Coldplay wasn't going to let Crazy Rich Asians director use Yellow — until they read this heartfelt letter
‘It made me rethink my own self image,’ Jon M Chu wrote of the song that became a personal anthem
When writer/director Jon M. Chu was trying to think of the perfect song to end his film Crazy Rich Asians, he only had one real option in his mind: Coldplay's Yellow.
Without spoiling anything, a Mandarin version of the Coldplay ballad, performed by 19-year-old Katherine Ho, plays over the final scenes, and manages to hit the perfect emotional balance, but it almost didn't happen.
Coldplay, it seems, wasn't interested in licensing the song — that is, until Chu wrote them a personal letter, explaining his long, complicated relationship with the colour yellow, and how the group's song changed everything.
"From being called [yellow] in a derogatory way throughout grade school, to watching movies where they called cowardly people yellow, it's always had a negative connotation in my life," he wrote. "That is, until I heard your song."
He writes that it was the first time he had heard yellow described in a "beautiful" and "magical" way. "It was an incredible image of attraction and aspiration that it made me rethink my own self image," he wrote, adding that the song became an anthem for him and his other friends of Asian descent, who felt a sense of pride around it.
Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, Chu added that he wanted to remove the negative connotations from the word, which is why he needed this song in the film.
"We're going to own that term," he told THR. "If we're going to be called yellow, we're going to make it beautiful."
You can read the full letter below, and be sure to check out our feature interview with Chu on q!
