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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, 06:07:31 PM)
I have seen 55 of CYF's 75+ movies as well as a television serial from his early years. He is not only a wonderful dramatic actor, he's excellent in romantic comedy, slapstick, as well as action. Check out movies like "An Autumn's Tale", "All About Ah Long", or "City On Fire". Despite what many consider as "clunker" roles, it doesn't diminish the fact that CYF is one of the finest actors I've ever seen. As for his "round face and expanding waistline" - it seems okay for John Travolta...
Yun Fat fan
Friday, June 28, 2002 at 12:19:16 (PDT)
"And as to weight: have you ever actually seen pictures of Chow Yun-Fat? Or seen him in real life for that matter? The man is NOT fat."
Of course I haven't seen him in real life. I'm not a celebrity stalker. I have seen several of his 80s movies though, and while he may not be exactly fat, he's definitely looking a bit pudgy by comparison in recent films. Ah well, so go the ravages of time.
What he needs to do is team up with John Woo again, this time with Hollywood backing.
Desslar
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 08:48:26 (PDT)
It totally...angers me when people look at Chow Yun-Fat as only an action star. Hasn't anybody taken the time to see some of the movies he did without John Woo as the director?? Don't get me wrong, The Killer is one of my all time favorite Chow Yun-Fat movies, but to lable him as just an action star is doing him a huge disservice. Most of his award winning performances were for his dramatic roles in things like All About Ah Long.
Granted, Bulletproof Monk probably will not be the best movie, but how about Divide? The movie he'll be in with Nicholas Cage with John Woo directing? Chow Yun-Fat is a spectacular actor and if people would stop labeling him, he might actually get the chance to shine as the wonderful actor he is.
As to his name: grow up. Chinese names are going to be different from American Names. The name "Fat" doesn't mean large bodied as it does in English. And if you listen to it spoken in Chinese it doesn't even sound the same. It sounds more like Fa or Fot.
And as to weight: have you ever actually seen pictures of Chow Yun-Fat? Or seen him in real life for that matter? The man is NOT fat. Get a clue.
CYF Defender
Wednesday, June 12, 2002 at 13:12:41 (PDT)
"Mr. Don't be a Hater"
Please tell me one Jet Li's film without him fighting. Ah, I don't think you can because that is all he has. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy Kung Fu movies. However, that's not Asian American is all about. Collectively we are a rich, diversal community. We need diversity in portraying our images, considering how LITTLE representation of us on screen. I am sick and tired of the Kung Phooey craps!
Tony
Friday, June 07, 2002 at 11:11:08 (PDT)
I'd say his expanding waistline is the biggest threat to his career. And maybe the tacky hairstyles.
Desslar
Thursday, June 06, 2002 at 13:59:03 (PDT)
hollywood is a jewish/white male dominated subculture that chooses to project a vision of the world according to their eyes. from their perspective, they will never be able to see beyond the typical and stereotypical roles of asians. personally before i die, i would like to see some asian males play more challenging roles aside from the ubiquitous and endless kung-fu crap. we take part if all aspects of society, yet this is all that we are reduced to... and when are people going to realize that the original "king and I" (a classic?)was about as demeaning as having Al Jolson in painted face singing "Mammy?"
fx_of_lament
Saturday, June 01, 2002 at 16:57:32 (PDT)
"Tony":
Do not put your narrow presumptions on others. Jet Li is a very capable actor. A lot of his earlier work in HK demostrate that he can be taken seriously as a dramatic actor. He plays a very stoic Wong Fei-Hong, but also slips in few very human elements in his relationships with his students. You base your judgements only on what you see in the US. His only downside is language. He cannot be given long speaking roles because his English isn't what most movie goers want to hear. The bottom line is that movies caters to what the audiences want and will pay for. Since he can't speak English fluently, people won't take him seriously unless he beats up a lot of bad guys. The solution to this? More investments in asian movies such as CTHD where Ang Lee has created a somewhat interest in the genre.
don't be a hater
Wednesday, May 29, 2002 at 12:26:43 (PDT)
Movie savvy,
totally agree about King & I. It might seem draconian but the current king is totally loved by the thai people and they wouldn't want to change the censorship laws.....both versions of the movie haven't had a thai male lead (Ylll Brinner) was the one before coz no self respecting thai would accept the role....i haven't seen the movie or the stage play coz it looks like old fashioned tripe!
maxdacat
Wednesday, May 29, 2002 at 05:20:17 (PDT)
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