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Thread: yellow face/white washing.

  1. #31
    I never felt that Kusanagi's cyborg body had a defined ethnicity. Many drawings show her with blue eyes. Maybe the author himself is to blame. Or the artist.
    She reminds me of those Korean girls with plastic surgery for a western appearance. It fits the movie's central theme.

  2. #32
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    More grist

    The complaint grows: first Ghost, then Dr. Strange, and now Power Rangers.

    OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
    Why Won’t Hollywood Cast Asian Actors?


    DADU SHIN
    By KEITH CHOW
    APRIL 22, 2016
    HERE’S an understatement: It isn’t easy being an Asian-American actor in Hollywood. Despite some progress made on the small screen — thanks, “Fresh Off the Boat”! — a majority of roles that are offered to Asian-Americans are limited to stereotypes that wouldn’t look out of place in an ’80s John Hughes comedy.

    This problem is even worse when roles that originated as Asian characters end up going to white actors. Unfortunately, these casting decisions are not a relic of Hollywood’s past, like Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of I. Y. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but continue right up to the present.

    Last week Disney and Marvel Studios released the trailer for “Doctor Strange,” an adaptation of the Marvel comic. After exhausting every “white man finds enlightenment in the Orient” trope in less than two minutes, the trailer presents Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, a Tibetan male mystic in the comics. Though her casting was no secret, there was something unsettling about the sight of Ms. Swinton’s clean-shaven head and “mystical” Asian garments. It recalled jarring memories of David Carradine from “Kung Fu,” the 1970s television series that, coincidentally, was itself a whitewashed version of a Bruce Lee concept.

    A few days later, DreamWorks and Paramount provided a glimpse of Scarlett Johansson as the cyborg Motoko Kusanagi in their adaptation of the Japanese anime classic “Ghost in the Shell.” The image coincided with reports that producers considered using digital tools to make Ms. Johansson look more Asian — basically, yellowface for the digital age.

    This one-two punch of white actors playing Asian characters showed how invisible Asian-Americans continue to be in Hollywood. (Not to be left out of the whitewashing news, Lionsgate also revealed the first images of Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa, another originally Asian character, in its gritty “Power Rangers” reboot.)


    Slide Show | Whitewashing, a Long History White actors playing Asian characters demonstrate how invisible Asian-Americans continue to be in Hollywood.

    Why is the erasure of Asians still an acceptable practice in Hollywood? It’s not that people don’t notice: Just last year, Emma Stone played a Chinese-Hawaiian character named Allison Ng in Cameron Crowe’s critically derided “Aloha.” While that film incited similar outrage (and tepid box office interest), no national conversation about racist casting policies took place.

    Obviously, Asian-Americans are not the only victims of Hollywood’s continuing penchant for whitewashing. Films like “Pan” and “The Lone Ranger” featured white actors playing Native Americans, while “Gods of Egypt” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings” continue the long tradition of Caucasians playing Egyptians.

    In all these cases, the filmmakers fall back on the same tired arguments. Often, they insist that movies with minorities in lead roles are gambles. When doing press for “Exodus,” the director Ridley Scott said: “I can’t mount a film of this budget" and announce that “my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such.”

    When the screenwriter Max Landis took to YouTube to explain the “Ghost in the Shell” casting, he used a similar argument. “There are no A-list female Asian celebrities right now on an international level,” he said, admonishing viewers for “not understanding how the industry works.”

    Mr. Landis’s argument closely tracks a statement by the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. In a leaked email exchange with studio heads, he complained about the difficulty of adapting “Flash Boys,” Michael Lewis’s book about the Wall Street executive Bradley Katsuyama, because “there aren’t any Asian movie stars.”

    Hollywood seems untroubled by these arguments. It’s not about race, they say; the only color they see is green: The reason Asian-American actors are not cast to front these films is because not any of them have a box office track record.

    But they’re wrong. If minorities are box office risks, what accounts for the success of the “Fast and Furious” franchise, which presented a broadly diverse team, behind and in front of the camera? Over seven movies it has grossed nearly $4 billion worldwide. In fact, a recent study by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that films with diverse leads not only resulted in higher box office numbers but also higher returns of investment for studios and producers.

    And Hollywood’s argument is circular: If Asian-Americans — and other minority actors more broadly — are not even allowed to be in a movie, how can they build the necessary box office clout in the first place? To make matters worse, instead of trying to use their lofty positions in the industry to push for change, Hollywood players like Mr. Landis and Mr. Sorkin take the easy, cynical path.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #33
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    Some of the exact same stuff I said in post #13.

    Anyway, I won't be watching either this or the Dr. Strange movie.

    Funny how the Smiths and all the African-Americans who boycotted the oscars for being "too white" and not giving enough opportunities to "people of color" are noticeably absent on this issue. I suppose Asian-American actors aren't people of ENOUGH color.

  4. #34
    Greetings Jimbo,

    "Funny how the Smiths and all the African-Americans who boycotted the oscars for being "too white" and not giving enough opportunities to "people of color" are noticeably absent on this issue. I suppose Asian-American actors aren't people of ENOUGH color."

    I do not think that the many "people of color" in Hollywood, regardless of national origin, have taken themselves to the point where they can actually be an influence. Getting paid seems to be the drive now days. It is most unfortunate. Bridges of mutual support should be established.

    The "Asian Card" is the most powerful card to play right now simply because of the money that can be made in the Asian market. One well placed funk over representation can tank a movie's draw in the Asian market.

    I found the Asian response to Dr Strange to be painfully slow on the draw. Yet, I see the momentum building.


    mickey

  5. #35
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    An explanation from the filmmakers.

    ‘Doctor Strange’ Writer Explains Casting of Tilda Swinton as Tibetan
    Sinosphere
    By EDWARD WONG APRIL 26, 2016


    Tilda Swinton, at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 11. Some have questioned her casting as the Ancient One in “Doctor Strange.” Credit Michael Kappeler/European Pressphoto Agency

    BEIJING — The trailer for “Doctor Strange” from Marvel Studios has ignited outrage against what some people call another example of Hollywood’s racist casting. It reveals that a Tibetan character from the comic book, the Ancient One, is played by Tilda Swinton, a white British actress.

    It turns out that the filmmakers wanted to avoid the Tibetan origins of the character altogether, in large part over fears of offending the Chinese government and people — and of losing access to one of the world’s most lucrative film markets, according to one insider account.

    In an interview last week, C. Robert Cargill, the main screenwriter, offered that as an explanation for why the Ancient One was no longer Tibetan.

