Crazy Rich Asians: Part 1 - Is this a RomCom?

Crazy Rich Asians is a film that debuted in 2018. Based on a 2013 novel of the same name, the film grossed over $238 million on a budget of just 30 million. This made it the highest grossing romantic comedy of the 2010s. However, as you're about to see, there's a lot more that goes into making this movie a success other than the rom com marketing. This is a story that twists and mixes genre conventions in many surprising ways. Ways that writers like you and me.

Can learn a lot from.

This is the StoryGrid podcast. I'm your host Tim Grall of writer and the CEO of StoryGrid. Joining me shortly is Rachel Arsenal, a Story Grid certified editor. We're going to spend the next four weeks looking closely at Crazy Rich Asians and how this masterwork story was constructed. We're going to use the Story Grid methodology created and developed by our founder, Sean Coyne and an editor and writer with over 30 years of experience. If you would like to get a sneak peek into everything we're going to cover, you can go right now to storygrid.com crazy to download a PDF of our completed analysis of Crazy Rich Asians. In this episode, we're going to start by looking at the genre. And what you may be surprised to.

Find out is that this isn't a love story after all.

Okay, let's jump in and get started.

So let's just start with why we pick Crazy Rich Asians to look at. And I'll go first. One is we just wanted to. I wanted to look at a love story. So the, the romance genre is the most popular genre. It has huge amount of sales. And then even outside of the love genre being the main genre, there's, you know, love wraps into so many other other stories. And so I think it's important to look at one of these. And then I wanted to do Crazy Rich Asians because I just enjoy the movie. I think it's a great movie, a great take on the love story. And especially as I got into the analysis, I saw more and more how it mirrors Pride and Prejudice, which we love here at Story Grit. And so I was excited to do it because it's just when I was thinking through, like, what's. What was a great. Just, you know, rom com that's come out in the last 10 years and it's like the first one that popped in my head, so. So that's why we went with it. What about you, Rachel?

Yeah, so that's a great point that it's really, you know, the, the rom com genre is really well loved and that love stories are so like prevalent in. Even if it's not like a pure love story. Right. Romantic subplots. So many stories utilize the romantic subplot and it's really important if you want to do that, to execute that really well. And then on top of that, I thought that, you know, as we were talking about what we were going to do next for a movie, I realized that we couldn't just do all action movies or Guy Ritchie movies. And so it was like, oh, here, let's mix it up with crazy rich Asians, which is a rom com. And I do love a good ROM com. So I think that. And kind of like you said, when I got into the analysis of this story, there was like way more happening than just like classic rom com stuff and even. Well, we'll get to that when we talk about genres. But so I just. It was such a, like a richly layered movie that had so many. Like, it wasn't just about this one couple, but it was about so many different people and the way that they're all relating to these. This same environment. And I think that made it really rich. And I think that it was a really great execution of like exploring thematic elements through that sort of watching everyone deal with a similar type of problem.

Yeah. And then too, as I got into it, is just looking at it was really neat to watch.

This love story play out in this clash of cultures kind of between American culture and the Eastern culture and how there's different things that they find important than we often do here in the United States. And so seeing seeing that as like an undertone to it too just added like another layer of complexity. So yeah, I, I enjoyed it. So, so let's just start there. Let's start with going through the story grid. Five leaf genre, clover. So this is what we use at story grid to look at genre. There's five pieces to it and we'll go through the easy ones first. So let's talk about style. What did you have for style? The style genre?

I had cinematic, since we're watching a movie.

Yep, yep, cinematic. That one's easy.

And then so let's look at structure. So the three options for structure is.

Anti plot, which we don't really do much with here at story grid. And then we have mini plot, which is where we're looking at how an entire network changes. And so this is where you often have lots of individual stories that are all kind of coming together. And then we have arch plot that is mainly following one protagonist. And so I put arch plot for this. Even though there are some subplots and other stories going on, we're definitely just watching the one protagonist navigate. Did you have the same thing?

