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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
IS HOLLYWOOD UNDERMINING CHOW YUN-FAT?
f it's a sin to make ambidexterous mayhem look stylish and virtuous, Chow Yun-Fat was once eternally damned. Blame it on the camera. Its slow-mo infatuation with his every grin and grimace in John Woo classics like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled had made him the world's most idolized action star long before his 1996 leap to Hollywood.
Chow's Hollywood projects have undermined rather than enhanced his godlike stature.
Take The Replacement Killers (1996). Its plot was contrived and sterile to a surreal degree. Add to that the look-but-don't-touch romance with leading lady Mira Sorvino and a box office flop was assured.
The Corruptor (1998) did even less for Chow. Not only was he cast as a cop who became corrupted for no good reason, but the action was set in the kind of squalid fleshpot one sees only in the poorest of third-world countries and the Chinatowns of schoolboy fantasies. The coup de grace were jokes casting aspersions on Asian male sexuality. Strike two!
Then came Anna and the King (1999) in which Chow donned embroidered silk buffoonery to play a backward monarch held in thrall by a western schoolteacher. The reworked plot wasn't as ludicrous as the original King and I, but the remake cut Asia's top male superstar to fit the old Hollywood cosmology in which Asians are a quaint race in need of western enlightenment. Strike three!
After that Chow might have been reduced to playing wizened oriental masters dropping metaphysical pearls on young white heroes in training had Taiwanese director Ang Lee not come along to cast him as a legendary swordsman in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Despite its modest production and promotion budgets, the movie slashed all expectations and fairly flew up to become the year's most profitable release.
No coincidence, some suspect, that the role that saved Chow's chestnuts was conceived and written by an Asian and filmed with an all-Asian cast in the world's most pro-Asian nation -- China.
It isn't so much that Hollywood consciously sets out to undermine Asia's top male superstar, argue some. It's just that its imagination has been stewed for so long in its own racist malarkey that it is incapable of letting an Asian leading man play a truly sexy and heroic role. Look how it turned Jackie Chan into a tool (fool?) of Asian-male-bashing comedy in Rush Hour 2. And Hollywood may yet get its apparent wish to deep-six Chow Yun-Fat. In early 2002 Chow starts shooting Bulletproof Monk, a cult comic adaptation, in which he plays an aging master passing on warrior wisdom to a young white hero.
Is Hollywood undermining Chow Yun-Fat's action-superstar stature?
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WHAT YOU SAY
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(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:07:37 PM)
America is more conservative then Western Europe.....true. Part of the reason is because the burden of defending democracy and western society for the last 50 years has fallen squarely into Americas lap. While Europeans have been spending much of thier budget on free health care, free tuitions and services of the elderly; America has easily spent a quarter of its budget on their military since WW2.
With an emphasis on military readiness and action in the defense of the free world compounded with geographic isolation, American society is only following the natural sociological progression in the face of its responsibilities. You don't give rise to free love, socialist compassion and a love for the high arts when its your job to be the toughest guy on our block.
America has been the attack dog of England as all of her former colonies and common wealth children have been. But America was also charged with the responsibility of being Englands (and W. Europes) watch dog many years now as well. When you don;t have to worry about building up a huge military becasue your big friend next door has promised to back you up if you get in a jam, it kind of allows you to focus your resources on other more important things.
We have even taken the responsibility of keeping Israel afloat even though its original creators were the English. While the ENglish were able to walk away we have inherited all of the political fallout that is born of the tension over there.
I'm not saying that there aren;t areas where we could improve, but lets be honest no one has really had our kind of responsibility. As far as our poor sciences are concerned, we still seem to lead teh world in nearly every field of science and technology. If it weren't for the devastatingly advanced nature of our military science, there is a strong possibility that the entire European continent would have forfited all of its lovely freedom, social programs and high art to a red govt. for the workers.
Decon
Saturday, November 17, 2001 at 21:41:39 (PST)
Asian Dominatrix,
Yep, America is still focused on the old order of things.