    The Tibetan issue is one of the thorniest involving China and other nations. The Chinese Communist Party and its army occupied Tibet in 1951, and Chinese leaders are well aware that many non-Chinese believe that Tibet should have independence or greater autonomy.

    Marvel said in a statement that there was no problem with the casting of Ms. Swinton as the Ancient One since the character was written as a Celt in the film and is not Asian at all. Some critics have said that studio executives and filmmakers must have assumed Asian actors had less drawing power than white actors.

    In an interview on the pop culture show “Double Toasted,” Mr. Cargill said the decision to rid the character of its Tibetan roots was made by others working on the project, including the director, Scott Derrickson. It came down to anxieties over losing the China market, he said, if the portrayal of the Ancient One ended up stirring political sensitivities in China.

    In response to an angry viewer’s question about the casting of Ms. Swinton, Mr. Cargill said: “The Ancient One was a racist stereotype who comes from a region of the world that is in a very weird political place. He originates from Tibet, so if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people.”

    He added that there was the risk of “the Chinese government going, ‘Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We’re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.’ ”

    Earlier in the interview, Mr. Cargill had acknowledged that the origin story of Dr. Strange in old Marvel comics does involve Tibet, and that his mentor was Tibetan. “He goes to a place in Tibet, the Ancient One teaches him magic, he becomes a sorcerer, then later he becomes the Sorcerer Supreme,” Mr. Cargill said.

    The Chinese box office is the world’s second biggest, behind the United States, and Hollywood executives often alter films to avoid offending Chinese officials and to help their movies get shown in China. The Chinese government sets a strict limit on the number of foreign films shown in cinemas each year.

    Mr. Cargill’s take on how Chinese officials and moviegoers might react to a Tibetan character was overly simplistic, though. The government and many Chinese people do not deny the existence of the cultural idea of Tibet or Tibetans. They just assert that China should rule the territory.

    Mr. Cargill also said that because the original character of the Ancient One was a racist stereotype, the role would be hard to pull off with modern sensibilities. He added that if a Tibetan had been cast, it would result in the stereotypical narrative of a white hero, Dr. Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, being indoctrinated into Eastern mysticism.

    From the trailer, the film appears to retain some of the origin story’s Tibetan Buddhist flavor. There are shots of temples in what seems to be the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. At one point, Mr. Cumberbatch’s hand turns Tibetan prayer wheels. Ms. Swinton’s character, though Celtic, appears to be training Dr. Strange in Nepal.

    Mr. Cargill said some critics had suggested the filmmakers could have cast Michelle Yeoh as the Ancient One. Ms. Yeoh is an ethnic Chinese actress from Malaysia who is a martial arts icon and starred in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

    “If you are telling me you think it’s a good idea to cast a Chinese actress as a Tibetan character, you are out of your **** fool mind,” Mr. Cargill said.

    Mr. Cargill also drew a parallel, saying that the only thornier situation he could envision was if Dr. Strange’s origin story had involved him going to Palestine in the 1930s and studying under a Palestinian mentor.

    The Ancient One was a character who had “fallen into a weird place,” he said. “There’s a really, really ugly piece of history that we wish there was an easy solution to, and there wasn’t one.”

    Mr. Cargill said Mr. Derrickson, the director, hoped that changing the gender would help offset bad choices that had to be made.

    Mr. Derrickson, he said, reasoned that “there’s no real way to win this, so let’s use this as an opportunity to cast an amazing actress in a male role.”

    “And sure enough, there’s not a lot of talk about, ‘Oh man, they took away the job from a guy and gave it to a woman.’ Everybody kind of decides to pat us on the back for that and then decides to scold us for her not being Tibetan.”

    Ms. Swinton, in an interview with Den of Geek, confirmed that the change to the character had been made early in the process.

    “The script that I was presented with did not feature an Asian man for me to play, so that was never a question when I was being asked to do it,” she said.

    A Marvel press officer issued a statement defending the casting, saying that “Marvel has a very strong record of diversity in its casting of films and regularly departs from stereotypes and source material.”

    “The Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic,” the company said. “We are very proud to have the enormously talented Tilda Swinton portray this unique and complex character alongside our richly diverse cast.”

    Mr. Cargill had a more sober take in the interview on “Double Toasted.” He likened the cultural issue involving the Ancient One to the Kobayashi Maru, a famous battle simulation game in the “Star Trek” universe that Starfleet Academy cadets must play during training. The game had been programmed so that all choices would lead to a loss.

    “I could tell you why every single decision that involves the Ancient One is a bad one, and just like the Kobayashi Maru, it all comes down on which way you’re willing to lose,” Mr. Cargill said.

    He neglected to mention the fact that James T. Kirk, one of the main heroes of “Star Trek,” famously did beat the game with an unorthodox gambit.
    Actually, this is a reasonable argument. That China market is huge and the role of a Tibetan would make it difficult.

    Then again, they could have just relocated the Ancient One to Wudang or Songshan or any number of Chinese mystic mountains....
    Gene Ching
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  6. #36
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    This is getting kinda funny to me now...

    The disregard of the China market is getting twisted up by the ignorant. Some critics are accusing Hollywood of bowing to PRC censors, but that demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of the global film market and how films get approved in China. Censorship is a knee-jerk word here in the U.S. where it freedom of speech is a thing. But in China, that's not a thing, not at all.

    Here's feedback from a Tibetan:
    Hollywood’s Latest Whitewash: What Doctor Strange's Casting of Tilda Swinton Means
    By Gelek Badheytsang
    April 27, 2016


    Still via 'Doctor Strange'

    If you're not white, chances are when you're watching a movie or a TV series, you'll catch yourself on the lookout for anyone who's not white.

    It's a very minor event, this trying to find someone who looks like you onscreen, and most of us probably do it unconsciously.

    That Hollywood has blind spots when it comes to race and race-based issues is not a groundbreaking revelation. Its audience, increasingly non-white and vocal, are challenging the films and their filmmakers about this gap when it comes to who is shown on-screen and who isn't.

    It's in this context that we find Doctor Strange. Screenwriter C. Robert Cargill, in a fit of exasperation and indignation, responded to criticisms recently that his movie committed the age-old Hollywood tradition of whitewashing by casting Tilda Swinton in the role of the Ancient One. In the Marvel comic book lore, the Ancient One was based on a Tibetan mystical master. He guides the titular hero (portrayed onscreen by Benedict Cumberbatch) in his journey from a brilliant but ordinary surgeon, to a brilliant and powerful superhero; cloaked and ready to join the pantheon of Marvel characters, and the next instalment of the money-printing enterprise that is the Avengers series.



