I don’t think the phrase semi-sabbatical springs readily to most people’s minds.
Coming soon (acting):
Joe’s Last Chance (2005) (announced)
Rush Hour 3 (2006) (pre-production)
The Myth (2005) (post-production)
Coming soon (producing):
House of Fury (2005) (filming)
Just the four acting roles last year:
San ging chaat goo si… aka New Police Story (Hong Kong: English title)
Fa dou daai jin (2004) … aka The Huadu Chronicles: Blade of the Rose (International: English title)
… aka Twins Effect 2 (Asia: English title) Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
Daai lo oi mei lai (2004) … aka Enter the Phoenix (Hong Kong: English title)
And four producing credits:
Hainan ji fan aka Rice Rhapsody (International: English title)
San ging chaat goo si aka New Police Story (Hong Kong: English title)
Around the World in 80 Days
Daai lo oi mei lai aka Enter the Phoenix (Hong Kong: English title)
I vaguely remember Jackie Chan saying that he would work as a choreographer and take it easy on the usual bone-breaking films, given his age.
Asian men are the victims of the success in America of Asian actors in martial arts films. Even whiteys like Van Damme can’t compare with the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc., in spite of obvious martial skill and considerable film experience. It will just take a bit longer for the stereotypes to mollify further and allow greater penetration of Asians in film – if you think about it, the martial arts stereotype is already a dramatic improvement on the portrayal of Asian men in TV and cinema over the last century.
And what about Indian Ocean Rimmers like Indians, Sri-Lankans, Indonesians, etc.? Arabs? To me it seems tat Asian men are hardly the only ones facing hurdles in Holliwood, and in fact they are far from being the most discriminated.
For consideration off the top of my head consider the romantic value in these works:
Chow-Yun Fat in Anna and the King
Russel Wong in Vanishing Son
Dean Cain in that Superman series.
Keanu Reeves in anything (he’s definitely Eurasian, but looks more white than Asian – and, funnily enough, ended up in martial arts for his biggest hit, The Matrix series).
I should also point out that in Hong Kong films the vast majority of times a gweilo (white man) appears in movies he is the villain. Oh the stereotype!
Cain is one quarter Japanese. But like other partially Asian actors (Tommy Chong, Ben Kingsley, Keanu Reeves, the Rock, Rob Schneider) he is not generally perceived as Asian.
Chan, on the other hand, is undeniably foreign which is a much bigger handicap in Hollywood than being Asian and this restricts his career. Granted, Arnold Schwarzenegger is an example of a foreing action star that became a major success but he was a rare exception.
Yeah, I remember reading about Cain’s ethnicity about two years ago and doing a figurative double take. I never would have guessed he was the slightest bit Asian otherwise.
That’s funny, the first time I saw him, which was in that Superman series from the 90s, I thought he looked more Asian than anything else, and wondered if his screen name was in fact his real name…
I agree, its hard to be a leading man when your English is laughable. I doubt racism has had a big impact on his career. I don’t think Asians have a harder time than most other minorities in Hollywood. How many black actors are offered lead roles in big-budget pictures that aren’t comedies and action films (Aside from a few people like Denzel Washington, and to a lesser extent Don Cheadle)?
Therein lies the problem. Some people point to Dean Cain and Keanu Reeves as “proof” that Asian men are in demand as romantic leads. However, these guys are actually Eurasian, and their Caucasian features clearly dominate. In fact, a lot of people are surprised to learn that they do have some Asian blood in them.
Unlike, say, Tia Carrere, whose part-Asian origins are fairly obvious.
Never even kissed the girl. So much for being a romantic lead.
Again, never even got to romance the girl.
Not truly Asian, and not of obvious Asian descent.
Well, like you said, he looks far more white than Asian. (Indeed, while you say that he’s “definitely” Eurasian, this is by no means obvious to everyone.)