Yeah, absolutely. Because it's like those other plots are sort of like thematic reflections and sort of like little satellite plots more than we are going through, like multiple individuals and their experiences. So, yeah, I had arc plot for that as well.

All right, so reality, this is where we talk about fantasy, science fiction, realism. So we don't, uh. That's how. That's how we look at those kind of genres. And so what did you have for reality?

I had realism. Just regular old realism.

Yeah, I had the same thing. And I actually was thinking about why movies like this are so interesting. And then I think about like, the whole, like, Housewives franchise on Bravo. Why. Why those are so popular. And I think it's almost because this is obviously a realism. There's. There's no magic, there's no fantasy. It's very realistic, but it's like hyper realistic because you get to peek into this world of riches that most of us never get to experience. And so it's. It was. I was just kind of thinking through that of like, it is realism. But it's so interesting because.

Of the way that it's like, it's these again, part of realism that most of us don't actually get to put our hands on.

All right, so let's talk about time. So we look at time, the time genre, through two lenses. One is, you know, the reader, the watcher, the consumer of it, how it works for them, and then how long it's actually lasting for the Avatars and the characters in. In the movie. So for consumer, I had long form because this is a standard long form movie.

And I'm assuming you agree with that. So what did you have for the Avatars or the characters? Like how. What. What was it like for them?

Yeah, minus the, like the collapse at the beginning where, you know, we enter on the hotel scene and, you know, so then there's like, sort of like this was back in 1993. And then we fast forward. So sort of barring that it takes place over roughly a week, Nick asks Rachel to go with him to Singapore over spring break, which my experience of spring break is traditionally a week, so about a week.

Yeah. It was interesting because I went back, I did my thing like I did for John Wick, where I actually went back and like, kept track of the days and nights and there was this big space where after they break up that she's in bed and for a decent amount of time, days, because it has to be long enough for her to like be so sad that she's not getting out of bed that they then call her mother and like have her mother come and fly over, which is a 19 hour flight. I looked that up too. And.

And so, and the other thing that I thought was interesting now I don't know again, I don't know the culture in Singapore, but I'm assuming the Colin and. Oh, what was her name?

Eremenza.

Yeah. Araminta. Yeah.

Went on a honeymoon, but they were back for the engagement party at the end. So I actually pegged it at closer to two weeks because they decide to go on the trip and then there's like prepping to leave and that's a little fuzzy. Right. So I just threw in one day for that because they kind of do a montage. They fly to Singapore. Day three, they hang out with Araminta and Colin. Day four, they meet up with Peak Lynn Picklin and then they go to the big party at night. That's day five. Day six is the bachelors and bachelorette party. Day seven is the making the dumplings. Day eight is the wedding. And then everything after that, I think takes probably about six days to get everything done. So I put it at two weeks. But again, it's one of those things that like, when you watch it, if you just ask somebody right after they watch it, you kind of have no concept. But like when I went back and looked, it's like, it's almost. I think it's closer to two weeks just because of that big span at the end.

Yeah, that's a great point. You, you thought way harder about it than I did. I was like, oh, but I got the cue. One week, that's good enough for me. And I think what's great is that the execution. I think that the reason that this particular part of the genre Leap Clover is so important is because the audience probably won't be tracking how long it takes necessarily unless you're analyzing it. Probably no one in the audience is like, day one, prep for the trip.

Right.

19 hour trip. Right. But I think as the author of the story, it's really important that you know that because it's helping you like pace and understand the progression of events. So that. Because it's almost like one of those things where Danielle has talked about this before, where like a great technology, you don't think about it, right. You're not thinking about the technology, you're just using it. So the technology. The technology that you use for a story, like, the audience isn't thinking about it while they're engaging the story. So time is just passing, and they're locked into that passage of time, and that's how you know that you executed it well. But in order to do that, you sort of have to have a really clear framework of how long you want your story to take place. So I would. I would say you're probably right, that two weeks is the amount of time that that story takes.