    As Cargill explains it, the decision to cast Swinton was not done lightly. "The Ancient One was a racist stereotype who comes from a region of the world that is in a very weird political place," he says in a video interview posted on YouTube. "He originates from Tibet, so if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he's Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that's bull****."
    The one billion people that Cargill is referring to are the Chinese people. He continues:

    "[You] risk the Chinese government going, 'Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We're not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.'"

    He ends this matter by saying that anyone who proposes casting a Chinese actor in this role as a workaround is "out of [their] **** fool mind and have no idea what the **** [they're] talking about."

    Cargill is referring to some comments online that suggested the movie could have cast Michelle Yeoh, who is Chinese-Malaysian, instead of Tilda Swinton.


    Tilda Swinton as "the Ancient One"—bald, but still not Tibetan.

    Many Tibetans, like myself, remember the time when Kundun, a film by Martin Scorsese about the Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet to India, first came out. Scorsese and many of his colleagues were subsequently banned from entering China. That was almost 20 years ago. Disney at the time stood by its project, even in the face of harsh retribution from the Chinese government. In the intervening years, the Chinese market for Hollywood films has grown exponentially.

    The demands of "one billion people" outstrip those who number far fewer than 10 million. This is basic economics.

    But let me tell you how thrilling it was to see Kundun as a Tibetan. When the movie was screened in theatres in Nepal and India (where there is historically, and still remains, the largest influx of Tibetan refugees) grown men wept and old women prostrated to the image of their spiritual leader on aisles between the seats.

    I was around 12 years old at the time in Nepal, and even though I was mostly preoccupied by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and WWE (WWF then), I remember vividly how big of a deal it was that this movie was coming out. Scorsese became a kind of a hero, even though I knew next to nothing at the time about one of the greatest living filmmakers.

    There was that undeniable magic of cinema—when a character looms larger than life onscreen, against the backdrop of the expansive Tibetan landscape (by way of Morocco)—that swells your heart and transposes you from inside that packed auditorium to the mountains of Tibet, alongside the Dalai Lama, kicking ass, being kind, crying over the loss of loved ones, and just being human.


    Still from the movie 'Kundun' (1997) featuring: actual Tibetans as Tibetan monks

    There is no amount of dollars or marketing strategy that will quite capture that sense of seeing yourself, or someone like you, projected and humanized on a giant theatre screen. We knew then that in spite of what the mighty Chinese government wanted (the elision of all things Dalai Lama and Tibetan), a short, plucky Italian-American director from the Bronx gave them the finger and realized his vision.

    Cargill, it seems, has thrown up his hands. Even though he could doubtless imagine and write pages upon pages of heroic, magical feats for Doctor Strange, on the matter of casting a Tibetan actor, that well is nigh empty. Sorry, but not sorry, because dollars. At least he was honest about it.

    The very fact of my existence is a sore point for the Chinese government. Cargill and his ilk would like you to believe that their hands are tied on this matter, but I don't buy it. Their influence over our (and the Chinese audience's) decision to buy tickets to their shows extends beyond just cold hard economics. There is something to be said for doing it the right way. For imagining a world (or at least an America) where, for once, the white skin is not the default, neutral canvas.

    In the age of #OscarsSoWhite, Cargill's decision (and his white, male background) is political. Of the panoply of controversies to navigate and confront, he chooses a route that inconveniences him the least.

    It's also a bit rich hearing Cargill speak about how he and his team had to carefully, painfully, consider not casting Asians so as to not reaffirm past stereotypes. That consideration falls flat when Hollywood keeps pumping out movies that showcase white dudes in white saviour roles (see: The Legend of Tarzan, coming to a screen near you later this summer).

    For what it's worth, between a white actor and a non-Tibetan but Asian-American actor playing the role of the Ancient One, my vote (and dollars) will easily go for the latter. In an industry where it's already hard enough to find roles beyond just extras in the background, here is a character tailor-made for an Asian American actor to shine in. And it goes to Tilda Swinton.

    Oh well. I continue to be on the lookout for faces like me. Somewhere in Toronto or Los Angeles, there is a Tibetan kid dreaming to be the next Denzel Washington or Tilda Swinton. I hope she gets a fair shake.

    Follow Gelek Badheytsang on Twitter.
    Gene Ching
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  7. #37
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    Asia don't care

    It's an American issue. America will soon need to grapple with not being #1 when it comes to movies.

    Asian actors too busy to fret over Hollywood 'white-washing'
    Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press Updated 10:20 am, Thursday, June 30, 2016


    Photo: Andrew Medichini, AP
    In this Sept. 5, 2007, file photo, Japanese actress Kaori Momoi poses during the photo call for the movie "Sukiyaki Western Django" at the 64th Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood - the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. Momoi, who appeared in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” as well as Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s “The Sun,” suggested acting was ultimately about individual talent, not skin color or nationality


    Photo: Lionel Cironneau, AP
    In this May 18, 2013 file photo, actor Vijay Varma poses for photographers during a photo call for the film "Monsoon Shootout" at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood - the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. The Indian actor who starred in "Monsoon Shootout," a crime story with multiple endings, shown at Cannes, eloquently directed by Amit Kumar, pointed out insularity was prevalent in Bollywood as well


    Photo: Thibault Camus, AP
    In this May 11, 2016, file photo, actress Gong Li arrives on the red carpet for the screening of the film Cafe Society and the Opening Ceremony at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood - the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. Li, the star of Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou’s films, such as “Raise the Red Lantern,” characterized the dilemma as a “problem of marketability.”


    Photo: Yoo Hyo-lim, AP
    South Korean actress Claudia Kim poses during an interview in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, June 30, 2016. The film world of Asia is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood -_ the casting of white people in roles written for Asians. Kim, known in her native South Korea as Soo Hyun, noted she has been lucky to play independent Asian women in most movies, such as Dr. Helen Cho in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the 2015 movie based on Marvel comics. (Yoo Hyo-lim/Yonhap via AP)

