It’s been two months since the massive blockbuster hit Crazy Rich Asians hit theaters but its fans are far from being over it. Especially not this group of friends who dressed up as the movie’s cast for Halloween — complete with gowns and suits that look exactly like those worn in the film.
Architect Gabo Yap posted a photo of their cosplay on Instagram yesterday.
“BOK BOK B*TCH,” he wrote on his caption, a reference to the now-iconic line by the film’s main character Rachel Chu (Constance Wu).
In less than a day, the group’s Halloween costume has caught the attention of several members of the Crazy Rich Asians cast including Nick Young himself, Henry Golding.
Gemma Chan, who played Astrid Leong; Chris Pang, who played Colin Khoo; and the film’s director Jon M. Chu have also liked the photo.
Filipino-American actor Nico Santos, who played Oliver T’sien — the character Yap dressed up as — even commented his praises. “SO GOOD,” he wrote with heart emojis.
Santos also shared the group’s photos on Twitter with the caption: “Winner Winner Chicken Rice Dinner!”
https://twitter.com/nicosantos/status/1056920924782387200
“It felt really great to have such an iconic and groundbreaking cast appreciate our costumes because it really shows how important representation of minorities is in media,” Yap told Coconuts Manila in an interview today.
He knew he wanted to dress up as Santos’ character Oliver right after he watched the film on opening night.
Yap later found out that his friend wanted to dress up as Rachel for Halloween and so they brought up the idea to their other friends.
“Apparently, everybody else loved the movie too and had their own characters they identified with. Casting of characters flowed very naturally for all of us, and that’s when we knew we had our Halloween costume already.”
Halloween is a big deal for Yap and his friends. Last year, they also went viral when they dressed up as different Taylor Swifts à la the singer’s Look What You Made Me Do music video. Swift herself commented on their photo and said it was “amazing.”
The group also caught people’s attention in 2016 when they dressed up as the characters from the zombie movie Train To Busan.
That’s serious #friendshipgoals.
Yap said they’ve all been friends for almost 10 years and most of them met in college when they were studying architecture at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.
“[W]e tend to choose costumes from movies or pop culture that we all generally enjoy, and it’s important for us that we all identify or share some resemblance to the character,” he said.
This year, that’s Crazy Rich Asians.
“I personally loved the film because I’m a fan of heartwarming romantic comedies and the sheer epicness of superhero movies. This film brought back the rom-com genre in such an epic way, and it was so great to finally see major Asian representation in a Hollywood film,” Yap shared.
So, where did they go wearing such impeccable gowns and suits? Apparently, they just went to a friend’s house. And it was a pretty simple get-together too.
“Unfortunately, our schedules this year didn’t really match up for us to go partying as a complete group like we usually do. So we met up, caught up with each other’s’ lives, shared a lot of laughs, had a simple pizza party, and went back to adulting right after,” he said.
Always better to be overdressed than underdressed, right?
What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve seen this year? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @CoconutsManila.
