Post by animaeish on May 10, 2008 0:26:43 GMT -5
Something has come to my attention that has inspired me to return to EAN after a long hiatus.
Today "Speed Racer" opened, a live action movie based on a Japanese cartoon that originally aired in the 60s and 70s. An English version of the series aired in the US throughout the 70s and most of its American fan base never even knew it was Japanese. Anyways, the title characters in the new movie are all played by very White actors. This despite the fact that the original cartoon characters were drawn in anime style, with a distinct Eurasian look. But since it's clear they were intended to be Caucasian or at least, Caucasian-like, it doesn't bother me as much as it makes me chuckle. White America likes to adopt foreign things they like and make them their own, LITERALLY.
But it's going to get worse. Hollywood is now slated to release/ produce movies based on "Dragonball Z" and "Akira" and guess who is going to play the lead characters? www.cinematical.com/2008/02/21/akira-to-star-leo-dicaprio-and-joseph-gordon-levitt/ Akira is a Japanese story with Japanese characters and they are going to have Leo play Kaneda and that snotty kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun play Tetsuo. This to me is an outrage because you wouldn't see some Japanese guy playing "Iron Man" even if it was produced and marketed in Asia.
Another funny thing is the lead female character in Dragonball the movie will still be Asian. So Hollywood is saying it likes the Asian storylines but it's got to have White guys as the main characters. But it's saying Asian WOMEN are ok, as long as they're hot and WITH the white guys.
The argument is that the studios want to cast high profile White actors to improve box office sales. But how will Asian actors, and the Asian image in general, ever become high profile without exposure? If not in roles that are SUPPOSED to be Asian, then when? The studios are basically pandering to and reinforcing a biased and basically racist culture while assuming white mainstream audiences are too dense and narrow minded to identify with Asian characters. What do you think?
Today "Speed Racer" opened, a live action movie based on a Japanese cartoon that originally aired in the 60s and 70s. An English version of the series aired in the US throughout the 70s and most of its American fan base never even knew it was Japanese. Anyways, the title characters in the new movie are all played by very White actors. This despite the fact that the original cartoon characters were drawn in anime style, with a distinct Eurasian look. But since it's clear they were intended to be Caucasian or at least, Caucasian-like, it doesn't bother me as much as it makes me chuckle. White America likes to adopt foreign things they like and make them their own, LITERALLY.
But it's going to get worse. Hollywood is now slated to release/ produce movies based on "Dragonball Z" and "Akira" and guess who is going to play the lead characters? www.cinematical.com/2008/02/21/akira-to-star-leo-dicaprio-and-joseph-gordon-levitt/ Akira is a Japanese story with Japanese characters and they are going to have Leo play Kaneda and that snotty kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun play Tetsuo. This to me is an outrage because you wouldn't see some Japanese guy playing "Iron Man" even if it was produced and marketed in Asia.
Another funny thing is the lead female character in Dragonball the movie will still be Asian. So Hollywood is saying it likes the Asian storylines but it's got to have White guys as the main characters. But it's saying Asian WOMEN are ok, as long as they're hot and WITH the white guys.
The argument is that the studios want to cast high profile White actors to improve box office sales. But how will Asian actors, and the Asian image in general, ever become high profile without exposure? If not in roles that are SUPPOSED to be Asian, then when? The studios are basically pandering to and reinforcing a biased and basically racist culture while assuming white mainstream audiences are too dense and narrow minded to identify with Asian characters. What do you think?