The Slanted Screen

The Slanted Screen

by Jeff Adachi

(http://www.slantedscreen.com)

A few years ago, I was introduced to Jeff Adachi’s “The Slanted Screen” dvd documentary.  I came away with a much better understanding of how movies were made in Hollywood.  I was enlightened to learn about why I was scratching my head all these years over skewed and “slanted” portrayals of Asians in the film industry.  Hearing from Asian-American actors and directors from many generations talk about the limited roles they were given was not surprising to say the least.  The extremely tight control over how Asian men can be portrayed in film restricts the artistic freedoms of writers and directors when their stories involve protagonists of Asian decent.

It was quite a revelation when heard from one industry professional in the documentary that, “If you wanted to have an Asian male protagonist, you had to make sure that you included an Asian male antagonist or villain.” For some insidious reason, Hollywood doesn’t like displaying Asian men in high regards without “balancing” that image with low regards.  “Why is that?” I asked myself. The answers may be as simple as these… Hollywood wants to control public perception of Asian men.  One is not allowed to form his own opinion without being bombarded with negative imagery.  I suppose the reasoning might be… if one were to prop up the image of the Asian man, his image may be a threat to non-Asians?  Or, certain powerful figures in Hollywood have deep resentment towards Asians.  And, they soothe their negative feelings by attacking the reputation of Asians through artistic ubiquitous media.

Another revelation I had was in learning that casting directors don’t actually get to cast actors without regard to race.  Imagine that?  Discriminatory hiring practices that are “legal”.  Of course, this is not always a rule.  Sometimes, there are exceptions.  But, the casting director explained she is given roles to fill with depictions of what ethnicities to use for which roles.  I suppose that means she’s “off-the-hook” when Asian men get predominantly humiliating and laughable roles.  Harmless entertainment… all in good fun?  Is Art truly harmless even when it undermines the perceptions of a large minority segment of the population.  One should be conscious of the expression, “Image is everything.”  But, I digress.

So, who controls what nationality of people to use for which roles?  Well, the producers of course!  Yes, the people you don’t see on the movie posters or even in interviews with the talent (ie. the directors, writers, storyboarders, and actors).  Well, you may get to see interviews by Joel Silver or some other famous face like him.  But, then you’re not thinking of the many faceless names that are tacked onto the list of producers behind a film.

Sixty Minutes should do a show on the behind-the-scenes, mysterious practices and unspoken rules and agendas that exist in Hollywood.  I urge anyone reading this blog to write to the show and inquire.  Who knows?  With enough interest and attention and the likelihood of stellar ratings, maybe it can happen?  This is America is it not?  The land where all people are treated as equal with undeniable and unalienable rights?  Hmm… “unalienable”.  Do any of you Asian Americans out there feel “Unalienable”?

Chime in anytime.  I’ll be here until the year 2050?  2060?  What do they say now?  40 is the new 20?

I. Liu

You are beautiful…

I first noticed this “National Humane Society” commercial for the adoption of dogs several months ago.  What’s interesting is I seem to recall that everytime you see this commercial, you always see the “Domestic Spousal Abuse” commecial which shows an Asian wife with the big black eye… and images of her abusive Asian Husband/father pushing her around.

Anway, about the dog commercial… it start out like so:

“You can be White…”
“You can be Yound or Old…”
“You can be African American…”
“You can be tatooed…”
“You can be a Native American…”
“You can be an American of Asian descent…”
“Whatever you are….”

“You are beautiful… in his (dog’s) eyes”

Now, call me paranoid but… they show practically each type of person they describe in this long-winded commercial, but they don’t show an Asian American.  I guess we’re not beautiful enough?  (i kid) 

But, think about this for a sec… they can’t find an Asian American actor to use?  But, they can find a native “Indian” American?  even a tatooed man?  Are we that scarce out there?

But, they showcase literally 10-15 Asian American actors in the “Spousal Abuse commercial”.  (And, yes, I know they’re aiming at Asian (immigrant) families in particular)  But, the realities of spousal abuse are not limited to just Asian immigrant families.

I can only show you the door.

Portrayals of Asian Men

The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is composed of 75% males and 25% females. And, the majority of the males are White. So, is it any wonder that White males are portrayed in flattering lights and Asian and other minority males, “not-so?” Of course the population is largely White so that definitely plays a role. But, even so, I don’t see any reason to negatively-portray minority men in the process and more often times than not.

Anyway, I hope that serves as a little backdrop for the purpose of this posting. I thought it would be interesting to keep a log of all Asian male portrayals by Hollywood, whether on television or film.

Please add your references to this list.

