own hand
Just to assert her dominance over Rachel
She doesn't need to win
She just want Rachel to lose, at least emotionally
"So, Curtis wasn't playing to win"
"He was playing not to lose"
The game then continues and we have a time skip
Rachel draws an 8 of bamboo
At this point, her hand looks like this
Which means... she won!
Knowing this, she said
"Well, he proposed to me yesterday."
This line might as well be Rachel calling a win
But then, she discards her winning tile
Which allows Eleanor to claim it
And here is where the metaphor gets real juicy
There are two things going on with this one decision:
The first thing is the tile she drew that led to her unclaimed victory:
An 8 of bamboo
Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture
Because it sounds similar to the word "fortunate"
It's the whole reason why the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Started at such a specific time
Through her self-reliance, claiming no one else's discarded tiles
Rachel lucks herself into... a fortune
Her boyfriend
She had won: her boyfriend proposed
"Don't worry, I turned him down"
But she discarded her chance to get rich
And giving it to Eleanor who, of course
Wants the same thing, her son, and Rachel knows that
So, Eleanor claims a discarded tile and wins
A move that the film established to be an option
See? This movie has proper setups and pay offs
It's better than you think
By the way, Eleanor's hand looks completely different now
No idea what happened
Probably just a continuity issue
But what's most important is:
By losing to her intentionally
Rachal demonstrates that
This quote-unquote "American girl"
Understands this obscure mahjong manner in Chinese culture
This game was her way of bonding with her
Having a conversation
Gaining a favor from Eleanor
When she said: "My mom taught me how to play"
It wasn't just a fluff
The line is her way of reclaiming her identity
As a Chinese woman
[Conclusion]
It's detailed choreography like this
That pushes my appreciation for films to a new level
Whenever an Asian game appears in Hollywood movies
Even in good films, I still get angry
Just the way they place the stones in Knives Out
Pisses me off to no end
But everything about this game in Crazy Rich Asians
From the way Michelle Yeoh counts tiles by cutting them in fours
To the way people talk over the table
Is incredibly accurate
This movie gets mahjong
Yes, it's a silly rom-com movie
Yes, it makes the dumb mistake of having 5 concealed North tiles
Which is impossible
But I still have to applaud the film for its attempt
At tying the game to its narrative
Not just in the abstract
But down to individual steps
This whole game is less than 5 minutes long
Yet it is so filled with details that nearly everyone would miss
That is some dedication
So, yeah, I'm going to say it
Crazy Rich Asians
Better than you think
(Thanks for watching)
Oh, we have to do this, too
"Versailles"
(Thanks for watching)