Bai Ling doesn’t have fallopian tubes. Personality #12 tore them and her uterus out so she could squeeze a size 0000 denim micromini over her lavender thong.
This thread is proving Argent Towers correct. From my old times Nancy Kwan was the asian actress brought out when needed. There are few and that is too bad.
Tia Carrera and Ziyi Zhang came off the top of my head. Admitedly, I have a specific thing for Ziyi Zhang, so YMMV, but Tia Carrera was at least at one time a household name.
By the way - you’re suggesting here that you assumed a fashion snark blog was written by straight men.
Ummmmyeeeeaaa…(chews carrot)…could be.
Hollywood has a lot of unwritten rules. One of them is that certain ethnic groups are just never going to be allowed to stand in for the likable, romantic, whatever, hero or heroine. I mean for gosh sake, white Jewish women are still being typecast.
I would think Asians are quite a ways down the pecking order for that to ever change. For one thing, the money people don’t think they go to the movies nearly as much as Whites, Blacks or Latin(o/a)s.
For another thing, two words: chop socky. This is a business built on stereotypes. Always has been. They get the point across quickly and often entertainingly. They’ve just had to be more subtle about the stereotypes they employ in recent years.
The money people should know how many white guys are into Asian women.
I’m sure they do, but how do you write dragon ladies, B-girls, or mail-order brides into every other script? An Asian character still has to have a reason for being Asian, and among the females, it’s often a demeaning one. Hollywood just isn’t ready for anything else.
I can’t think of any examples beyond Wayne’s World and Croutching Tiger right now, but I am pretty sure that the asian heroin is not that uncommon. I know I have seen it other places.
I disagree that she has to have a reason for being Asian. Why would you think that?
Example: the hit movie Sideways gave Sandra Oh a great deal of recognition. I don’t think she’s very attractive, myself, but she’s a good actress and has great presence. But there was no reason whatsoever why that character needed to be Asian. In the original novel, there is no mention at all of the race of that character (whose name is Maya in the book, not Stephanie.)
Yet, for some reason - maybe because Alexander Payne happened to be married to Sandra Oh, or maybe because he just thought that she’d be good in the part - they decided to make that character Asian.
Why couldn’t they do that with anyone else? Any movie with a female lead - comedy, action, whatever - they could decide to have an Asian-American actress play it. Just like in real life. Sometimes you meet people who happen to be Asian. They don’t have a reason for being Asian, they just are.
You did realize there was a joke in progress, right?
Of course. Abbott and Costello, Who’s On First. It was a good one, very funny, and I laughed out loud. I just wanted to mention that Naomi is English-born (moved to Australia when was 14) and considers herself English, because a lot of people don’t realize that. It was an FYI post, I just didn’t include a “laugh” prior to the link. I should have indicated that I got it. Let’s try it again.
laugh
Actually though, she’s English, FYI for those who don’t know.
I had a mini-inappropriate-crush on her when the movie came out and remembered her name. Admittedly, she’s not all that famous, more’s the pity.
[Peter Cetera]I am the man who will fight for your honor/I’ll be the hero that you’re dreaming of…[/virtuoso jazz-rock bassist reduced to hacking out cheesy-assed love ballads Peter Cetera]
(I thought she was hot too. I used to watch that movie over and over again.)
I dunno.
I think it depends on the household…
If you are a Disney channel household (we have kids that age) Brenda Song isn’t exactly Mylie Cyrus in terms of name recognition, but she is a top Disney channel star.
If you live in a house where Hong Kong action movies are watched, Michelle Yeoh is going to be someone you recognize.
Sandra Oh had a long run on Grey’s Anatomy, Ming Na and Parminder Nagra on ER - shows a lot of people watched regularly. Lucy Liu is best known from Ally McBeal.
Now, has any Asian actress crossed over into big star - not yet. It will happen. Sandra Oh works consistently, but she has the looks of a character actress. Ziyi Zhang has the looks of a movie star, but isn’t a native English speaker. Lucy Liu got typecast as the dragon lady - as you said, she isn’t a great actress - and isn’t going to take the lead in a romantic comedy with her image anytime soon. Aishwayra Rai (if we are extending the definition of Asian to Indian) is starting to crossover, has a lovely English speaking voice (that wonderful Indian English), and is darn easy on the eyes.
We were watching Better Luck Tomorrow again and realized how odd it is in that movie that there are so many Asian people in Texas… but then you realize, that’s how many there are in real life.
They know. But it is probably the tastes of women that determine who the female stars are.
I understand where you are coming from and agree with your analysis. However, the first words in the OP were “Quick, name an Asian actress.” Which lends itself to people responding that way. Sure, the point is that not too many people would be able to name more than 1 or 2 (if any) but with the membership of the SDMB you can be sure there will be those who can name a whole bunch. Data outliers, as it were.
I’m as whitebread American as they come but for various reasons I have become an afficianado of Asian film. I own over 300 Asian DVDs, have watched over 200 Korean movies, even more Chinese/HK, and my share of Japanese as well. I could easily list 50 Korean/Chinese/Japanese actors/actresses off the top of my head (although I’d probably gum up the spelling of the Korean ones), and might even be able to hit 70 or 80.
Equipoise, The Bride with White Hair is one of my all-time favorite movies as well. I wrote a review of it for another site. I’d appreciate your feedback.
I haven’t read the novel, but in the film Maya is the name of Virginia Madsen’s character.
I don’t understand, can you elaborate a bit?