Your point about America's main interest of its economy is true, but is somewhat superficial if you look at the bigger picture. Some countries which are regarded as the "Third World" to the eyes of some Americans, are in fact better off than the USA when it comes to individuals living in a healthy and productive lifestyle. Take the Mediterrean Countries like Spain and Greece as examples, people have 3-4 meals a day, have a nice home and a car, work less than 6 hours a day and yet somehow these people are pyschological healthier, have money to spend and worry less whether they have to pay off their debts and other "nonsense" expenses.
Hollywood is basically an American Iconic place just like Disneyland. Whether it excludes or includes minorities is not a real major concern, if you believe that there other things in life besides the movies, Hollywood is close to being non existent. Just like most of the American institutions, Hollywood today is of inferior quality. They are so many American filmmakers and yet hardly of any of them deserve any real merit. The same could be said of the American intellects, composers, and other people of creativity as well. Perhaps America is not really a place for "winners" but for underdogs. The problem with America is that the white people and the assimilated white ethnics are reluctant to accept "foreigness" and that includes things pertaining to Europe too.
Talking about Rock Music and your point about America's preoccupation with the British Royalty, there does seem a logical point why Americans embrace rock bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. These bands had an image of royalty/eliteness while the other bands like Pink Floyd and Deep Purple which I mentioned were experimental bands trying to captivate the universal human experience with rock music. This was said by Paul Weller who belong to a British post punk band called the Jam. His band performed a few times in the USA and was disappointed with American's crude taste of music and their ignorance of what rock music symbolizes. He later called Americans "stupid yanks" and never performed here again. Ironically, his music has influenced many American bands like Green Day and the grunge bands of the 90's.
For Asian Americans not fall into the trap, we must embrace our Asianness, accept foreign things, new innovations and ideas or else just like the Whites and White Ethnics before us, we will become arrogant and ignorant.
Provincial America
Saturday, November 17, 2001 at 13:49:28 (PST)
Provincial America,
Spot on, mate! Over the years, I've grown so tired of the platitude about America being the most progressive, modern, and accepting. If anything, it is probably the most conservative Western nation.
There are a lot of great things about this country, but it can be so infuriatingly politically, socially, academically, culturally backwards. Look at the presidency, for one: why are Americans so obsessed with dynasties like the Kennedies and the Bushes? Why are they so obsessed with the British royal family--perhaps to a greater extent than the British themselves? (My British friends have noticed that when visiting here.) Why is it that the idea of a female president/prime minister cannot be taken as seriously as in Europe and Asia? (BTW, I still think the way the way the Supreme Court selected Bush last year absolutely disgraceful. Something which I thought could only take place in a stagnant and backwards nation!)
And why is that on Sept. 11, American networks focused almost exclusively on American and European reactions to the terrorist attacks? Why virtually no attention on minority victims during the first few days of the aftermath? It wasn't until I turned to the Japanese and Chinese news that I saw their reactions: people sobbing, people giving blood.
Do you know why? Because America is only interested in preserving the status quo. That is why, for instance, the WASPy Ralph Lauren look is very popular here, but not as much in England--even tho' you'd expect it to be. That is why so many American movies revolve around upper-middle class and upper class families. Many of those fawning, servile, half-educated, wanna-be-upper-class Hollywood directors would never think of mocking them the way Monty Python and others do in England; for instance, Monty's skit 'Upper-class twit race.'
Speaking of Hollywood (which does its absolute best to exclude minorities--unless it's to play servile Chinaman or ghetto trash), you're also absolutely right about the greater sophistication of Asian and European movies vs. American movies. Personally, I think there's much more focus on personal dilemma and character development in 'Old World' movies. I'd hate to think what would happen, for instance, if 'Crouching Tiger' were a Hollyw. film: we'd have at least a schmaltzy love-making scene and a double wedding at the end. (And I realise 'Crouching Tiger' is not even supposed to be the most cerebral Asian movie either!)