Yeah, yeah. And I remember Sean talking about this with Pride and Prejudice because it takes place over a year, and that was really important because of the different seasons and what happens in that society in the different seasons. And I'm even dealing with this in the book I'm writing now of, like.

When I first was planning it, it was going to take place over a month. And then as Leslie and I kept talking, it's like we kept shrinking it down to, like, up the tension. Right. And so. Because in mine, it's like. And there's a clock. And so I kept moving that clock closer and closer and closer, and. And it keeps upping the amount of tension because he has to get the same amount of stuff done in a third of the time or whatever. So. But for me, now it's like, okay, it's. I have a week, so I have to, like, keep track of the days. I have to know when things are happening. So, like you said, the pacing goes on where most people that read it won't care that it's a week or two weeks or whatever. But, yeah, I think it makes a big difference.

Yeah. And it has a big impact on pacing, like, for the story. Right. So, like, Pride and Prejudice takes place over a year. And so what that means is that when you're executing it, we are not watching Elizabeth every single day. Right. We have these collapses of time so that the story can keep moving. Because if Pride and Prejudice tracked every single day that Elizabeth Bennet lived, and it would be the longest, maybe the most boring book in all of history. And so that's also really important to know so that you can pace it out properly. So you don't want the time spans to be too big, but you also don't want them to be too small, depending on, again, how. How much you expand your story. So it's sort of like an accordion, I think, in that way.

Yeah. Have you. Have you read the book the Princess Bride?

No, I Have to read it for the Guild for next semester. So I'm super excited. But I have not.

It has one of the. It's. I think it's the only narrative device I've ever seen like this. So, you know, William Goldman wrote it, but he. He. It was like this marketing thing where he said it was an. An adaptation or like a summary or something of the. The Princess Bride by this guy named S. Morgenston, which was completely made up. So while you're reading the book, he's like, you know, right here, the author, like, went on for like, 30 pages about how you'd prepare for a wedding. So I just cut that out because that was super boring. So let's just jump back into the story. And. And it was almost like it was crazy because it was like, instead of just skipping over these, like, you know, most authors, like we talk. You just said in Pride and Prejudice, they kind of just collapsed the time down. It was like, you know, for the next three weeks they were doing whatever. And then here we are at the interesting part. And. And the. The narrative device in Princess Bride was. Well, the original version had all this boring stuff, but I'm cutting it out for you to make it more interesting to read. And I was just like. I was cracking up the whole time I was reading it.

That's awesome. I did that. So what's really cool is thinking then about the way that they sort of translated that into the movie and how sort of like, so it's a slightly different narrative device, but then they translate that into the movie, having the grandfather reading the story and sort of still creating that same kind of effect in. Inside of sort of a different context. So that's really cool.

Yeah, it's also probably. And I think it's because William Goldman also wrote the screenplay. It's the closest I've. So I'm like, reading the book because, you know, I've watched the movie, you know, 20 times or whatever, and I'm reading the book and there's like, word by word quotes. It's like the closest match movie to book I've ever experienced. And. And I think it's because he was in charge of both. But, yeah, it's super fun to read, so you'll enjoy it. And it's a great love story, too.

All right, so let's look at the content genre. So this is normally what people are thinking when they're thinking about genre, but we look specifically at the content genre, and we're always looking at the values at stake. Right. So we Map it onto Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And. And we look at both the external and internal genres. So what did you have for the external genre?

I'm really nervous to say what my answer is because it feels almost like it could be sacrilege. But I don't think the external genre is a love story. Okay, I. I had it flagged as society domestic.

Okay.

So I had a love story.

So this is where it's like.

Okay, see, I. I think I'm right on this one, because I. Once I looked at the five Commandments, I felt like all the major moments were turning on whether or not they were going to stay together.

Oh, interesting, right?

