Is it just me, or has there been a particularly egregious amount of adaptations of Asian source material lately that seems to ignore the whole "Asian" thing? This summer had "21", the MIT Blackjack movie, which went from being a true story about Asian college students beating Vegas to the producers hiring a white guy who needed a vocal coach to speak with an American accent as the lead. Now there's that incredibly bad-looking Dragonball movie, which has a white guy as the lead character Goku, who I doubt anyone ever saw as anything but Asian. Technically I suppose he is an alien, and that being a Caucasian in Japan is pretty alien, but still... Then we have Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, which stars Kristen Kreuk (half-Chinese), who's so white (and hot) she managed to step in for a traditionally red haired role in Smallville. You have one undeniably Asian role, and you give it to an actress who's white enough to get mainstream work in the industry. Cowboy Bebop was announced with Keanu Reeves as Spike; aside from the fact that I don't want the "Keanu Experience" ruining a potentially outstanding movie, this should be interesting, considering they're in freaking space, where races should be far more mixed. Finally, while I'm unfamiliar with the source material , "Avatar: The Last Airbender" went for the clean sweep and managed to pull off the equivalent of hiring an all African-American cast for the Lord of the Rings. Apparently, the writing and production is outstanding for a kid's show, and IMHO, this is the worst one of them all, simply because it's aimed primarily at kids; kids who actually have Asian images to be proud of in popular TV. Do you all see this as a problem? Are we in the Era of Hope and Change, where black parents can tell their children they can grow up to be president someday, but Asian parents can't tell their kids they can grow up to be A-List celebrities, or even star in movies loosely based on their own culture? Why isn't this a bigger problem? We would be up in arms if a white actor ever took the part of an African-American (Tropic Thunder excluded); yet we give awards to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Miss Saigon" for the depiction of Asian characters by Caucasians. Hell, the actor for "Avatar" stated that all looking Asian was is "one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan." What do Asians need to do to be heard? Do we need to riot and make death threats? Do we need reverends to speak for us? Do we need China to take over half the Earth, form the Alliance and beat Nathan Fillion and Gina Torres in a galactic civil war? And does anyone care? Specifically for Caucasians, do you relate better to white characters on screen? Are Asians unsuitable as role models for kids? Am I just speaking to a dead room here, and does the film industry have a right to make as much money as they can? What do you all think? Is whitewashing in films a topic that should come up more?
Don't over complicate the matter. Movies are a business. For a matter of marketing, if I am a producer and I want to make the most money possible, I'm casting a character that most people can relate with. And by people, I'm talking about the demographic that spends money on movies: white family middle class america. Studios are casting to draw the biggest profit. It's not a race issue, it's a profitability issue.
You are totally right, though I don't think of Spike as fully Asian, I mean his last name is Spiegel and he's from Mars. I think Keanu has the look, but I see how his wooden acting would concern you.
I don't think it's that big an issue. I'm perfectly fine reading subtitles to Asian movies/source material and fantasizing about foreign starlets who could happen to be asian. If American culture is the only source an Asian American has for Asian role models or fantasy characters, then they're likely already content to their whitewashed bubble. What is messed up is how Hollywood portrayed Asian males and 'exoticized' Asian females. I think there have been gradual steps, but I'm sick of Asian males taking roles as the tech scientist, engineer, triad gangster wannabe who blares techno, random old 1st gen immigrant who serves as a cheap laugh, or old sage martial arts expert and given the impression that the roles are better than nothing. It's pretty rare to for a movie/show to have an Asian male with an African American chick.
It's not about race, it's about profit. Like for example if Jet Li's American films didn't stink so bad then he would probably have more leading roles. Asians have change a lot of American cultural things to suit their taste.
This is a case of marketing executives' stupidity. If anything, it's offensive to whites. Hollywood is basically saying whites are too racist to handle an actual Asian actor playing an Asian role. If that were so, then how the hell did Dragonball get so popular here? And Goku is unmistakably Asian, just like Superman is unmistakably caucasian. I don't care if they are both "aliens". Also - this is different than "21" or Speed Racer. There they just took the story and made it "white". Here they are just taking the main hero and making him white (Tarzan?). Everyone else is still Asian. A lot more obvious here and I think it robs away any remaining shred of credibility this endeavor may have had.
This was especially bad, as the main cast is composed entirely of Asians and Inuits. How the hell can you make eskimos white? I mean seriously, WTF?! I'm a HUGE fan of Avatar and this really pisses me off. The diversity of culture and style is what made it such a good series, and, along with exemplary writing, garnered it a substantial 18-30 year old viewing audience. As far as Keanu as Spike goes, it's not so bad. I never really thought of Spike as Asian, and I'm not so sure he was intended that way. Now if they had Keanu and Mark Wahlberg playing Jin and Mugen from Samaurai Champloo, then you'd have a beef. As for the Street Fighter and Dragonball movies, though their transgressions are almost on par with Avatar, I don't think I would really want my race associated with those stinkbombs...