    TOKYO (AP) — The film world of Asia, known for producing Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Brillante Mendoza and other greats, is too busy making movies of its own to fret much about the debate slamming Hollywood — the casting of white people in roles written for Asians.
    While hurt, irritated or dumb-founded perhaps about the so-called "white-washing" syndrome, performers here aren't expressing the level of outrage of a Margaret Cho, George Takei or other Americans, The Associated Press has found.
    Many shrugged off the phenomenon as inevitable, given commercial marketability needs, noting Asian films also cast well-known actors over and over.
    Casting white people in non-white roles is as painfully old as Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu in American entertainment. That kind of monolithic casting continues — recently with the tapping of Tilda Swinton as a character that was originally Tibetan in the new Marvel "Dr. Strange" movie.
    It's also a sensitive topic. South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun declined to be interviewed through his representative, who noted Lee was set to be in a Hollywood film.
    Kaori Momoi, who appeared in "Memoirs of a Geisha," as well as Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov's "The Sun," suggested acting was ultimately about individual talent, not skin color or nationality.
    Momoi praised the devotion, skill and professionalism of Scarlett Johansson, whose starring in "Ghost in the Shell," based on a Japanese manga, has stirred up an uproar as a prime example of "white-washing." Momoi played the mother of Johansson's character.
    "I felt blessed to have worked with her," she said, urging actors to be selective of the directors they choose to work with. "And so what's fantastic is fantastic. What fails just fails."
    Like other actors with experience in Asia, Momoi saw Hollywood more as an opportunity. She was already a superstar in Japan when she started acting in movies abroad about a decade ago. What she enjoyed was the challenging novelty of it all, "getting away from being Kaori Momoi," as she described it.
    "Compared to Japan, there is so much potential and recognition in the U.S. for independent films," said Momoi in a telephone interview from Los Angeles.
    She got to know film people at international festivals, including Berlin, which showed "Fukushima, Mon Amour," a film she was in. She has become a director herself, having two films to her credit, including "Hee," being released later this year, in which she also gives a harrowing rendition of an aging prostitute.
    Claudia Kim, known in her native South Korea as Soo Hyun, noted she has been lucky to play independent Asian women in most movies, such as Dr. Helen Cho in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," the 2015 movie based on Marvel comics.
    But she was baffled when she learned a white actress was picked for the Asian role in a Hollywood movie she had auditioned for. She declined to identify that film.
    "It is definitely not a pleasant experience," she told the AP, calling the choice "ridiculous."
    Vijay Varma, an India actor who starred in "Monsoon Shootout," a crime story with multiple endings that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, pointed out insularity was prevalent in Bollywood as well.
    Families dominate the business, although he was an exception and came from a family unrelated to movies. Bollywood counts on mass appeal, casting the "familiar," just like Hollywood, he added.
    When an effort that defies boundaries turns out to be a great movie, like "Life of Pi," which starred an Indian actor, combined live action with computer graphics, and had a Taiwan-born director Ang Lee, "it feels really good," Varma said.
    While some Japanese may wonder why Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is the heroine in "Memoirs of a Geisha," they also feel no qualms routinely casting Japanese to play Chinese and other non-Japanese Asian roles, feigning embarrassingly phony accents and mannerisms.
    Landing roles in Asian movies is relatively off-limits for Americans, usually relegated to blatantly "foreign" roles. Koji Fukada's "Sayonara" starred Bryerly Long, an American, as a dying woman in Japan, but the film also starred a humanoid robot as her loyal companion.
    Gong Li, the star of Chinese auteur Zhang Yimou's films, such as "Raise the Red Lantern," characterized the dilemma as a "problem of marketability."
    "Asian culture has not meshed well with U.S. film culture. It's not integrated. There are a lot of American A-listers who are making movies in China right now, who have not done well. So it's the same whether you cast a famous actor or not not-so famous one. Chinese people don't know who they are," she said as she walked the red carpet recently at Cannes.
    Examples abound. "Hollywood Adventures" had an American setting and Chinese stars but was doomed by the stiff translation of English dialogue. Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen made the action fantasy "Outcast" for the Chinese market, where it flopped. Jackie Chan's "Dragon Blade," co-starring Adrien Brody and John Cusack, was a hit in China, but its U.S. showing failed to replicate the martial arts superstar's past Hollywood successes.
    Matt Damon and director Zhang Yimou are hoping for a better reception in their upcoming science-fiction thriller "The Great Wall."
    And many performers in both places hope for a more multicultural future.
    Respecting diversity in casting could lead not only to better films but also a better world, said Monisha Shiva, an Indian-American actress who has worked in both India and the U.S., and found the former to be more empowering.
    "I was the center. I was the story," she said in a telephone interview from New York.
    "The magic of acting is to give people visions and imagination, and imagine a different world. You want that. It's important to use actors of color," said Shiva. "Art is to start to make new visions. And it's a way to heal."
    ___
    Associated Press writers Angela Chen in Hong Kong and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
    ___
    Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
    Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  8. #38
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    Honestly, I don't see why Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, etc. actors/actresses based in their native countries would even be asked what they might think of Hollywood whitewashing. A high percentage of Asians in Asia period wouldn't even comprehend the concept of whitewashing. I've always said that it's an Asian-American issue, not an Asian issue. I give far more credibility to what George Takei, B.D. Wong, Margaret Cho and others have had to say on the matter than I would Kaori Momoi, Gong Li, et al. There are many talented Asian-American actors out there. Why have several of them relocated to work as actors in the countries of their ancestry, even if some of them couldn't even speak the language?

    And for anyone who says that white (or black) people couldn't become big stars in Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc., that is a weak argument. None of those countries are as diverse and multi-cultural as the U.S., which likes to tout that fact, but does not reflect it onscreen.

  9. #39
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    Whitewashing? Srsly?

    While I respect Constance Wu, I think she jumped the shark on this one. Who knows if Damon will be the great white hope? Take Netflix's Marco Polo, the ultimate historical whitewashing (especially if you've actually read Travels) but I wouldn't call that project whitewashing. If anything, Polo's character is downplayed. He's second stage to the Asian leads.

    Matt Damon Movie Slammed For 'Whitewashing'
    31 July 2016

    Matt Damon

    Matt Damon has been slammed for his new movie 'The Great Wall'.

    Damon plays a soldier in ancient China, who helps to battle against an ancient monster, in the English-language film directed by Zhang Yimou, and the movie has been accused of "whitewashing".

    Taiwanese-American actress Constance Wu took to Twitter to insist, "We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world.

    "Can we all at least agree that hero-bias & "but it's really hard to finance" are no longer excuses for racism? TRY (sic)."

    And 'Fresh Off The Boat' star Constance posted a lengthy statement, which read: "On The Great Wall. Our heroes don't look like Matt Damon. They look like Malala. Ghandi. Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time. We don't need salvation. We like our color and our culture and our strengths and our own stories.

    "Money is the lamest excuse in the history of being human. So is blaming the Chinese investors. (POC's choices can be based on unconscious bias too) Remember it's not about blaming individuals, which will only lead to soothing their lame "b-but I had good intentions! but...money!" microaggressive excuses (sic)."