And the threat. What was. So what was. Let's just. Let's just jump to the inciting incident. We won't get to this till later. The full five commandments. But I had the inciting incident, as when he says, you know, they're getting coffee or whatever, and he says, you know, let's go to Singapore for a week. And.

You know, that has to be an invisible fear gorilla, right? So that has to be a threat to something.

That they don't realize it's going to be a threat to. And to me, it's the threat to their relationship, because that's what happens is they break up. And so. So I see it as. I actually was having a harder time picking between love courtship, or love marriage, because the relationship already existed at the beginning. But I went back and looked at, like, the difference between courtship and marriage, and I still think it's about. This one's about commitment, not about intimacy. But so. So why did. Why did you pick differently?

Yeah, so when I. When I showed up to crazy rich Asians, like, I was like, rom com, love story, easy. No problem. And then I watched it, and I was like, holy crap, this feels like this might be. So for a couple reasons, like you said, I was like, oh, is it maybe a marriage plot? Because it's. Because the relationship already exists. But the problem was that it seemed like it was more about Rachel and Nick's family. Like, that that was the primary conflict, and it was testing their relationship for sure. Like, and that's. That's the thing is, like, sort of love is happening as, like. Like secondary, because I didn't. It didn't feel to me like there was any question of whether or not they would stay together. So, like, even when, like, right, they do ultimate, like, they. They ultimately break up, but they do break up with. When Rachel rejects his proposal. But that has more to do with his dynamic with his family and her dynamic with his family than actually like him and her. And so I'm thinking about, like, the. The reflections and even. Cause then I was thinking, well, but we have all these different relationships, right? We see that all the time in love stories. It's part of what makes love stories really great is we sort of see different examples of relationships in the other. In the other characters. But then when I realized is that we actually don't have. Except maybe for Colin and Araminta, because they're like newlyweds. Everyone else is like, like family units. So they're these little, like, family microcosms rather than series of lovers. And so you have Eddie and Fiona and their family. So you know what I mean? So it's not just like two lovers. It's like these whole family units. And we're seeing the way that the dynamic of the family units is impacted by the dynamic between the two. Between the two. Like the two lovers in the. Of the family, which would be the mom and the dad. And so, like, what seemed to be happening more than this question and, like. Because I don't think that.

Nick and Rachel were moving along the spectrum of love and hate, like their. Their relationship was being tested by the environment. But the. The real value that's changing is. Is in her again, the. The power structures and the relationship to the family more than. It's really changing between Nick and Rachel because they're kind of. They navigate the. The challenges pretty easily. Like, at the end, I think it's like. I think I identified it as like, the end of quadrant two or something, right? She. She goes to this bachelorette party. It's absolutely horrible. And she and Nick are sitting down and talking, and, like, she's. She's mad. She's like, oh. I'm like, the thing that I'm most mad about is the fact that you didn't tell me. But there's. I don't think that there's an expectation that they might break up over this because they're sort of. They're navigating this entire situation together, and they're assuming that they have to work through it together. And so. And so what's happening? That's society. Domestic.

And what's the domestic take on society? I don't have that up.

So the domestic take on society is about, like, power dynamics inside of families.

Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I still have. I still think. Because what I think is there's always. Well, first of all, I see. I see every Couple as a reflection of different types of relationships that are being tested. Right. So you have the. The main, secondary subplot, which is Astrid and her husband, and they end up splitting. But then you have the one cousin that's married that's dating the actress, and it's just like all passion. And then you have the other cousin that's in this marriage that feels much more like a business arrangement than. Than any kind of actual love there. And then you have, you know, Eleanor, who you never actually see.

You never see Nick's dad, but it's. It's this thing of, like, this is. This is an arrangement. And so. And then you to me. And again, that's what's reflecting. That's what's causing so much tension between them. Is, is love going to, like, are they going to be able to navigate this and still find their ways back to each other? So, yeah, I think you're right that it's not love and hate, but I do think it's the question of is love going to prevail?

Because is their love going to be enough to hold them together when they're in this, like, this thing that's trying to rip them apart?

