I’m old enough now that when I see how Jake’s parents’ house get trashed, I feel sorry for them. I know it’s a comedy, but there’s many thousands in damage. (And yet, for some reason, I don’t feel sorry that Cameron’s dad’s classic car is destroyed in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.)
Yeah, I remember loving Revenge Of the Nerds back in the day. I actually bought the DVD a couple years ago from the bargain bin, and watching it did not bring the same joy and laughter it once did. I think it has not aged all that well - especially the moon room scene.
Here is an interview with Gedde Watanabe from 2014. He discusses the stereotype, among other things…
Gedde Watanabe Discusses 30 Years of Sixteen Candles and Long Duk Dong
You’ve heard a thousand times that Long Duk Dong is an offensive stereotype of a young Asian man who just arrived in this country, I’m sure.
Yes, and all I’ll say about that is that because there weren’t enough Asians onscreen, comedy was kind of looked down upon. I was not in the film business. I was studying theater in New York. It was my first movie and I had no idea what I was stepping into. I know that periphery is loosening. But because there were so few Asian actors onscreen at that time, people were looking for Kurosawa in a comedy and Sixteen Candles wasn’t that kind of movie.