    She also hit out at "implied racism", explaining: "It's about pointing out the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to POC and that POC need salvation from our own color via white strength. When you consistently make movies like this, you ARE saying that. YOU ARE. Yes, YOU ARE. YES YOU ARE. Yes, dude, you f**king ARE. Whether you intend to or not. We don't need salvation. We like our color and our culture and our own strengths and our own stories. (If we don't, we should) We don't need you to save us from anything. And we're rrrreally starting to get sick of you telling us, explicitly or implicitly, that we do.

    "Think only a huge movie star can sell a movie? That that has NEVER been a total guarantee. Why not TRY to be better? If white actors are forgiven for having a box office failure once in a while, why can't a POC sometimes have one? And how COOL would it be if you were the movie that took the "risk" to make a POC as your hero, and you sold the s**t out of it?! (sic)."

    'The Great Wall' is set for release in China in February, 2017, and in the US two months later.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  10. #40
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    Zhang Yimou comments

    The Great Wall director addresses Matt Damon whitewashing controversy — exclusive
    The movie 'is the opposite of what is being suggested,' Zhang Yimou tells EW
    BY JOE MCGOVERN • @JMCGVRN


    (Chris Weeks/Getty Images)
    The Great Wall
    Posted August 4 2016 — 12:50 PM EDT

    On July 28, acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers) released the first photos and trailer of his — and his country’s — most expensive movie ever. Many audiences were surprised to see that The Great Wall was not about the construction of China’s 5,500-mile long Wonder of the World, but instead a full-fledged monster movie.

    But many more were surprised and disappointed that the film, set about 1,000 years ago, starred white American actor Matt Damon. In a lengthy tweet posted one day after the trailer debut, Fresh Off the Boat star Constance Wu criticized the project for “perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world” and wrote, “Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon.”

    In a statement provided exclusively to EW, Zhang addresses the controversy, explaining that Damon’s character serves an important plot point, and defends his film against charges of racism. Read his full statement below.
    In many ways The Great Wall is the opposite of what is being suggested. For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tent pole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry. Our film is not about the construction of the Great Wall. Matt Damon is not playing a role that was originally conceived for a Chinese actor. The arrival of his character in our story is an important plot point. There are five major heroes in our story and he is one of them — the other four are all Chinese. The collective struggle and sacrifice of these heroes are the emotional heart of our film. As the director of over 20 Chinese language films and the Beijing Olympics, I have not and will not cast a film in a way that was untrue to my artistic vision. I hope when everyone sees the film and is armed with the facts they will agree.
    As I suspected....
    Gene Ching
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  11. #41
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    Let's hear from Tilda. I like her.

    Tilda Swinton responds to Doctor Strange casting controversy
    BY CLARK COLLIS • @CLARKCOLLIS


    (Marvel)
    Doctor Strange
    Posted August 12 2016 — 2:00 PM EDT

    Tilda Swinton has responded to the controversy which erupted over her casting as the magic powers-possessing The Ancient One in Marvel’s new superhero movie Doctor Strange. In the Marvel comics, the character, who is responsible for mentoring the titular ex-surgeon in the mystic arts, is traditionally depicted as Asian. Swinton’s playing of the Ancient One became a major news story following the release of the movie’s first trailer last April, with Marvel accused of “whitewashing” the character.

    “Anybody calling for more accurate representation of the diverse world we live in has got me standing right beside them,” says Swinton. “I think when people see this film, they’re going to see that it comes from a very diverse place, in all sorts of ways. Maybe this misunderstanding around this film has been an opportunity for that voice to be heard, and I’m not against that at all. But I do think that when people see the film, they’ll see that it’s not necessarily a target for that voice.”

    Swinton previously addressed the controversy earlier this year, saying that she “wasn’t asked to play an Asian character, you can be very well assured of that.” Marvel issued a statement at that time, saying that the Ancient One “is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic.”

    Director Scott Derrickson also responded to the uproar on Twitter, writing, “Raw anger/hurt from Asian-Americans over Hollywood whitewashing, stereotyping & erasure of Asians in cinema. I am listening and learning.”

    Doctor Strange, also starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong, opens in theaters on Nov. 4. You can see the film’s most recent trailer below.

    Quote Originally Posted by boxerbilly View Post
    Well all I know is Gere and Pitt should not go to China.
    Haaaa. Good one, boxerbilly.
    Gene Ching
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  12. #42
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    I'm in that 'whatev' group

    While I respect Constance Wu, I think she cried 'wolf' on this one. She jumped on a bandwagon, a bandwagon that I'm firmly riding, but fingered the wrong film. She wasn't looking at the whole picture, as we have been with this particular film, since 2012. She should really join our forum here. We'll allow her, even if she isn't a martial artist.

    ‘The Great Wall’: Why The Matt Damon Whitewashing Is No Big Deal In China
    Contrasting Chinese and U.S. reactions to Matt Damon's casting in "The Great Wall" underscore the difficulties co-productions have appealing to audiences in both countries.

    Aaron Fox-Lerner
    Aug 30, 2016 4:27 pm


    Matt Damon is the star of “The Great Wall.”

    It seems reasonable to expect that a movie called “The Great Wall,” billed as the biggest production in China’s filmmaking history, would feature Chinese actors. Instead, when Universal and Legendary released the trailer for Zhang Yimou’s film, the first face viewers saw was that of the decidedly white Matt Damon, fighting monsters atop the Middle Kingdom’s most famous monument.

    In America, it was a call to arms in the battle against whitewashing, that curious tendency to insert Caucasian faces where history tells us there were none. “We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world,” wrote comedian and “Fresh Off the Boat” star Constance Wu in a lengthy, impassioned statement posted to Twitter. “Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon.”

    China had another take. There, the prevailing sentiment over the trespass on their national identity might best be described as a Whatevs.

    On Weibo, essentially China’s Twitter (the social media service is banned there), searches relating to “The Great Wall” and whitewashing in Chinese turn up only a few dozen responses at most. Many posts are simply articles explaining the American controversy for Chinese readers. Even of those, most are focused on director Zhang Yimou’s defense of the film, rather than Wu’s criticism of it.

    Why the collective shrug? “In China, Chinese are the majority,” said Sally Ye, a Chinese-American producer who has worked in China for more than a decade. “They don’t have this feeling of representation which people of minority backgrounds would feel in the United States.”

    Added Wang Xiaoyi, film editor for the Chinese-language Time Out Beijing, “So out of five heroes, there’s one who’s not Chinese.”

    However, while the US perceives the film is about Matt Damon saving China, people in China think he’s just one character out of many. Early marketing in the two countries has been markedly different.

    In the US, Damon’s face occupies most of the poster, with the titular wall merely a detail over his shoulder. The film’s synopsis on the official website also puts the American actor front and center: “Matt Damon leads humanity’s greatest fight for survival in ‘The Great Wall’ from Legendary and Universal Pictures.”

