Then there’s this bit of news, in which the studio thinks it’s A-OK to test out digital yellowface. The fact that they even considered making her look more asian post-production means they know what race she’s supposed to be. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I did see someone mention that this is in tiny part Scarlett’s fault too. She could have turned the role down on principle. She’s not exactly hurting for roles or money at the moment. But she didn’t.
So yes, I’m also on the “why in hell didn’t you cast an asian actress for an obviously asian role?” train. I won’t bother to go see it in theaters.
It’s funny, because China is a huge part of the market now and what did great recently there? So well that a Chinese studio has picked up the rights for a sequel? Was it…Pacific Rim? The one with Rinko Kikuchi as one of the lead roles? Tell me *again *how a Japanese actress would turn off China.
The Chinese market is a consideration, but it’s not the target demographic. Hollywood makes movies for American audiences. China can make their own movies, which they appear to be doing with Pacific Rim sequels.
It’s called a rhetorical question, because I gave an obvious answer of an accepted Japanese actress. If the Chinese really judged all Japanese actresses by atrocities committed by unrelated generations-past people of her race, then the movie should have been rejected by your argument. But they didn’t reject the movie purely because she was Japanese. I was addressing the previous arguments that China does matter in the money-making market, but we can’t expect them to support a movie with a Japanese actress. It’s been proven with Pacific Rim that it doesn’t kill the movie. Sure, China isn’t the #1 audience. But it sure is a big consideration when making a film of this type.
This is all secondary to the fact that Motoko Kusanagi definitely uses a Japanese body in Ghost in the Shell, so there is no canon reason to change her race.
I’m not convinced that “digital yellowface” is actually a problem, if they can make it work. Acting is all about appearing to be someone that you’re not. The actor never looks exactly like the character they’re portraying, but they use various means to get closer. Makeup has long been a part of that; what’s different about digital makeup?
For comparison, it’s really no big deal what color an actor’s hair is. Hair color is really easy to change, and with professional makeup artists doing the job, it can be changed so well that it’s indistinguishable from the real thing. So an actor of any hair color can play a character of any hair color. Maybe, if digital race-changing becomes developed enough, the same will be true of race.
If anything, it might end up being a boon for minority actors. If they can make “digital yellowface” work, then they can make “digital whiteface” work, too, and so you could have minority actors playing roles of any race.
I think that there’s a lot of knee-jerk reaction against this technique, because historical blackface was so bad. But it wasn’t bad just because of white actors portraying blacks; it was bad because they were portraying them inaccurately, playing to unrealistic stereotypes both in the makeup and in the portrayed behavior.
Because yellowface and blackface are dehumanising, discriminatory, and offensive at root. I don’t really want to take the burden of explaining how offensive it is to think it’s ok to be like, “We can’t cast you because you’re not white. But if I, a white person, put on some makeup to look like you, it’s ok. Besides, I can just take it off later and continue playing white parts.” The sheer amount of white superiority and racism and…eeesh…
And making asian actors/actresses look white? As though that’s…what they want? That they want to be erased and replaced by a “superior” look? That this could be conceived as OK?
You know how many Asian-American actors have won an Oscar? One. Ever. And she looks like this. It’s possible that digital race changing would open up tons of opportunities for minority actors to get cast in non-minority roles. It’s almost equally possible that they will be paid entirely in unicorns. What’s more likely to happen is that you just stop seeing minority celebrities of any particular importance - if you can cast Brad Pitt in literally any role, why ever give Bai Ping a shot?
And, of course, if you’re making a production about, say, life as a Chinese American, and no one involved in the production is actually Chinese, including the lead, you’re probably going to start getting those stereotypes creeping into the practice.
So, to be sure I’ve got this straight: A white actor being made to look Asian is demeaning to Asians, and an Asian actor being made to look white is demeaning to Asians.
The central thread in the show was that Caine’s father was white. So Caine is only half Chinese. Is it better to have Bruce Lee than it is to have Carradine? I don’t mean in the sense of who would have been more awesome in the role because of course the fight scenes would have been much better. Brandon Lee wasn’t around until the sequel.
Yes, because both imply that being Asian is bad compared to being white. That an Asian person is only desirable if they are either played by a white person, or if they’re made to look like a white person. That no matter what they do, their race makes them less than, because if they’re being themselves then they’re not worthy of being hired.
Scenario A: We can’t hire you because you’re Asian. But we can hire this white person and make her look like you. What matters of course is that we all know that she’s white on the inside. Not Asian like you. That’s why this is better.
Scenario B: We can cast you, but you can’t look Asian. We can’t have that. We have to make you look white for our audiences. So make sure to hide any trace of Asian in you. Only white is acceptable.
Either way, it’s erasing Asian people and calling them inferior. No good.
I just don’t get the issue at all. I am sure Asian actors have zero problems getting roles in Asian movies made in Asia, hell you can always pop in the original Ghost in the Shell if you want that. The whole point of remaking a foreign movie is to tailor it to a different audience.
I mean, theoretically this sounds nice and all but taken another way it’s essentially saying America and American media is for whites only. Everyone else can just go back and get jobs in the countries they came from. (Let us not speak of where white Americans came from). I don’t think that should be the ideal. Casting a white person as another race comes with about a hundred pounds of racial baggage. You wouldn’t get that just casting Motoko with a japanese actress to begin with.
I personally don’t care about diversity in the movies at all, it just comes across as a cowardly casting decision which weakens the whole presentation. I already know this story is about a Japanese police force saving the world from cyber stuff. So now I have to partially forget that or accept the lead Japanese cop is Scarlett Johansen. I now know they don’t trust me to enjoy an Asian protagonist. It shows how little concern they have for the source material. It’s just lame all around.
You’re right. I personally think that the new Luke Cage TV show that they are going to be bringing to Netflix should star Chris Pine as Luke Cage, but digitally make him look black. Actors like Mike Colter should really have no trouble getting cast in Spike Lee movies or going to Africa and working in their media there. Why isn’t netflix trying to reinterpret this for a new audience by casting the white guy as the lead like they should?