Look, too, at the pernicious influence of right-wing religion and the way those backwards Southern schools are treating evolution. No wonder American pre-college-level education, esp. the sciences, lags behind third-world countries. And do you know why? It's because those idiot fundamentalists like Fat(ass) Robertson and Jerry Foul-well are only slightly more forwards than the Taliban with their contempt of women. (BTW, do you know that many of these so-called Christian societies have been sending anthrax threats to birth control clinics?)
And about America seeing only one side of things: yes! This is why we are the only country doing so little about global warming--all because our *economy* is more important. And why we continue to waste gas: or is it because fat Americans cannot be stuffed into anything smaller than a SUV? The asinine Republicans, stuck way back in the 1950s, never stop to think what it would mean for economy in the next century when Asia and the middle East suffer from drought or flood. Of course, they're not 'anglo' countries, so what does it matter?!)
OK, we have a few things right: affirmative action. And we're beginning, only beginning to understand multiculturalism--that is, when some dumb half-educated cracker doesn't wave his/her hands in fear, shouting 'Loss of Western civilisation!' But even there, much reform is needed before we can attain any real equality.
Maybe we ought to call the 'New' World, the 'Old' World.
Asian Dominatrix
Thursday, November 15, 2001 at 19:10:46 (PST)
Asian Dominatrix,
In truth, America is a very conservative country. If you look at the old world (Europe) and the New World (USA), the former is much more open with certain lifestyles and manners. Europeans are much more expressive and perhaps even more creative than Americans when it comes to the arts. In Europe, women can be topless on the beaches, people can smoke in the restuarants, dancing in the streets and being jovial are more encouraged, obscene art (to eyes of Americans) are accepted...etc.
You would assume America being the land of the free and that freedom is cherished so dearly that it is a place of openness and full creativity/expression, but ironically, it isn't.
Take rock music as an example. The British Invasion bands of the 60's and 70's have captivated Americans more than our homegrown bands of the heyday and today. Bands like Pink Floyd and Deep Purple being truly creative and experimental bands who have fans throughout the world (Asia is one main region as well), however, are not well-liked in the American soil. Many Americans opt for the more conservative bands, like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In my opinion, they lacked the talent and skill/complexity of the former 2 bands. But again, America cherishes provinciality and conservatism despite its so called "worldliness".
Creativity, to a certain degree like that of Europe , is also found in Japan and HK especially in film production and pop culture. Americans tend to focus more on special effects as oppose to the story line. There is more emphasis on an actor's action than his or her disposition. Chow Yun Fat movies made in America are more about his body language than his personality. Again, Americans like to see things with one side.
America still has that "opressor" mentality back from the colonial days. Better yet, the whipper's complex. If you make any inappropriate body language, I will whip you. I hope you get my drift regarding America's overall mentality.
Provincial America
Wednesday, November 14, 2001 at 21:08:26 (PST)
Worldly Political Analyst,
Correctomundo. I've noticed that the coverage of anti-Muslim sentiment was much more carefully covered by the Beeb than by the dumb US TV networks. The latter still seemed reserved about Muslims, making it appear as tho' even apparently innocuous storefronts could harbour terrorists.
There has also been more of an attempt to show Asian movies on the telly in Britain--something you rarely ever see here. (Granted, they're usually put on late in the evening, but you could still videotape them.)You also see movies and telly shows--even soaps--featuring interracial couples.
I'm not a Europhile by any means, but I think the US could emulate Europe more in appreciating non-Western cultures. Instead, the US is just hung up on the dead colonial past of America and Western Europe. Old World means posh European houses and clothes, or colonial East Asia when whites ruled.
Asian Dominatrix
Wednesday, November 14, 2001 at 09:15:12 (PST)
It's typical of American media to have a one-sided portrait of anything. It lies deeply in the culture - such as politics, education, etc. When was the last time something major happened that the major networks provided radical views of two opposing sides? Point is, in the movie industry, how can we expect more? The only driven part behind the studios is not the quality or the depth of the film but how much it might generate for them. Europe seems to be much more creative and free when making movies about other cultures. The movie industry is like the record industry - they sell popular culture, for the lowest common denominator.
Worldly Political Analyst
Wednesday, November 07, 2001 at 19:02:52 (PST)
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