And consider Gedde Watanabe’s character in Sixteen Candles. It’s apparently okay for Molly Ringwald to cringe at the notion of being pursued by an stereotypical Asian geek – indeed, this scenario is played up for comedic value. Yet it’s unlikely that Hollywood would ever try to get laughs by having a Caucasian man be repulsed at the notion of being pursued by an Asian woman, or have an white woman shriek in terror at the romantic advances of a black man.
It probably doesn’t help that his films are, on a superficial level, the same. He plays either a HK-supercop or secret agent, named “Jackie”, and that same Asian guy is always his boss. I don’t know if he has more leeway in Hong Kong to make the same movie over and over, but it’s probably the Hollywood-producer mindset that lead to movies like “The Tuxedo” and “Medallion”.
Washed up? Think it unfair to characterize it as that. As good a transition as can be expected.
I’m sure Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, and Jet Li would like to (and thought they would) play serious leading roles but Hollywood doesn’t want any Asian Males for that.
Couple of things seem to be contributing to an already bad problem.
Good Asian directors (the ones who could push for better roles) are making kung fu films. Ang Lee made CTHD. Zhang Yimou made Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Fans and Hollywood probably want them to continue doing so. I would hate to see them pigeon-holed.
The Matrix taught that if you hire Yuen Woo Ping as fight choreographer, you can hire non-Asian talent, and make them look ‘good enough’.
Once, long ago, in the days before multi-player games, yea, e’en before Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, to “beat” someone at a video game meant “to get a higher score”. That is how I read it, at any rate.
It doesn’t take a kiss to make dramatic romance, which this movie is classed under (there is traditionally no kissing in Bolliwood films either by the way, but they can still be romantic).
Russel Wong in Vanishing Son is undeniably a romantic lead, since he is the protagonist and meets the love of his life, who he is then forced to abandon her in a highly significant romantic sacrifice.
Dean Cain is obviously Asian to me and always was since the first time I saw him.
True, I inserted him primarily because of his long career, success, and fanbase. He may not look very Asian, nonetheless he is partially.
Don’t know this movie so I can’t comment, but are you being overly sensitive to the fact that a geek who is pursuing a white female character is Asian? Female characters are routinely chased (and repulsed) by geeks in other films, would this be an issue only when the geek is Asian?
Most recently, see Bill Murray in Lost in Translation as he very comically tries to rebuff the Japanese prostitute in his hotel room.
If the black man is a geek, a criminal “hood”, or otherwise unpleasant, I’d see nothing wrong with this scenario and I wouldn’t conclude that such as portrayal would be representative of black men (who, as Brickbacon points out, aren’t exactly bursting with lead roles or lead romantic roles). If the female screamed in horror when a refined and elegant character with good looks and sex appeal (e.g. as played by Denzel Washington) put the moves on her, I would conclude that she doesn’t like black men, but I’d have to see more before being able to assert there is a stereotype being perpetuated.
Cultural expectations of what constitutes romance are clearly different in Indian and American films: in most western works, to be a true romance, especially in a visual medium like films, it has to at least include a passionate kiss between the lead couple as a display of their mutual affection. Chaste longings, platonic devotion and bursting out in a big singing production every time you’re one inch apart from your devoted’s lips don’t count for much here, ordinarily. I want to see Aishwarya Rai showing skin and locking lips, man!
Well… He plays a character called Long Duc Dong who can barely speak English, is utterly socially inept, who does hook up with another Amamzonian white girl social misfit and has a night of crazed debauchery where he ends up in a tree, half-naked and profoundly drunk. Sixteen Candles was a seminal movie for many Americans my age growing up and it does color the (unfair) perception that Asian males in cinema are many things, but sensitive lovers aren’t one of them.
Agreed. also, black men in American movies have a long way to go, especially in terms of being depicted as romantic, devoted men … husbands, fathers and lovers. I’d like to see the next big African-American movie subgenre be the romantic comedy: there aren’t that many, and it’s a genre that could prove to be very lucrative. I’m not sure what African-Americans could say about dating and male/female relationships that hasn’t been done already, but it would be interesting to see.