Game Theory in Crazy Rich Asians (Spoilers Ahead)
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/17/17723242/crazy-rich-asians-movie-mahjong
Crazy Rich Asians is undoubtedly one of the year’s most successful movies to reach the box offices, as it focuses on the importance of familial relationships and sacrifice. It highlights many aspects of Asian culture, and it ends with perhaps the movie’s most powerful and pivotal scene: when Rachel, the main character, plays a game of Mahjong (Chinese tile game) with Eleanor, her boyfriend’s mother who has openly rejected Rachel. After declining Nick’s, her boyfriend’s, proposal, Rachel decides to play Mahjong with Eleanor as a final goodbye.
Rachel is a game theory professor and believes that in any game, “the key is playing to win, instead of trying not to lose.” The outcome of this Mahjong game is either that Rachel wins and Eleanor loses or that Rachel loses and Eleanor wins, but it’s not a simple game of luck. It takes strategy and skill to acquire a winning hand. Rachel figures out what tile Eleanor needs to win by observing how the game had been playing out and realizes that it’s her winning tile as well: the tile that she just drew. Instead of claiming her victory, she places the tile down for Eleanor to take and win.
Ultimately, this scene is symbolic of Rachel giving up Nick to Eleanor. Her relationship with Nick is also a game because Eleanor has already declared that there is only a lose-lose situation for Nick: either Nick loses his family in marrying Rachel or Nick loses Rachel and resents his mother forever. Rachel recognizes that the there really is no best response to this game, since in both cases, Nick will lose his family, so she takes matter into her own hands by choosing for him in efforts to save Nick’s family. Nick would have suffered an extreme emotional loss no matter his decision, so Rachel had to intervene to reach a more desirable outcome. This depicts the impact that game theory has on societal interactions, human behavior, and decision-making.