    By contrast, China is much more interested in the screen debut of Chinese boy-band idol Wang Junkai, who appears alongside fellow boy-band-member-turned-actor Luhan and popular star Andy Lau. The Chinese trailer mixes in images of local actors early on, and a teaser poster from Zhang Yimou’s Weibo account also positions Damon in equal proportion to his co-stars.

    “It’s just like how the new ‘Independence Day’ used Angelababy,” said Wang, referring to a popular Chinese star whose bit-part casting in the latest “Independence Day” movie was a clear play for the Chinese market. “Zhang Yimou chose Matt Damon because he didn’t want the movie’s audience to be limited to China.”



    The Damon comparison is a bit generous; Hollywood films ranging from “Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation” to “Iron Man 3” pander to China by creating marginal roles for Chinese stars (a move that’s inspired mockery both in the US and China). However, co-productions allow foreign companies to dodge barriers that prevent them from participating in the world’s second-largest moviegoing market. China has a 34-film quota on foreign productions, and also allows foreign studios to claim only 25% of a movie’s box office. If a movie has some Chinese participation, companies can circumvent these limits.

    One of the few domestic hits in China this summer has been “Skiptrace,” an English-language action-comedy directed by action journeyman Renny Harlin (“Die Hard 2,” “Deep Blue Sea”) starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville. In the U.S., the film went to DirectTV July 28, with a theatrical run via Saban Films September 2; in China, it’s already has made over 800 million RMB (about 120 million dollars). Other co-productions have been even more explicitly aimed at Chinese audiences: 2015’s “Hollywood Adventures” was co-written and co-produced by the Taiwan-born Justin Lin and featured Chinese stars and dialogue, but it was directed by an American, Timothy Kendall, and shot almost entirely in Los Angeles. That film was also a success in China while remaining largely unknown outside it.

    Other movies have gone “The Great Wall” route of shoehorning foreign stars into ancient Chinese settings. “Dragon Blade,” a 2015 epic about warring Roman factions in Han Dynasty-era China, featured John Cusack phoning it in, Adrian Brody hamming it up, and Jackie Chan sporting dreadlocks. It proved a box-office smash in China, while going practically unnoticed in the US. The critically maligned “Outcast” (2014) also sent stars Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen into historical China, this time as disillusioned medieval Crusaders.

    Even for purely Chinese productions, foreign roles ranging from token to central have become commonplace. “When I first came to China, the people making movie and TV shows didn’t know any foreigners in real life,” Jonathan Kos-Read, a Chinese-speaking white actor who was born in Southern California but makes his living in films like “Mojin — The Lost Legend” and “IP Man 3” — productions targeted to the Chinese audience. “But now because there’s so many foreigners, most of the writers know a real foreigner … And the practical, artistic upshot of that is that they write better, more sophisticated foreign characters who are people before they’re foreigners.”

    The trajectory of Kos-Read – who described himself to me as a “minority actor” – from stock clichés to more complex characters would be the envy of many Asian-American performers who find themselves faced with frustratingly stereotypical roles. While “The Great Wall” has been a flashpoint in America over the lack of Asian representation, for the Chinese film industry the main issue has been whether the movie will show growing internationalization can lead to success outside of China.

    “The fact that you’re writing an article about ‘Great Wall’ is kind of a genuine change,” Kos-Read said. “If it works, that’s going to be great. It means a lot more of that is going to happen, and as an actor, it’ll mean a lot more work.”

    Still, even with an American star and a Western writing team (among them Max Brooks, Tony Gilroy, and Marshall Herskovitz), Ye believes “The Great Wall” is aimed mainly at China, with the US as a secondary bonus. “I think they took China as priority,” she said, “but they don’t want to not have the US distribution, because it’s a huge, big-budget film.”

    Censorship may be another reason why “The Great Wall” is not controversial in China; as a state-approved production, the government’s involvement might be enough to presume national respect. “I think that media in China, at least the ones who are going to drive word of mouth for ‘The Great Wall,’ will want ‘Great Wall’ to be a success,” said one Asian-American working for a large Chinese film company who wished to remain anonymous. “Right now SARFT [the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television] is more invested in showing that Chinese filmmakers can make a movie of Western standards than they are in undermining the kind of ideological fiber inside the movie itself.”

    “The Great Wall” is clearly aimed at a level of international success beyond any prior Chinese film or co-production — and with it, a previously unknown level of scrutiny. As the anonymous film worker put it, even without its whitewashing controversy, “The Great Wall” is “a glaring example of how much people are willing to spend to make the co-production prove its viability.” The U.S. controversy over the movie’s casting shows just how hard that viability may be to achieve.
    Gene Ching
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  13. #43
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    Continued from previous post



    Alas, at least Jason is a fictional character; which can’t be said for 21, another movie with ramifications in the Asian American community. Based on Ben Mezrich’s 2003 book Bringing Down the House, the movie follows a group of MIT students as they use their indomitable math skills to take Vegas casinos for millions. In Mezrich’s book, the students were a multicultural bunch whose leader was revealed to be an Asian American named Jeff Ma. In fact, one of the plot points in the book dealt with how the group used ethnic stereotypes as part of their cover when suckering dealers at the blackjack tables. Apparently, the studio thought a true story about Asian American MIT students would not appeal to mainstream (read: Caucasian) audiences unless the leads were white. Therefore, rather than find a hot, young Asian American actor to portray Jeff’s character, Columbia Pictures cast British Across the Universe star Jim Sturgess. In an article published in 2005, Mezrich discussed the studio’s thought process when casting the movie:

