Tim RH

Ricardo C

Man, an hour wasted on this sig! Thanks, Toshiba! :p

Dennis Pagoulatos

And "Mr. Wang" will be VERY happy with the casting Zhang Ziyi, I'm sure of it.

-Dennis

He must have died while carving it!...

Cameron Yee

Okay, I have a few more thoughts.

Actor casting ideals aside (i.e. roles should be give to the best person for the job, not whether he/she looks the part, comes from the country, etc.) I really don't think this helps to educate people about the differences in the cultures. But then is film really the proper instrument to do this? Are we asking too much of a movie to educate the uneducated? Maybe it doesn't hurt the situation either, because if a person doesn't know the difference based on surnames in the first place, then it really won't make a difference to that person whether the actor is Japanese, Chinese or Thai. The education has to happen in different venue, with a different instrument because film is usually a rather feeble medium for that sort of thing. If we based all our knowledge on what we see in movies, then we'd have most things in history, politics and religion all wrong.

Tim's made some good points and I'm agreeing more with him and Brian than David. Which just goes to show that Asians don't all think alike either

Ernest Rister

"I really don't think this helps to educate people about the differences in the cultures. But then is film really the proper instrument to do this?"

Only if the film intends on educating people about the differences in cultures, and then you're making a documentary. Movies come in all shapes and sizes, genres and sub-genres, even different mediums within the same media (animation and live-action). This is another reason why placing race-based restrictions on actors or any other craftsperson in the performing arts is such a bad idea. Where does it stop? Will we next demand that only Japanese art directors be allowed to contribute to the look of the film? How about demanding a Japanese DP? How about demanding a Japanese director? A Japanese writer? A Japanese composer? Where does this all end?

It seems to me that the focus on actors is mere race politics, because it isn't the quest for artistic truth these people are interested in, they are concerned about "purity" of on-screen racial representation (in this case, in a mass-media consumer product called Memoirs of a Geisha). This is a classic flaw in the logic of certain progressive thinking -- the heart is in the right place (getting work for a minority largely under-represented in American media), but the means suggested are downright fascist. In the end, what happens is that these good-hearted people create the very same segregation and racial divisions that they think their noble goal will heal.

Morgan Freeman was cast as Red, the Irishman, in Shawshank Redemption. Another great performance we would have missed out on if certain people had their way, people more concerned with racial purity in on-screen representation than artistic truth.

Besides, we all come from the same primordial mum and dad anyway, so we're ALL the same race...the Human Race.

David Ren

No, some people just don't have any pigmentation in their skin.

But anyway, I think we're all going off-topic here. The main question in this thread is: Is it wrong to cast three Chinese women in Japanese roles?



If the white women successfully pull it off, why not give them the role?




No, it doesn't make them one. That's why they are, repeat after me:

ACTORS. THEY ARE ACTORS. THEY PLAY CHARACTERS.

By your logic, they should cast real cops to play cops. Just because the actors dress up in police uniform and look like cops doesn't make them cops. Why not cast a real ugly woman in MONSTER instead of trying to ugly Charlize Theron up? There are probably thousands of qualified ugly actresses who would be great in that role.

Where does it end?



Exactly! Everyone on the planet came from one place anyway: Africa. So I am African. You are African. Everybody is African. There is no such thing as race. There is no race gene. There is nothing in your DNA that can tell what race you belong to.

Even if they cast a Chinese man to play an African-American, I wouldn't have a problem with that because THERE ARE AFRICANS THAT LOOK CHINESE. TRUST ME, THERE ARE.

If a Chinese family moved to Russia a hundred years ago, would their great-grandchildren be Russian or Chinese? What about two hundred years ago? Five hundred? At what point do they become Russian instead of Chinese?

David

Ricardo C

True. I generalized too much.


Racially, they'd be Asian. Culturally, they'd be Russian. Or at least, that's how I'd see it.

Edited to remove non-offensive but redundant off-topic ramblings.

Man, an hour wasted on this sig! Thanks, Toshiba! :p

SteveGon

Ernest: excellent post.



You think that was bad? Go watch Spencer Tracy in Tortilla Flat.

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Richard Kim

Entering this thread late, I have mixed feelings about this. While I do somewhat agree that the 3 Chinese actresses could do a good job in the roles, it would have been nice if at least 1 Japanese actress had a lead role, star power or not. Look at The Last Samurai. Instead of casting someone like Chow Yun-Fat, a relative unknown in Ken Watanabe was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

I can also see why people are upset by this. As a Korean-American, I get extremely annoyed whenever people come up to me and say "Are you Chinese?"

Also, me and other Asian friends I know can tell other Asian ethnicities apart rather well. I consider it a sixth sense.

Thi Them

As an Asian-American, who is part of the world, I am offended to be thought of as getting dumber.

Seriously, I can understand why some are upset about this casting and I can understand why some aren't. For me, it doesn't matter as long as they are believable to me in their roles.



Most definately. "Mr. Wang" be happy to Ziyi Zhang.

~T