https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...convinced-coldplay-allow-yellow-movie-1135826
The song that plays over the final scenes of Crazy Rich Asians had to hit several important notes: It had to strike the right emotional tone for Rachel's (Constance Wu) departure from Singapore, wistful yet strong; it had to work as an emotional throughline as the film checks in with the other key relationships in the movie — Nick (Henry Golding) and Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), Astrid (Gemma Chan) and Michael (Pierre Png) — and it had to serve as a thematic closing statement for the film, the first studio product in a quarter century to feature an entirely Westernized Asian cast.
To director Jon M. Chu, the only tune that could fit the bill was Coldplay's 2000 breakthrough single "Yellow." Warner Bros. was concerned that the song's title was problematic (the word has been used as an ethnic slur against Asians), but that's exactly why Chu wanted it. "We're going to own that term," he told The Hollywood Reporter in an outtake from THR's cover story. "If we're going to be called yellow, we're going to make it beautiful."
The song that plays over the final scenes of Crazy Rich Asians had to hit several important notes: It had to strike the right emotional tone for Rachel's (Constance Wu) departure from Singapore, wistful yet strong; it had to work as an emotional throughline as the film checks in with the other key relationships in the movie — Nick (Henry Golding) and Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), Astrid (Gemma Chan) and Michael (Pierre Png) — and it had to serve as a thematic closing statement for the film, the first studio product in a quarter century to feature an entirely Westernized Asian cast.
To director Jon M. Chu, the only tune that could fit the bill was Coldplay's 2000 breakthrough single "Yellow." Warner Bros. was concerned that the song's title was problematic (the word has been used as an ethnic slur against Asians), but that's exactly why Chu wanted it. "We're going to own that term," he told The Hollywood Reporter in an outtake from THR's cover story. "If we're going to be called yellow, we're going to make it beautiful."
https://qz.com/quartzy/1356129/craz...ellow-in-chinese-made-it-into-the-soundtrack/
The centerpiece of Chu's remix playlist is a Chinese version of a song by the British band Coldplay, its first real breakout, titled "Yellow" (video). The name itself was enough to cause head-shaking at Warner Bros, when connected with the first US studio film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years. Though the song is not about race, the term "yellow" is fraught with negative associations: It's identified with cowardice, with illness, with fake news. For Asians, it's frequently used as a slur, a reference to the color of Asian skin, used in ominous phrases like "yellow peril." Chu himself says he remembers being called yellow in a "derogatory way throughout high school."
Some at the studio were concerned that the song would evoke these stereotypes, Chu says. "They were like, 'Whoa, we can't do that, what do you think people will say?' And I told them, 'Well, a white director couldn't do it.'"
He convinced the studio. "All credit to them, I said, 'Guys trust me on this one' and they gave in," laughs Chu. But getting Coldplay on board was harder. The band had been taken to task for cultural appropriation following the lurid video for 2012's "Princess of China," which put Rihanna in exotic orientalist drag, and again in 2016's "Hymn for the Weekend," which was shot in India during the festival of Holi, and featured Beyonce in traditional Indian garb. Coldplay rejected the request to use "Yellow" as soon as it was submitted.
The rejection prompted Chu to write the band a direct letter, explaining his love for the song, and "complicated relationship" with its title.
The centerpiece of Chu's remix playlist is a Chinese version of a song by the British band Coldplay, its first real breakout, titled "Yellow" (video). The name itself was enough to cause head-shaking at Warner Bros, when connected with the first US studio film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years. Though the song is not about race, the term "yellow" is fraught with negative associations: It's identified with cowardice, with illness, with fake news. For Asians, it's frequently used as a slur, a reference to the color of Asian skin, used in ominous phrases like "yellow peril." Chu himself says he remembers being called yellow in a "derogatory way throughout high school."
Some at the studio were concerned that the song would evoke these stereotypes, Chu says. "They were like, 'Whoa, we can't do that, what do you think people will say?' And I told them, 'Well, a white director couldn't do it.'"
He convinced the studio. "All credit to them, I said, 'Guys trust me on this one' and they gave in," laughs Chu. But getting Coldplay on board was harder. The band had been taken to task for cultural appropriation following the lurid video for 2012's "Princess of China," which put Rihanna in exotic orientalist drag, and again in 2016's "Hymn for the Weekend," which was shot in India during the festival of Holi, and featured Beyonce in traditional Indian garb. Coldplay rejected the request to use "Yellow" as soon as it was submitted.
The rejection prompted Chu to write the band a direct letter, explaining his love for the song, and "complicated relationship" with its title.
Although Chu can't say for sure that it was his letter that did the trick, within 24 hours of sending it, the band approved the "Yellow" request.