I care. If it means anything to you I beleive they do. As you referenced If LORD OF THE RINGS had an all black, Hispanic or Asian Cast. . . it would have been NO WHERE NEAR as successful. It would not be said that was the reason . . there would be all other kinds of reason that would dance around the issue . . .but the underlying reason would be there. My son Loves Naruto. Hell I like the show. Not to mention loving 'karate pictures' etc. I think there are some outstanding Role Models and ideals in those movies that are universal. [ROCK LEE - Hard Work!] It should but probably won't as folx said .. . it is about the money If you making a movie. . . you trying to optimize money ./ . profit and if you think must of America is fulled with Racist Slack Jawed Yokels you make you movie to that demographic' As someone else stated. . . i don't beleive that to be true [well not to the extreme extent] but . . . filmmakers evidently do. The Movie Industry is not about 'risk'. Simply put . . . If a film has an All Asian Cast it is consider a film geared toward Asians where some others may sprinkle in but If it has a All White cast. . .it is considered a 'Universal Film' . . that 'everyone' can enjoy and love. Rocket River
It is unfortunate, but that's just the way of the movie business. They want to make as much money as possible, and they need to use more white actors to do that. There are exceptions -- some actors like Denzel Washington or Will Smith have wide spread appeal. For minorities, familiarity becomes more important. Also, they are more likely to get type-cast, so they have to be more aware of that.
So for all the people who believe that this is marketing, is it right for a network to not work with any African-Americans whose skin is darker than a certain shade, because they believe it doesn't come out properly? As for Keanu, I'm willing to wait for the rest of the cast to be announced before making judgment, as in talking with a few friends who are more diehard than I am about Bebop, I've been convinced. But there is inherently a problem in American society when your film role models as an Asian-American male are Harold and Kumar, a bunch of cartoons who apparently are white, and martial artists who don't speak the same language as you do. Why exactly should the entertainment business be allowed to "alleviate risk" by choosing white, or white looking actors again and again, but many other businesses aren't? Why are movie studios allowed to "give people what they expect", but there's a huge fuss every year about the paucity of African-American head coaches in FBS football? Aren't those universities simply protecting their image, and pleasing their predominantly white audiences? Why exactly is it "only business" for Asians, and "a travesty" for African-Americans? Is it because middle-class America feels guilt for slavery, and none for marginalizing Asian-Americans?
I didn't like that 21 choose to cast white actors in what was supposed to be a true story but I'm not going to be up in arms about it. I think we have come a long way from John Wayne portraying Geghis Khan or David Carradine as a Chinese Kung Fu master but obviously there is a way to go. The problem with a lot of Hollywood movies is that a lot of the decisions are marketing decisions and as another poster the marketing geniuses at Hollywood just figure that since most Americans would rather watch a well known white actor with an easily pronoucable name than cast a lesser known Asian with a name that they thing most Americans can't pronounce. I don't believe any of this is deliberate racism to keep Asians down but rather a subtle indirect racism based upon a flawed view of culture. Have hope though as over the past 20 years things have been changing and you are seeing Asian actors getting bigger roles and even getting roles where race has nothing to do with the character. For instance Harry Kim on Voyager his race had nothing to do with his character and unlike Mr. Sulu actually got episodes featuring him and even non-Asian love interests. Daniel Dae Kim who plays Jun on Lost has played several race neutral roles including Agent Baker on a couple of seasons of 24. Boomer on Battlestar Galactica is played by Korean American Grace Park but in the original series the character was a black man. Kal Pen's character on House race doesn't figure in the story much and speaking of Kal Penn Hollywood even made two movies with him and John Cho making fun of Hollywood stereotypes of Asians. So we're not totally there yet but take hope. Then again I'm a self-loathing Asian so what do I know.
I talked to the playwright David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly about this 10 years ago since that is a subject of some of his plays and he felt that things have changed quite a bit. For a long time Asian women have been over sexualixed while Asian males have been desexualized but starting in the 90's things have been changing. Asian males like Chow Yun Fat, Daniel Dae Kim and John Cho have been marketed on sex appeal while at the same time there have been movies and shows showing a romantic relationship between an Asian male and a non-Asian female. Like most everything involving race with Hollywood though change is slow but it is happening. On a bit of a side not did anyone ever see the movie Ring of Fire? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102793/ It was a 'B' level US made Kung Fu movie from 1991 but it had a sex scene between an Asian male and a white female. Also there was a syndicated TV series in the mid 90's called Vanishing Son http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112210/ Its too bad it only lasted a season or two in syndication as it was groundbreaking for being an American show where the story was centered around Asians played by Asians and having the Asian male lead have non-Asian love interests. The only one of those I can think of is Romeo must Die and someone forgot to tell the director that Jet Li and Aliyah were supposed to be in love.
Because this topic is about "whitewashing" and by that the meaning is that there are too many white people in movies, does your comment imply that you think white people are all "Racist Slack Jawed Yokels"? I'm pretty sure that this comment would not be so easily overlooked were it pointed at any other ethnic group.
I least we don't usually see films where someone like Mickey Rooney is playing a Japanese American, ala Breakfast at Tiffany's. Using non-Asians to play Asians seems to be going away.
My main qualm with some of this is I actually would just like to see Asian American characters portrayed in movies just to keep movies from being so derivative. To me, the movie 21 became a lot less interesting and less believable when it became about white, Ivy League, Abercrombie models scamming Vegas than when it was about Asian, Ivy League, "nerds" scamming the casinos.
Nope but I think most Hollywood Marketing folx seem to think so I think there is some institutional Racism involved as well Since people don't think it will work . . .they don't try It is easier to say NO ASIAN LEAD MOVIE EVER MADE 100 MILLION DOLLARS than to say I AM MAKING THE 1ST ASIAN LEAD MOVIE TO MAKE 100 MILLION DOLLARS , I hope Rocket River
