Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is Hollywood Pillaging Anime And Manga For Material?
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
|
|||||||||
|
Good article, I almost entirely agree with this thoughtful take. One slight point I'd make is that there are specifically a lot more actresses of Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Korean descent who have worked in Hollywood than there are Japanese. That's naturally because there are way more Americans of those ancestries than Japanese-Americans, for a lot of reasons. Rinko Kikuchi (also hurt because unfortunately Pacific Rim didn't do so well in the US box office) is the only example given of a Japanese actress who has done Hollywood films, but there were other Asian-American choices. (Not, of course, as many as other races, since Asian-Americans are about 5% of the US population, compared to around 14-15% for Hispanic or Black. Winner-take-all effects like being star actors and actresses tend to snowball; while overall acting roles are pretty close to the overall population, lead roles are dominated by the larger ethnic groups.)
However, that would bring up other questions, like whether the character, if played by a non Japanese Asian actor, would pretend to be Japanese. It happens all the time with various other ethnicities (lots of Europeans, and there are tons of Lebanese actors who play other Mediterranean ethnicities, and of course multiracial actors like Keanu Reeves), but occasionally raises hackles as well because of history. (There's the approach taken by GI Joe, which had a Korean actor play Storm Shadow, and made it clear that he was a Korean who learned to be a ninja in Japan.) In fact, based on my Japanese friends and family, I can easily imagine fans in Japan being more annoyed by a Chinese or Korean actress pretending to be Japanese than by changing the character's ethnicity or race entirely. I also can imagine them seeing a change to a Chinese-American as being no different than changing to a white American. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
meruru
Posts: 471 |
|
|||||||||
|
I think the primary two points people are using to defend GitS are kind of weak when you consider:
1. Hollywood is depending more and more on international income, especially China, which has a whole lot more people than the US. They're even to the point now where they specifically add China (and other countries) only scenes. The more they lean on international markets, the less it makes sense to specifically appeal to Americans. 2. Hollywood is clearly willing to put high stakes risks on white dudes. For example, the director of Jurassic World was almost a complete unknown before he directed it. I'll go out on a limb here and say the director is generally more important to a movie succeeding than any single actor. Also, everyone questioned casting people like Chris Pratt, who wasn't all that known either in a movie about some weird unknown Marvel property called Guardians of the Galaxy that they were blowing a whole lot of money on. Meanwhile, just looking at box office numbers, it seems star power is having less and less influence on success of the movie. Big names like Johnny Depp and George Clooney, "sure sells" have recently had their names on big flops. GitS being translated to the west, if it were outside the context of we have a whole lot of no parts for minorities, wouldn't bother me, because the setting isn't necessarily important to the basic premise. But the problem is that it doesn't exist in a bubble. So no, I don't think GitS is particularly bad (that award goes to Doctor Strange), but I am tired of this trend, and the excuses. I honestly don't get the other point of view. Surely we all agree more diversity is good? Or if you're just tired of seeing people complain, what'd be more effective is to simply not read, don't engage. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
revolutionotaku
Posts: 886 |
|
|||||||||
|
I watched a live stream of George Takei on Facebook who said that the "Ghost in the Shell" movie will be a failure & a flop.
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
GATSU
Posts: 15307 |
|
|||||||||
|
Well, first off, HBO didn't pass on Monster. They just pulled a Bruce Lee Kung Fu and retooled it as True Detective.
 Also, Cameron gave up on Battle Angel, remember? It's in Rodriguez's hands, now. Anyway, I disagree. These execs don't care about the story. They just want to destroy the value of the property, so it can't ever undercut their market share, like Pokemon almost did. And the Japanese middle-men who make these deals happen are too greedy to realize that. As for GITS, it's true that it's not as 'culturally' Japanese as the rest. But at the same time, neither was Big Hero 6. And Di$ney cast someone of Asian descent for that lead role. And there's no chance in hell they'd tackle the sexual elements of that storyline, given the broader audience needed for it.
Maggie Q. But hey, being grammatically deficient hasn't stopped Seth Rogen from getting parts.
Because it's a leading role?