Commercials:

• Best Buy (5/08): This commercial was aired with a movie tie-in called, Hancock.  Another Best Buy commercial is mentioned below (hmm…)  The commercial shows Will Smith’s character, ”Hancock”,  walking along a beach.  A crowd gathers around a small whale that appears to have washed up on the shore.  Hancock runs over and grabs the whale by the tail and throws him 200 yards out to sea.  You can see a small boat in the distance.  Miraculously, the whale lands on the boat and in so doing shatters it to splinters, tossing the occupants (an Asian father and his two sons) into the water.  Now, a few observations:  Firstly, the sea is so vast… what are the odds that the whale actually hits the boat?  I’d say the odds aren’t good.  Secondly, why even have the whale land on the boat?  Why not next to it and maybe have the boat rocked a little?  Thirdly, why an Asian family on a boat?  Asians and Asian families barely get any representation as it is in film, why here in such an “odd” scene?  And, lastly… (drum roll)… Where is the wife and mother?  Okay, call it a coincidence but there are no Asian females in this scene who are “negatively” impacted by the events of the whale landing on the boat.  (hmm… I guess the Asian “men” are the only ones screwed over here).
• (some cellphone company) (5/08): This commercial shows a Black businessman narrating a scene depecting himself greeting a couple of Chinese businessmen walking to his table.  He narrates by saying that he’s about to say something really stupid to them, something like… “you have stinky garlic breath.”  Offended, the asian businessmen walk away muttering to themselves in Chinese.  This is another commercial in a chain lately that show Asian men speaking in foreign tongues.  Interestingly, not only do you see the Asian men speaking in a foreign language, the Black man attemnpts to as well…  How many times have you seen Caucasian people in film utter the words, “Speak English!”  Or, “This is America, you should try to speak the language.”  This reminds me of another recent commercial from Priceline.com where William Shatner walks into a Karate dojo and starts talking to a group of Karate students and the instructor who are speaking in Chinese.  Shatner attempts meekly to do the same.  Back to the Black businessman “offending” the Chinese.  That seems to be a reoccuring theme in movies lately… a Black man offending the Asian man.  I’ve noticed in the movies, “Rush Hour 3″, Chris Tucker’s character calls a captive Chinese gang member, a Chinam– right in front of Jacky Chan whose character is “Chinese”.  In another movie, “War”, a Black FBI agent greets a new FBI agent, played by actor “Sung Kang” (Han from Better Luck Tomorrow) with the line, “Back of the bus!”  Now, I’m no historian, but, isn’t that the same statement uttered to Rosa Parks, that spawned the whole Civil Rights movement?  “Back of the bus?”  “Back of the line” maybe… By the way, this is the same movie that shows two Caucasian officers saying something about all Asians looking alike.
• General Electric (3/08): This commercial is touting the fact that some American companies like GE are doing business overseas as in China. It starts off with an Asian flower merchant noticing an attractive Asian woman walking. He smiles meekly holding flowers in his hand. As she continues walking, he can’t help but walk after her and in the process, trip and fall causing a chain-reaction leading to a massive cloud of smoke erupting through the streets. Then it ends by showing him walk into a hospital out-patient room and low-and-behold, the girl who caught his eye turns out to be the doctor who treats him. Now, I have say… I thought this was rather cute and well-done. However, I also have to say that… this commercial reinforces the fact that Asian women in this country are shown in more flattering lights than Asian men, not to mention more “assimilated” lights as in dating “White” men. And, the Asian guy in the commercial is shown as a blue-collar worker, a somewhat lower social class. Not only is he just blue-collar compared to the Asian woman’s role as a “prestigious” doctor. He’s just a “street-corner” merchant. He doesn’t even work in a shop!
• Six Flags Marine World (3/08): This commercial shows a middle-aged Asian man’s face in a pop-up super-imposed on top of the video of the park. He doesn’t seem particularly annoying until he speaks and smiles. He keeps shouting out “1 flag… 2 flags… 3 flags… more flags more fun!” Of course he says this with a strong accent. It just came off bad. Why they picked a middle-aged guy instead of a young teenager when they’re trying to appeal to mostly kids is beyond me. And, did I mention when he smiles, he looks real goofy? Ok, when he smiles… he looks real GOOFY.  And, lastly, it reminded me of the Warner Brother’s “Merry Melodies” cartoon where at the end, you see Porky Pig pop-up with only his head showing, “Uh deeb… Uh deeb… That’s All Folks!”
• Car commercial (maker?) (3/08): This commercial shows an older Asian male sushi chef with a rather unhappy expression sitting shotgun next to a Caucasian male driver with another Caucasian back-seat passenger. I don’t remember much of the commercial… looking back now. But, I do recall seeing that he attempts to hand something using his chef knife to the passenger in the backseat. All that I can remember thinking now is… what is a sushi-chef doing dressed in work attire sitting in a car that the car manufacturer is trying to sell? I mean I’m Asian and honestly I was scared by the chef’s demeanor. It was reminiscent of Michael Myers from the movie, Halloween.
• Mervyn’s (?/07): This commercial depicts a fight scene inside a Mervyn’s retail outlet.  In it, there were some ninjas that were fighting and were being tossed around.  What struck me as odd… besides there being “ninjas” in a Mervyn’s store was the fact that one or more of the ninjas were not the typical kind you would see in movies, but this ninja had the top of the head exposed, meaning his head wasn’t completely shrouded like a typical ninja.  Instead, you could see his hair completely.  Now, I’ve seen quite a few martial arts movies in my time, Asian and non-asian made, depicting ninjas.  This is the first I have ever seen a ninja with his face completely shrouded but only his hair exposed.  I can’t imagine the producer or director of the commercial specifically saying, “And, let’s add this ninja but I don’t want his entire head concealed… let’s have his hair exposed.”  A couple of observations… the ninja’s hair was a style typical of Asian men (parted down the middle with long bangs).  This guy could not be mistaken for anyone other than an Asian man.  I know that ninjas are of course an Asian construct.  But, I submit to you that it’s quite possible that one or more parties behind the production of this commercial were trying to reinforce the stereotype of Asian men being kung fu guys.  Let’s keep in mind that Kung fu guys are not sexy and they are foreign.  This idea has been reinforced “single-handedly” by Hollywood through the years.  I do recognize the fact that hollywood may not be directly tied to the production of this commercial… but where do these commercial production companies come from?  And, how does one know for sure that they don’t have ties with Hollwyood?
• Best Buy (12/07): This commercial was aired during the Christmas holiday. It shows an Asian guy looking through his telescope in his apartment who then asks his girlfriend to come take a look. His girlfriend walks over peers through the scope and sees an African American couple in another building kissing and sharing a nice private moment. She then says, “What’s wrong with you?” And, walks away disgusted. There’s a few interesting things to note here. Firstly, the African American couple is portrayed positively in a harmonious moment. The Asian American couple is shown in a less than harmonious moment with, of course, the Asian guy looking like an idiot.
• CareerBuilder.com (2/07): This commercial was aired during the Superbowl. So, you can imagine just how many people saw it. In the commercial, there was some ruckus going on and people were fighting. An Asian pizza delivery guy shows up and starts doing kung-fu. In one scene you see a White office worker giving an Asian office worker a “wedgie” while he’s on his hands an knees, crying out in pain.
• Helio – Asian guy / White girl couple (?/06): White girl brings home the Asian boyfriend. Parents confuse their daughter’s boyfriend’s name, “Gen Woo” with theHelio phone (gadget, er, whatever they call it). The daughter cries out, “I knew they wouldn’t understand” leaving the Asian guy standing around feeling really out of place. This is reminiscent of the movie, “Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story” where a very similar thing happened based on a true story.
• Car commercial (?/06): Asian father driving a vehicle with a baby in a carriage (conspicuously, the wife is not present… was he playing the part of the “stork”?) He parks and gets out of the car. Walks over to open the passenger door… out comes a Sumo wrestler which he attempts to carry out of the car. “What the HECK?” Are they trying to sell cars here? Obviously, they didn’t do a good job because I have no recollection on what car company this ad was for. Anybody else out there remember seeing this commercial? Do you recall the car company?Anti-perspirant commercial (?/200?): An Asian family eating in a Chinese restaurant. This studly Asian guy gets up (yes, “studly”… so it looked promising at first) walks to the restroom, gets attacked by ninjas left and right, comes back to the table and sits down with a smile. The point of the commercial? He did it without breaking a sweat. “Clever! Using stereotypes to bring home a message.”