So, I don't know. I'm. I'm. I feel like I'm sticking with love and courtship.

Yeah, I just, I want to comment on that for a second because I think that the.

The answer to that question is sort of no, it's not the love that's going to hold them together, because it's the way that Rachel engages Eleanor that ultimately wins Eleanor's respect and enables them to be together. So it's not actually love, like, love wins the day because she sacrificed, she sacrifices for Nick, but this comes down to her, like, win, like, to her winning Eleanor's respect, like, so. And so I think that the.

I'm not sure that the question is, is, like, actually love centric?

Well, how does this society change at the end? I think this society is exactly the same.

I think the power dynamic has shifted because she won. She won. I mean, you know, she won over Eleanor. She bested her basically, in proving because she basically, when she rejects Nick's proposal, she rejects both the opportunity to be a part of his family as well as the possibility that he would leave his family, like, for her. And, and so in doing so, she basically shifts the power in her favor because what happens in that climactic moment is she says, I know that I'm enough. However, like, what you. So what I want you to know one day when you're playing with your grandkids and you have the perfect family that you always wanted. It's because of me. It's because of what I did that you are in this. Like, that you have your family the way you want it to be. And, and she, and she uses that like they do the mahjong game where she sort of uses like her game theory self. Like, that's kind of the person that she brings to the. Brings to the sort of climactic battle. And that's how she changes the dynamic. That's how she. How power changes hands in the story and in the, like, in the environment.

Let's see now I'm. I'm getting frustrated because I think you're right.

So you don't think the major question in the story is whether or not they stay together?

No, I. Because again, like, they're not like they're. They're navigating these difficulties, but they are navigating them together. Like, it's. Again, it's the family that's the problem. And. And so I'm like, again, this is like my personal experience. So. And I also want to say I do think that like, the love story is a subplot, like, which is why we have so many elements of the love story active. And I think that it gives it like, it gives it that rom com feel. It's what makes it like, it makes it still feel romantic. So that's like. So that's still very much an active part of the story. But I don't see that they are ever on the brink of breaking up except when, like, at that last moment where she again gives up, like when she refuses his proposal, but so that he's not alienated from his family. But like, outside of that moment, I wasn't really wondering if they were going to stay together because they just constantly came back together and like, navigated the problems pretty. For as bad as it was pretty.

Well, yeah. Yeah. That's interesting because. Which then makes sense because my. Because I struggled because once I was looking at the. Especially the obligatory scenes, obligatory moments. There was no lovers meet scene. There was no first kiss or intimate connection scene.

There was. It was like, there is a confession of love. But. But I was like, I don't know. Like, yeah, damn it.

That was the thing that hung me up too. Like, again, I came up and I was like, love story. All right, let's go. And I looked at the bill of the obligatory moments and I was like, wait a minute. We're missing half of what, like we're missing half of the courtship. We're missing the.

Yeah.

Yeah. So when I look at, When I compare, as you say that I. When I compare it to like Pride and Prejudice, there's never. They like hate each other at the beginning.

And then I start thinking through like other one other movies and stuff. The whole thing is like they're to. They're forced together and they don't want to be together.

And this, this doesn't have that at all. That's so interesting. So why do you think, like, if you asked 50 people what genre that movie is, they would say like romance or love story or ROM com? Like what. Why, why doesn't society. I guess society isn't like a normal marketing genre anyway, but I mean, they also promoted it as a love. It's so interesting now as you're saying that.

Yeah, I honestly, this movie for me was like, this is, this is gonna sound like a giant advertiser. I guess it is a giant advertisement for story grid because I'm a story grid editor. But I was like, oh, this is why, like the, the idea of the content genres is so great because you have a story like, like marketing genres tell you sort of shockingly little about the general or can tell you shockingly little about the content inside of a story. So yeah, it's like, because it's a ROM com, it's like marketed like a love story, but then to actually create the plot itself, like those content genres I think are what made it. Are also part of what made it so, so innovative and it gave specificity to, to the story. So like, that marketing genre of ROM com generally does imply a love story, but because marketing genres are kind of like, kind of squishy, they're kind. They can be kind of vague. It creates a lot. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, it can create a lot of room for innovation, which I think is what crazy rich Asians did. Or it can also make it super hard because you don't like, the breadth of experience inside of the general category of ROM com can be so, so varied.

