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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
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:07:33 PM)
I don't know what people want of Chow Yun-Fat. Even before "Monk" comes out they don't like it. When there was news about him perhaps making "Charlie Chan" people didn't like it. At least he is Chinese which I don't think the last actor was that played Charlie. I see him playing the part looking and acting like he did in the first and last part of "God of Gamblers." Suave, sophisticated and wearing a lot of white suits as the last Charlie did. Let's face it who looks better in a white suit than CYF does?..Nobody! He could have a nephew who would do most of the kungfu and CYF could approach most of the violence as he did in "GOG" on the train. I love it!!
Charlotte
Lacyguymon@aol.com
Saturday, March 23, 2002 at 15:39:44 (PST)
so what, you want him to change his name to:
ARMSTRONG CHOW
or
YUN FAT Schwarzallone
to be an action hero? dumb, dude, dumb.
lose the incorrect transliteration scheme is all that's necessary. write his name right:
TSOU YUN-FA
this 'FAT' crap is not only wrong, it's stupid.
God of Asia
Friday, March 22, 2002 at 19:23:19 (PST)
Would you people stop talking about Zhang Ziyi as if she LIKES american or caucasian people? She's just a smart little girl who starred in good roles with Chow Yun Fat so she one day will find fame internationally, after that, she will dominate the world with her intelligence and lead china into the space age. A bit exaggerated but... oh well.
Zhang Ziyi
Friday, March 22, 2002 at 15:04:32 (PST)
Even though Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was a great movie and expertly done...it is a curse as well. Since it made like tons of money, well Hollywood is gonna want to try and copy the CTHD trend...thus BulletProof Monk. Another unfortunate sidenote of the success of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon...the one person in that movie who might become a star in America is Zhang Ziyi (she's already on the cover of GQ with that guy playing Spiderman..how pathetic...she's like lounging in a Limo with him). Not to take anything away from Zhang Ziyi (i think she's an incredible actor) but it's the same old in Hollywood. Funny thing is that if a asian women speaks with an accent in Hollywood it's hot as hell but if a asian man speaks with an accent it's not acceptable or it's made fun (perhaps it's just an excuse for Hollywood to practice their insidious racism?) Let's face it people...if you want to make it in Hollywood and you're asian you'd better hope you're a woman.
Ghost Writer NYC-Through education we can defeat our enemies...spread the word!
"Revolution is the fuse that ignites change in society"
Ghost Writer NYC
Saturday, March 16, 2002 at 16:53:15 (PST)
Charlotte:
I kind of see your point...but I think having Fat in his name adds pounds to his face.
That's cool though...
Angelique
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 23:24:13 (PST)
Arnold Schwartzenschnitzel :
Yeah!!! I agree!!!! Chow Fat doesn't sound right.
Angelique
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 18:06:41 (PST)
As far as Chow Yun-Fat changing his name I think it makes him stand out and it looks great on film credits. He used the name of Donald at one time and I really don't think Donald Chow would be very impressive. I loved the way Steve Martin introduced him at the Academy Awards last year with a resounding CHOW YUN-FAT! It sounded great!!
Charlotte
Lacyguymon@aol.com
Thursday, March 07, 2002 at 07:30:37 (PST)
Bulletproof Monk??? The title alone already tells this is gonna be one dumb movie. Was never a CYF fan to begin with anyway.
Chinaman
Sunday, March 03, 2002 at 21:34:07 (PST)
Chow Yun-Fat should change his name if he wants to succeed with American audiences. "Chow" and "fat" don't suggest an action hero type, especially given Chow Yun-Fat's roundish face.
Arnold Schwartzenschnitzel
Sunday, March 03, 2002 at 15:32:47 (PST)
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