    During the talk, Mezrich mentioned the stereotypical Hollywood casting process — though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film’s actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female. Even as Asian actors are entering more mainstream films, such as Better Luck Tomorrow and the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha, these stereotypes still exist, Mezrich said.
    Like the casting of Forbidden Kingdom, Hollywood’s conventional wisdom is that Asians — and more specifically Asian Americans — cannot open big at the box office. This self-fulfilling prophecy, in a strange way, is reinforced by 21’s actual success at the box office (opening at #1 and so far earning over $70 million). Due to the movie’s success, star Jim Sturgess is Hollywood’s latest it-boy and is seeing his star on the rise. Even Jeff Ma, the basis for Sturgess’ character, sees nothing inherently wrong with his story being trans-racialized for the movies. In an interview with AICN, Ma revealed:
    For me it wasn’t a big deal, because for about three years people had been asking me who I wanted to play me in a movie and I never was saying like “John Cho” or “Chow Yun-Fat” or “Jackie Chan…” I really wasn’t and I mean if I asked you who you would want to play you in a movie, you wouldn’t be thinking “I want the most similar person,” but you would be thinking ”Who’s cool?” or who do you think would personify your personality or who is a good actor or who is talented, so as much as I think people like to look at it at face value like that, the reality is if you ask anyone who they wanted to play you, it wouldn’t necessarily be “Who’s the most ethnically tied to me?”
    It’s telling that Ma, as many Hollywood execs are wont to do, conflates Asian actors (Chow and Chan) with an Asian American actor (Cho). Since 21 is designed to be a star-making vehicle for its leads, it makes sense that Columbia would want a “cool” actor for the role. The assumption, though, is that there isn’t any “cool” Asian American actor (other than John Cho, of course) capable of playing Jeff on screen. Never mind actors such as Masi Oka, Parry Shen, Dante Basco, Roger Fan, Sung Kang, Ken Leung, or James Kyson Lee, just to name a few. Not to mention the thousands of up and coming actors of Asian descent who are still waiting for that big break. (It must be said, though, that 21 features two Asian Americans — Aaron Yoo and Lisa Lapira — in the cast. However, their parts are minor at best, and according to EW.com’s Youyoung Lee, “buffoonish” at worst.) If any of the above mentioned actors had been cast as the lead in 21, it’d be safe to say that the myth of Asian Americans being unable to open a movie would be officially rendered moot; which brings me to Harold & Kumar.



    The 2004 stoner flick, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, was a modest success in theaters. Grossing over $23 million worldwide, more than doubling its production budget, White Castle went on to make millions more on DVD, in the process, becoming an instant cult hit and ultimately leading to the buzzed-about sequel that’s set to open on April 25. The revolutionary thing about Harold & Kumar was its ability to portray its Asian American leads as real, complex individuals — who happen to really love pot. John Cho, in an interview with Angry Asian Man, summed it up thusly:
    I think there’s something, from a racial standpoint, an attitude that feels accurate… And I think it might be the fact that it addresses race as we do — as people of color do — that we’re aware of it, that we live with it, but it doesn’t consume us. And sometimes, white media thinks that we’re obsessed with it, and then Asian American films… we make films that obsess over her our race. It’s an hour and a half of people talking about what it means to be Asian.

    But Harold and Kumar addresses it, then doesn’t, then addresses it, then kind of addresses it, then laughs at it… and then somebody smokes pot.
    To New Line Cinema’s credit, the studio bet against Hollywood conventional wisdom and backed the movie with a significant marketing push and theater saturation. And while the stoner comedy as a genre is known for featuring people of color (see Up in Smoke and Friday), Harold & Kumar proved a major motion picture starring charismatic Asian American leads could be successful. Thanks in large part to the film’s success, which by all accounts entered the pop cultural zeitgeist on a speeding cheetah, Cho and co-star Kal Penn became household names able to translate their popularity into mainstream success. Since White Castle, Penn has starred on the TV hit House M.D. and Cho recently landed the coveted role of Sulu in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot.

    All three of these films demonstrate in different ways where mainstream Hollywood is in regards to Asian Americans, and where it still needs to go. With Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay poised to out-gross (in more ways than one, natch) its predecessor, the hope remains that Hollywood’s ill-conceived perception about Asian Americans will change. Though I’m not holding my breath.
    Heck, I hope this gives our monk robe sales a boost.
    Gene Ching
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    I just copied a bunch of whitewashing posts into this thread

    I forgot this was here. This has been a hot button topic of late, so it has come up in several other film threads.

    'Flower vases' is a great term.

    Hollywood Under Pressure to Put More Chinese Actors in the Spotlight
    Chinese audiences cheer homegrown performers who secure meaningful roles; cameos tend to fall flat as ‘flower vases’


    Using Chinese actors in films is Hollywood’s plan to appeal to audiences in China; however, it doesn't always have the expected results. Chinese moviegoers have a derogatory term to describe actresses who serve as little more than props in Western films: “flower vases.”
    By ERICH SCHWARTZEL
    Sept. 19, 2016 12:59 p.m. ET

    LOS ANGELES—Earlier this summer, the producers of a coming “Jumanji” remake put out a call to talent agencies: They wanted a Chinese actor in their movie.

    Male or female? It didn’t matter. And what was the role, exactly? That wasn’t clear, either.

    “They want to have a Chinese component. They don’t necessarily know what it is,” said one talent agent.

    It was yet another example of a new Hollywood ritual—finding Chinese actors to cast in U.S. films to try to appeal to audiences in China, which is on track to become the world’s largest box office in the next couple of years.

    The tactic has yielded mixed results.

    Chinese audiences cheer homegrown actors who secure meaningful roles in Hollywood blockbusters, such as Shanghai-born actress and pop singer Angelababy did when she played a fighter pilot in “Independence Day: Resurgence” this summer. But quick cameos that come across as a ploy to win Chinese fans tend to fall flat.

    ‘If you’re famous in America, you’re famous all over the world. If you’re famous in China, you’re only famous in China.’
    —Darren Boghosian, an agent at United Talent Agency
    When Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing starred in 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” she had one line: “Time’s up.”

    Beijing Daily, a state-run local newspaper, said in a 2014 article that her earlier cameo in the Chinese version of “Iron Man 3” was “quite embarrassing.” Though her part in “X-Men” was more significant, it still “triggered controversy after it is released here.”

    “X-Men” studio Twentieth Century Fox declined to comment.

    Chinese moviegoers even have a term to describe actresses who serve as little more than props in Western films: “flower vases.”

    “That’s where people have struggled a bit—not acting like the person is product placement, like the way you would find a beer can in a movie,” said Rob Moore, vice chairman at Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures.

    China is the world’s second-largest movie market, with $5 billion worth of tickets sold so far this year, according to EntGroup Inc., compared with $8.1 billion in the U.S. After years of strong growth, ticket sales in China have stalled this year, though it is still expected to overtake the U.S. in the next few years.

    So far this year, nearly 57% of China’s total box-office receipts were from Chinese films. But ticket sales for the first half of 2016 show a trend that has Hollywood worried: Imported movies accounted for 46.9% of ticket sales for those six months, compared with last year’s 53.5%. More Chinese movies are driving Chinese consumers to the multiplex, ratcheting up the need for Hollywood to find new ways to get them into seats.

    Tina Yu, a Beijing-based consultant, said she wouldn’t watch a film just because it featured a Chinese actor. “Most of these Chinese stars, especially actresses, simply feature in a film as a ‘flower vase’ or just as a bystander,” she said. “For me, I watch a film for its story.”


