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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, 06:07:30 PM)
Hey, maybe this Hollywood conspiracy against the Asian man isn't so far-fetched after all. How else would you explain that Hollywood has been sitting on enormous talents like Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li while letting pansies like Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, and Nicholas Cage be action stars. How pathetic.
Not to get too racial or anything, but now that I think about it, Arnold was the last great white action star. Seagal and Van Damme are marginal, but Arnold in his prime was the s*** (Terminator 2 and before). But now that he's gotten up there in age, Hollywood is turning to all these non-action actors like the ones mentionned above and trying to turn them into action stars, banking on their pretty face and good name to draw the fans.
Granted, Chow's not a spring chicken anymore either and Jet Li's English ain't all that great, but Li's still young and has great potential. And I think Chow still has one or two more good gun slingin' flicks left in him. Just need to team him up with John Woo for one last hurrah, with Hollywood's budget and blessing to be hands off creatively.
I'm talkin' about Hard Boiled/The Killer 2002 here. Triple digit body count. Machine gun in the trunk. Shot gun waiting behind the plant in the hallway. Two 9 mm semi-automatic pistols. Chow walks into a gangster bar, lights up a cigarette, and then methodically blows away everyone except the pretty female nightclub singer and the grandma holding the baby in the corner. Now that's cinema!
Valley Chinese Dude
Thursday, August 15, 2002 at 23:17:37 (PDT)
I'm chinese-american and have been an avid fan of Chow Yun-Fat for many years.
I must admit I agree that Hollywood has yet to give him a project truly worthy of his talents. Althought none of his American films have been that great, his presence does make them at least bearable. Thank good for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the film that finally gave him a $100 million plus grosser in the U.S. I'm very skeptical about Bullteproof Monk, his next film. His costars are Sean William Scott(Stifler from the American Pie flms) and James King(a model, who played the blond fiance who died in Pearl Harbor. Who knows? Maybe it will do well in theatres. I really do hope he will reunite with John Woo for an original action story with complex characters and share the screen with a worthy co-star, and a worthy female co-star with some romance. I know he is planning on doing a John Woo film with Nicolas Cage which could do wonders for his career in Hollywood me thinks.
Jet Li is another one of my all-time favorites. I was a little disappointed when he turned down the Matrix sequels. They couldn't afford him. C'mon is Keanu Reeves really worth $30 million, plus backend participation? He needs a $100 million plus grosser to get him into the big time. Hopefully Cradle 2 The Grave with Mark Dacascos and DMX will do the trick. If not, then him and Jackie Chan have agreed to produce and co-star together in a film.
Jackie Chan has by far enjoyed the most success out of the top three Asian action heroes. With Rush Hour 2 grossing $225 million, New Line Cinema is considering filming Rush Hour 2,3 simultaneously. Has anybody seen the trailers for Shanghai Knights, or The Tuxedo,yet? They look pretty cool to me, and I will be suprised if the don't go good business.
Hopefully Hollywood will give Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li better roles and more marketing/advertising to push them as they did with Jackie.
Latez
Max
Max
orgazmo83@hotmail.com
Thursday, August 15, 2002 at 15:43:51 (PDT)
Response to chowyunpat:
Your brief analysis was dead on. I am not an avid fan of martial Arts movies but I could never understand people like Steven Seagal and Van Damme, who always managed to beat, the usually villainous Asian. To my untrained eyes there actions were more fluid and graceful and precise then the clunky movements of the white actors.
I am not Asian but after I saw CTHD, I couldn't help but notice how handsome Chow Yun-Fat is! I would pick him over Brad Pitt any day.
Also, I recently viewed the movie Chunhyang, which I thought was exquisite. I wish that American audiences had the privilege of seeing more intelligent movies from Asia.
Recently converted Chow Yun-Fat fan
Thursday, August 15, 2002 at 11:25:41 (PDT)
'Chan is still have luck because he has proven he can pull in money and money talks in hollywood'
- DON
Actually this is what Hollywood wants everyone to believe; that it's all about money. Those in power in Hollywood have an agenda to keep whites on the centerstage. It wasn't that long ago that American society thought that Blacks were all ugly. After several years and many movies later we see how Hollywood can shape peoples minds to think the opposite of what they had previously thought. Using Blacks as an example we see how once reviled, now they can be and are sex symbols.
Those in charge in Hollywood are creating these stereotypes and perpetuating them through their films and through their constant forcefeeding of these racist images to the public. My question is; what evil purpose do they have in mind?
GOT THEIR NUMBER
Wednesday, August 14, 2002 at 23:20:54 (PDT)
I'd say Hollywood has ruined Chow's potential. If you look at the "Upcoming Movies" section on Yahoo.com, you'll see Chow had a few movies lined for down the road. But those movies were there a long time ago. A lot of them appeared to have been killed off or for whatever reason have not gotten off the ground.
Chow's only movie that I can see coming down the pike is the one with John Woo and Nicholas Cage where Chow (once again) plays a Chinese character.
It's unfortunate that this happened. Look at Jet Li as well. His career is slightly stalled as he is not the "lead" with the new movie starting DMX. Only Jackie Chan is still have luck because he has proven he can pull in money and money talks in hollywood
Don
Saturday, August 10, 2002 at 17:32:04 (PDT)
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