Yeah, I mean, I, when I have discussions with people and I'm trying to show them the difference in story grid, I'm like, okay.

I'm going to tell you just like the story is science fiction or do you know anything about the story now? Like the actual story of what's happening to the people? And they're like, oh, no. I'm like, right. So it's, you know. Or I was like. Or if I say young adult it's like, the only thing, you know, if I say it's young adult is, is that there's not a lot of cursing, there's not a lot of violence, and there's not a lot of sex. Is basically, it's basic. Young adult is like PG13, right? Yep. To a movie. And so, yeah, in this case, yeah, that's as you're saying, as you're talking. It's like, same thing that happened last time, which is I'm just getting completely swung over to your side of the fence now, which just like, fucks up everything else that I've done in my entire document.

All right, so. All right, so let's move on from there. We're saying it's society domestic. And I'm just gonna put a line through my love slash courtship. And all the work I did on the conventions and obligatory moments.

Well, it's not, you know, let's. This is. I'm. I should be used to this by now.

All right.

All right. So what did you have for the internal. The internal content genre?

So generally I had status. And then. And I was kind of toward. Honestly on the sub genre, whether it was like status sentimental or status admiration, because there is definitely, like a rise in status at the end.

Well, who's our protagonist?

Oh, sorry, I have the protagonist as being Rachel.

Yeah, me too. So. So you had it. You had status as the internal genre.

What did you have?

You know, not that I had worldview maturation.

Okay.

And the reason I picked that was because I feel like. So worldview maturation moves from either naivete or naivete master sophistication to.

Maturate or with what. What do we call it?

Got like a series of words. It's like sophistication, maturity, worldliness, even, I think something like that.

Yeah. Wisdom. We have that in here, too. So. So what I see it as is at the beginning, she kind of see, she seems very, like, good with her. Like, she's proud of herself. She's one of the youngest professors at nyu and she's very, like, happy. And. And. And she just kind of has this attitude of like, I'm going to roll in there and everything's going to be fine. Right. Because Nick loves me and that's all that matters. And.

And I feel like she has. She has no idea. Even as she becomes aware of the world she's walking into, she doesn't understand. She still stays super naive to what she's dealing with. And it's this level of, like. It exposes this. This thing in her, that. That she, again, I feel like she thought she was this sophisticated woman that knows how to navigate things, and then thrown in this, she realizes, like, she's naive to it. And so when I looked at what she. The change she had to do internally is she had to recognize the world that she was in and then, like, bring herself up to the wisdom of, like, I have to. I have to respect both of these worlds and figure out how to bring them together. So that's. That's why I had worldview maturation.

Yeah, I definitely think so. The way that I was looking at it, I do think I. I think you're absolutely flagging, like, her blind spot. Right? And we get that really clearly. She's, like, talking to her mom, and she was like, what's not to like? Like, we have so much in common. They're Chinese. I'm Chinese. Right. And her mom has to be like, it's not. It's not the same. Which you're like, wow, it'll be fine. Right? And there is. And there's also like, a giant blind spot of Nick's. Like, Nick's wealth. Right. And it's not so much a blind spot, Right, because it's. It almost doesn't count because she just doesn't know. He didn't tell her.

Right.

And so. So I think that that's true. I think the way that I was thinking about it was her sort of maintaining her integrity inside of the context. So she kind of keeps showing up and she keeps using, like, she is sort of her same self, minus her not knowing. Like, and again, I think that. That the blind spot comes less from a worldview and more from a not knowing, which, again, does get at naivete for sure. But when she shows up, like, this is like her. Her ongoing practice of integrity in the context, right? So when the. When the girls leave the gutted fish in her bed and Astrid is like, we'll call security. And she was like, no, no, I'm not going to make a scene. I'm not going to give them the satisfaction, Right? Like, she is just, like, sticking to her. Like, it seems like she has.