Portrayals of Asian Women

As you all know, Hollywood is run by mostly White males…  producers, writers, directors, etc.  The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is composed of 75% males and 25% females.  So, naturally, plots and storylines come from the whims of mostly men.  Is it any wonder that women on the screen are portrayed with a heightened sense of sex appeal?  Actresses like Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), Joan Chen (Last Emperor), and Kelly Hu (Scorpion King) have all had their share of exotic roles with lots of sex appeal. 

On a side note, the hugely-popular and successful show, “Sex in the City” is a show about four sexually-liberated White women and their personal lives and tastes and attitudes.  However, the show was largely penned by a man.  Hmmm… how interesting?  To be able to control and affect the  minds of millions of women glued to their TV sets by just one man.  (wait a minute… isn’t that what I’m trying to do?  No!  I’m not trying to affect just women, although I am trying to affect just Asians.)  But, I digress…

White America seems to have an acquired taste for Asian women as they have only recently (in Hollywood’s film history) jumped out of their former “Dragon Lady” skins and into the ”sexually-liberated“ type eager to be rescued from their Asian heritage of demure conservativism.

Please chime in with your attitudes and opinions on this topic.  I ask that you keep your posts as civil and polite as possible.

Revival of Long-Duk Dong in Seinfeld

I was enjoying a relaxing, casual evening the other night when I saw a commercial for Seinfeld.  To my surprise, Asian-American actor, Gedde Watanabe jumps out from what appears to be a storage box, looking like his old infamous character, Long-Duk Dong from the 1984 film classic, “Sixteen Candles“.

If you are an Asian-American male and you saw that movie back in 1984 or even after, I’m pretty sure you would have been embarrassed by his shenanigans and considered his role an insult.  If so, you would be part of the majority of Asian-American males.  Some of us Asian guys out there play it off as harmless comedy.  But, if they were entirely honest about it, they would admit that they didn’t appreciate the comedy nor the slant.  After all, the saying goes, “Image is Everything.”

 Chime in on this topic and do try to keep your posts as classy as possible… I know there’s got to be a lot of resentment and hard feelings out there.  But, let’s try and keep the blog as civil and digestable as possible so that it doesn’t deteriorate into a diatribe or needless rant.  Because, if it did… you’d be “preaching to the choir.”