    Lions Gate Entertainment, which produced ‘Now You See Me 2,’ began having conversations about finding a role for Jay Chou, a singer popular in China, in the movie before the script was developed. PHOTO: SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT/EVERETT COLLECTION

    Several forthcoming titles such as “God Particle” and the next Star Wars film, “Rogue One,” feature actors who are relatively unknown to Western audiences but command massive fan bases in China.

    For the actors, securing the right role in a Hollywood film “opens the door to fame in the Western world,” said Darren Boghosian, an agent at United Talent Agency who represents Chinese stars including Angelababy and Li Bingbing, who had a small role in “Transformers: Age of Extinction” and took English classes to become more appealing to U.S. casting directors.

    “If you’re famous in America, you’re famous all over the world. If you’re famous in China, you’re only famous in China,” said Mr. Boghosian. UTA and other major Hollywood talent agencies have built China divisions to represent local talent.

    Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., which produced “Now You See Me 2,” began having conversations about finding a role for Jay Chou, a singer popular in China, in the movie before the script was developed. Qiu Jie, chief executive of Beijing-based Leomus Pictures International, released the movie in mainland China and suggested Mr. Chou to the studio.

    “We emphasized that the added Chinese actor in this film should be meaningful and proper,” said Mr. Qiu. “We understand that a Chinese character will not be a lead role in the film. But if you can at least do that, the local audiences will not criticize it.”

    The original “Now You See Me” grossed $23 million in China when it was released in 2013; the sequel collected $97 million, making it Lions Gate’s highest-grossing movie in the market.

    Executives say the roles must naturally fit into the plot or else audiences in every country become disillusioned. Angelababy fends off aliens as part of a global-fighter brigade in “Independence Day.” Mr. Chou’s character in “Now You See Me 2” runs a magic shop that the main characters visit in Macau.

    “If you can work it into the story line organically, it makes the movie bigger and more global,” said Lora Kennedy, executive vice president of casting at Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., which is releasing “Kong: Skull Island” with Chinese actress Jing Tian next year.

    Chinese stars also can help Hollywood navigate China’s restrictive regulations.

    U.S. studios face restrictions in how they can market their movies in China that scale back the frequency of traditional methods such as billboards and television commercials. One tactic taking hold: Hiring Chinese pop stars with large social-media followings to record theme songs to the movies that play on local radio and serve as de facto advertisements.

    “It gives you another way in,” said Mr. Moore at Paramount, which released “Transformers.”

    The theme song for “Now You See Me 2,” sung by the film’s Mr. Chou, had a chorus that called out the film: “Now you see me ‘cause I let it be / Wanna find the key you gotta follow my beat.”

    —Lilian Lin in Beijing contributed to this article.

    Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
    Gene Ching
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    Nice overview from The Atlantic

    Always the Sidekick
    East Asian actors are still stuck in supporting roles in big-budget action movies, even as Hollywood tries to court the Chinese box office.


    Karen Fukuhara as Katana in 'Suicide Squad'Warner Bros.

    LILIAN MIN SEP 8, 2016 CULTURE

    Ahead of the release of the DC Comics film Suicide Squad, potential viewers were bombarded with ads featuring comic-book names both familiar (Harley Quinn, the Joker) and unfamiliar (El Diablo, Enchantress). Falling into the latter category was the superheroine Katana, played by the newcomer Karen Fukuhara. Dressed in a Rising Sun mask and wielding her namesake weapon, she appeared in promos featuring images of Hokusai’s Great Wave and whooshing sword sounds. But in the film itself, Katana isn’t actually a member of the titular group: She’s the almost entirely wordless accomplice to Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, who’s in charge of keeping the villains in line. Except for a soupçon of lines delivered in terse Japanese, she’s a ripple in the background.

    Others in Suicide Squad also suffered from a lack of screen time, but Katana represents the norm for Hollywood’s East Asian characters, who are almost exclusively sidekicks or underwritten rivals. The action genre, and especially franchises, is rife with examples. In the last 5 years, there’s been Elektra (Élodie Yung) in Netflix’s series Daredevil; Kato (Jay Chou) in The Green Hornet; several characters in the X-Men films; Sulu (John Cho) in the newest Star Trek movie; Dr. Helen Cho (Claudia Kim) in The Avengers: Age of Ultron; Mercy Graves (Tao Okamoto) in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; Su Yueming (Bingbing Li) in Transformers: Age of Extinction; and many others.

    Having performers of Asian descent play Asian characters in blockbuster films is certainly an improvement over straight-out whitewashing—where Caucasian performers play historically nonwhite parts. (Though instances are still rife in Hollywood, with Tilda Swinton’s casting in November’s Doctor Strange, Emma Stone in Aloha, and Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming remake of the anime Ghost in the Shell.) Meanwhile, not a single lead or co-lead in the top 100 highest-grossing domestic films last year was Asian, according to USC’s 2016 report on representation in Hollywood. In response to criticism of whitewashing, producers, screenwriters, and directors regularly defend their choices as smart business moves meant to give their films global appeal. (This, of course, ignores the massive international box-office numbers of action franchises with diverse casts like the Fast and Furious series and Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens.)

    Money is, ironically, also a reason why many big-budget films are casting East Asian actors in the first place. With the Chinese box office projected to surpass North America’s by the end of 2017, more tentpole franchises are featuring Asian faces, locales, and storylines. But characters such as Katana obscure the fact that if Hollywood is so eager to expand its box-office appeal in East Asian countries, it could start with writing characters and casting actors of East Asian descent in more leading action roles.

    Practically speaking, doing so should be a relatively easy feat, considering the vast pool of stories, aesthetic styles, and cinematic talent the region offers both behind and in front of the camera. That Hollywood still minimizes the Asian roles and performers that do exist—while trying to profit off their limited presence—seems to reflect the industry’s deep-seated resistance to change. As a result, casting East Asian actors as supporting characters comes off as a bid for good optics and an attempt to appease critics without actually telling diverse stories.

    * * *

    Action cinema should be fertile common ground for American studios, since the genre is an indelible part of the East Asian film industry, both regionally and as a cultural export. The ’70s and ’80s were the heyday of Hong Kong action films, which fueled the rise of crossover stars like Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan. More recently, actors like Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs), Song Kang-ho (The Host, Snowpiercer), and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, Pacific Rim) all rose to prominence in their home industries before moving into English-language cinema. Both Lau and Kang-ho have performed in action films that have since been remade or optioned to be remade into fully “American” productions, often with a majority white cast and crew (e.g. adapting the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs into the Boston cop drama The Departed).
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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