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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Asian Men Deliberately Excluded from Star Wars?
ow that the fifth installment of the Star Wars saga has hit theatres, it's official: Asian men have no place in George Lucas's vision of the future. An Asian female Jedi was glimpsed in the most recent installment, but not one single Asian male has been spotted in any of the five movies.
The absence is all the more remarkable given that Star Wars borrows its themes and fight scenes so obviously from samurai and kung-fu flicks. On a purely demographic level, it's difficult to imagine a distant future in which Asians will not be the preponderance of humanity. Even on a mundane economic level, Asians account for at least a third of today's global box office and video revenues.
The utter absence of Asian men in the latest installment is even more glaring in light of the promises Lucas made in response to Asian protests over the omission of Asian actors coupled with suspicious attachment of Asian cultural traits to unsavory alien grotesqueries in The Phantom Menace. Lucas had even hinted that images of Bruce Lee would be used in the installment now known as The Clone Wars.
In The Phantom Menace Lucas used Asian martial artists both to choreograph and perform the kendo-inspired light-saber sequences. But as if wishing to take back the decision, in The Clone Wars Lucas's PR machine made a point of showing that the fight sequences were choreographed by a white man and performed by the actors themselves. That explains why they were so leaden and lackluster, but raises the question why?
Could it be that George Lucas wants to avoid calling attention to his large debt to Asian action films?
Is Lucas afraid that including an Asian man will invite critical focus on the new movie's sub-par swordfight sequences?
Is Lucus slyly inviting viewers to see wizened little Master Yoda as a winking representation of Asian men?
Despite his avowed interest in Chinese and Japanese martial arts, culture, literature and films, is Lucas a closet racist after all?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
As a person majoring in film, in my point of view, Lucas' intention was to focus on white audiences. Such a pity though. But to say that he's a closet racist, well that's a little hard to say. It may be possible, but you can never tell unless you know him personally.--- By all means, yes it is obvious that he borrowed most of his stories from Samurai life. Anyone who studied the way of life of a Samurai like me could instantly notice it so. He emphasized LIVE and DIE by the sword, the strong notion of a Samurai's duty to protect his master and country, the feeling of patriotism, honor, and pride which are all foundations of which a Samurai lived by. --Have you heard of DARTH VADER? You may wonder how he fits in all of this. Well, it's easy. DARTH VADER is the perfect example of a warrior called "THE RONIN WARRIOR" the masterless warrior who strayed away from his oaths to fight for a different cause or has totally gone bad. DARTH VADER is a Ronin warrior who had gone bad. As for Yoda, he is the same as a Sensai, the respected grandmaster who teaches a Samurai everything he knows. Lucas also made his characters trained as young warriors. Samurais were born with that birth right, but there were Samurais who earned that right through bravery sort of like the way the young Skywalker earned his. IT'S FUNNY! IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME. It is only right that he has more or at least one supporting Asian male character in his next episode to give the Asian culture more credibility, although he has stated it so-a little. He has even tried to copy the works of Akira Kurosawa, arguably the best Japanese director of all time known for his work for his SEVEN SAMURAI, the work of which Lucas got the STARS WARS idea and inspiration. And you may have heard of a western called "MAGNIFICENT SEVEN?" They admitted that they got the story from the Kurasawa film, the Seven Samurai. It's basically the same too, but different timeline and place. If you are skeptical, come see both films and you'll discover that it is. The beginning of present Hollywood film making did not start in America, but yet in Asia Japan. Come read more history. Please, it's fun!
Ray
Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 13:06:04 (PDT)
Geoff,
If you've ever run across my posts elsewhere here, you'll notice that my spelling follows the British rules.
To answer your reverse question, the negative Asian image.
We're the only group of people who can consistently beat whites at their own game. We're known worldwide for being entrepreneurs, thinkers, and just plain successful.
Ask Jamaicans, Indonesians, Australians etc. Wherever the sun shines, Asians live there, and are successful.
This next remark isn't intended to be one of my usual "racist" remarks.
Way back when, whites hated blacks because they considered them beneath them. Whites hated us because they were jealous of us. I'm sure they thought of Asians as beneath them too.
huu76
Saturday, July 20, 2002 at 23:59:50 (PDT)
About the language issue. We were able to overcome that w/o using it as an excuse to fail. We use it to show how damn good we are.
Again, both groups had it bad. Asians decided to overcome it.
by the way, you're the first Eskimo I've met. The correct term would be Inuit. Not like it matters to you.
Observer,
You should calm down before you reply. I speak better english than white people. Maybe you have a hard time understanding anything that isn't ebonics.
It's people like you who defend the useless that is making North America fall behind the Japanese.
huu76
Saturday, July 20, 2002 at 23:41:29 (PDT)
TO: Political Observer
Yea, I realize I'm in hostile territory. huu76 is not an exception, believe me. I do know this for a fact.
I've encountered people like huu76 at social gatherings, in the work place, college and in various cities. He equates American with being white. He and his cohorts are all smiles in a room full of white people. However, the moment even a well intentioned polite black guy walks in her/his smile disappears, attitudes changes for the worse, hospitality ceases and, all of a sudden, anyone who was even remotely interested in Asians and Asians Americans gets a taste of her/his real attitude.
Mainly, it's my goal to try to be fair-minded and listen to different sides of the story. I never try to blame African Americans or Asian Americans. Race relations in the US are, clearly, volatile. If we can try to be understanding and be as objective as possible perhaps we can mend some fences and heal some wounds.
It is true that Hollywood excludes fair protrayals of Asian Americans in their productions and it's not fair.
However, thanks for the advise and I do like your style.
Geoff DB
GeoffDB02@aol.com
Saturday, July 20, 2002 at 20:12:20 (PDT)
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