She seems to have a really solid sense of self. And I feel like what's being challenged is, like.

How, like, if that sense of self is strong enough to bear up under the weight of his family. And so she continues to, like, choose in being her, like, sort of powerful self, like that again, that, like, sort of internal power that she brings to the table until, like, and then it kind of breaks down at the all is lost moment. Because then his family started to fight dirty, right? They kind of broke the rules of engagement and somehow we're back in John Wick all over again. And it's rules of. I also. I almost didn't want to say that it was status because I was like, rachel, you can't say that every movie is status. But I think that this, this underlying element of respect. And then you also even just status as a. As a powerful theme happening within the story of the way that people perceive wealth and value. And Rachel. I think Rachel's sense of value is tested as she goes through the story because people are constantly trying to make her feel less than. But I also don't see her, like, bearing, like breaking under that weight because she keeps. She keeps pushing back, keeps pushing back until that one all is lost moment. And then it's that. That reclamation of her value, right? She's like, I know I'm enough. And that's what drives her to say, I'm done. But also like, eleanor, I want you to know that I. I am done. And that whatever happens in your future is because of me. And so she sort of. I think she. She knows that she's enough. But then that gets challenged throughout the story and. And then by the end, she, like, she sort of fully integrates that. She fully brings that to the table, and that's sort of what pushes again. It's. That's part of what shifts that power dynamic there in the external genre. This is my working theory.

I got to figure out a better way for me to figure this stuff out, because I get this shit wrong so much.

What is your normal methodology?

I don't have. I mean, that's probably the problem is I like. I don't know. It looks like a love story weighing.

The shit out here.

Yeah, that. I just grabbed that square block and start cramming it in. This is a square. It's a square whether it wants to be or not. Well, what, what's your method for. For identifying it?

So I like, I'll do like, just like a casual wash again. That's why I was like. When I was done, I was like, this is a rom com. It has to be a love story. But then I always go back to my cheat sheets and I'm constantly weighing the story and against the. The parameters set by the genre. So, for example, I was like, okay, I'm not seeing a lot of love and hate happening here. And then I looked at the obligatory moments, and I was like, most of these aren't here. So then I start going through the cheat sheets. I'm like, well like what are some other options? Like what am I seeing? And then, and then I look for like what, what piece like, or what genres the story actually has. The elements, you know, that fit. And that's even where like when I was doing the.

The global genre and I was trying to determine it, which I'm not super confident about, but I still wound up thinking that the global genre is status rather than society. Even though this is a really externally driven movie. Because all of the status obligatory moments are clearly represented in the story. But then we don't see those same representations of society obligatory moments happening in the movie. And then I also look at the values of like what kinds of dynamics are at work and am I seeing this value shifting? So a value of personal worth and self esteem and power versus or like we have sort of like, like well being or power. And then you're looking at those, those core needs. So I'm constantly just measuring the story up against to see if it's like which, for which genre is it fitting all of the elements accurately. And that's also how I drive myself crazy and spend two hours just trying to figure out the genre and then leaping out of bed and being like, this is the genre and my scaring my poor husband to death. That's how that ends up happening.

So you have status as the global genre.

Yeah, I'm not like super convinced of that. But again, it was like the society obligatory moments I didn't see happening in the same way as the status obligatory moments. And so it made it really hard for me to say that this was definitely a society global.

Yeah. So you see it as like the whole movie is about.

Status of Rachel being. Being questioned.

Yeah, she's really put to the test because they're trying to evaluate. They've actually already made a determination about her worth and now she. It's almost like she has to decide whether she's going to accept that evaluation of her worth or if she is going to sort of hold fast to her recognition that she is. That she is enough as she is. Like regardless of where she comes from and regardless of what that external status is.

Yeah. Because.

At the.

At the, at the. When her. And what is Pick Picklin. Picklin. Yeah, when Picklin. Her and Picklin are like having coffee or something. You know, the whole like bach bok bitches part, like that is what she's questioning is like, am I just going to kind of bow out and accept how they See me or am I going to show up? I just can't get over how wrong I was.

Okay, so we're saying that the external is society, domestic, internal is status. And you're going between admiration and which one?

Sentimental. They're similar because, like, ultimately the protagonist makes the right decision.

Admiration is more like principled protagonist is tested versus, like. And I guess in that way, I think maybe it might be more admiration than sentimental because, like, the sentimental is more like a sort of. Starts with, like, a weaker protagonist that rises and as I was talking about, like, oh, like, they're constantly questioning her value, like, putting her value into question. And she is sort of constantly having to decide whether she's going to agree with that assessment. I kind of feel like that might push us toward admiration more than sentimental because it's. Because, again, if she doesn't start questioning her, like, if she doesn't start the story feeling like she's not. Like, if she had started the story and she felt like she was not worthy and then came to understand that she was worthy, I think that might be more of, like, a sentimental.

Like, trajectory versus, like, you're worth being tested at different points, but you are sort of having to hold fast to that idea.

Okay, so now that we've established the genre, the content genres, let's take a look at our protagonist, objects of desire. When we look at objects of desire, we look at it through two lenses. We look at it as, what does our protagonist want? Like, what do they consciously want? And then what does our protagonist need? And we look at those as two different things, because what we want and what we need is often very different. And so what did you have as the want?

So thinking about the core. The core need of the society story, the, like, the thing that we flag at storygroup is, like, recognition. And that's kind of the specific word that we use, which I think fits pretty nicely for what Rachel is trying to do. So she wants to be recognized by Nick's family or by Nick, you know, sort of mostly by Nick's family, mostly. Eleanor and I sort of just had, like, in parentheses, like, approval. Right. And I think that approval kind of falls under that category of recognition. I think that that's what she's sort of constant consciously pursuing is sort of that approval or recognition by his family. What about you? What does she have for the one.

Well, see, that's what I'm kind of laughing at myself is I had the exact same thing. Basically. I had her want as Rachel wants to be accepted by Nick's Friends and family. Because I'm. I'm especially picturing that like. Like, what is she thinking about on that plane right over. Right. So she's probably thinking about Nick's mom, but she's also just thinking about this whole world she's stepping into. She wants them all to accept her.

So I'm just laughing that, like, that's, you know, that's ex. That doesn't match the genre that I pick. And then I had.

You knew all along.

I did. I knew all along. Yeah. I was actually just testing you and. And you passed. And I'm really happy for you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your generosity, Tim.

So I had the need as Rachel needs to understand who she is, should be good enough for everyone in her life.

Yeah, that's. Actually, I had something really similar, is that she needs to stay true to her. To her sense of value. Right. So she has. She kind of comes, like, preloaded with this sense of value, and then that gets tested through the story. And so that need is to hang on to that, that personal sense of value, even though everyone, most of the people around her are throwing things at her, trying to devalue that sense of value that she already has.

Yeah. And I do, like, this is where.

You know, it's funny, because what I saw as. I think it's both, right? So, because I was looking at the worldview maturation and her being naive, and I was like, you know, through all these things, she never tried to fit in. She never, like, changed herself to fit in. On the. On one hand, I thought. Well, I think she had this naive thought, thought that if I just keep being myself, they'll accept me. And it's not until that moment where the fish is in the bed.

That she realizes, like, okay, this is not working.

But I do. So I do think she has that sense of self. And she keeps thinking, it'll be enough. It'll be enough. Because she's not one that stepped in and immediately started pretending like she belonged.

So. Yeah, well, so we agreed on the objects of desire, so that's good.

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