Yes, because that's totally not where this movie's headed.
Well, Toriyama was open to that kind of thing once, too.
It's more reasonable than the standards they use in casting in the first place. Utsuro: Depp is part Native-American, so... Last edited by GATSU on Wed Apr 27, 2016 3:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
|
|||||||||
Seriously? Because I don't see a link between the show which toying with Lovecraftian horror and southern gothic and paranoid thriller about conspiracies and eugenics. Besides, True Detective was written and ordered by HBO even before Del Toro started negotiations with them. Then again, you think that Interstellar is a copy of Space Battleship Yamato of all things, so... |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
|
|||||||||
|
For me the "She's not Japanese!" whines PALES in comparison to the true threat of this movie:
Namely the Tom Cruise/Edge of Tomorrow factor that the producers didn't really care about capturing the essence of the Major or the iconic anime--They looked at an anime title project that had symbolic name value for capturing a core fan demographic, and tried to look for the "hook" of association with other past-success mainstream Hollywood films that would give it some contextual sense in their own minds. Ie., how could they describe it in a Hollywood shark-meeting "It's like ____ meets ____!" pitch? In this case, they saw "Cyber-babe cop" and "Scarlet Johansson" and told their investors "It's got this sort of 'Lucy meets the Matrix' vibe!" And more to the point, unless we hear some deep fan-worthy analyses of Oshii or Shirow from Ms. Johansson, she believes she basically IS playing Lucy, the Cyber-Black Widow in a crop wig and cool Japanese name. It's not like she's exactly been stretching her acting chops for the last few films. (Although her Janet Leigh imitation was the bright spot in the otherwise offensive crockfest of "Hitchcock".) And despite similar whines, the Doctor Strange movie STILL looks better--If taking the Ancient One out of Tibet so not as to offend Big Bad China is a tradeoff, we still get the better part of the deal in the rest of it. And say what you want about Joel Grey, "Remo Williams" is one of the great unsung movies of the 80's. 
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Barciad
 Posts: 130 Location: St Andrews |
|
|||||||||
|
Chance would be a fine thing. To be honest if they did it well, if they actually put the effort in. I'd applaud them for it.
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 363 Location: Finland |
|
|||||||||
Yuri Nakamura, Keiko Matsuzaka and Yusaku Matsuda are/were Korean born or half Korean and they have always played Japanese characters in Japanese movies and tv series. Angelina Jolie's Unbroken had its share of controversies but I don't think Miyavi's half Koreannes was any of the reasons for them. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1034 |
|
|||||||||
|
A Korean playing a Japanese character is really no different from Sean Connery playing a Lithuanian in The Hunt for Red October, Russel Crowe playing a Roman in Gladiator, Alan Rickman playing a German in Die Hard, or any of a thousand other examples.
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
melmouth
Posts: 167 |
|
|||||||||
Avoiding ALL that American stuff is why I concentrate on manga and anime, and never watch a Hollywood movie (and I'm an American). |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Aquamine-Amarine
Posts: 276 |
|
|||||||||
|
The whole "OMG she's not Asian" thing is beyond stupid. What do you expect from a live action movie? It's going to be hard to find the exact type of person you need to play a role. You had Japanese actors playing Englishmen in the live action Kuroshitsuji movie, did anyone complain about that?
I'm not going to judge a movie based on the skin color of the actor/actress (wait, using Hollywood liberal logic... that's racist!). I'm going to judge it based on whether or not it was faithful to the source material, and if the actor/actress did a good job playing the role. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
ScruffyKiwi
 Posts: 675 Location: New Zealand |
|
|||||||||
To westerners that would be correct, to Japanese who to be blunt are on the whole xenophobic they would find it very offensive, ESPECIALLY a Korean playing a Japanese character. Japan has a special hate for Korea mainly due to the hidden collective guilt they feel for the crimes they committed before and during WWII. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Beatdigga
 Posts: 4371 Location: New York |
|
|||||||||
And everyone whines about those. You have to be pragmatic. That is to say, if you can find a lead who isn't 100% accurate but can make the role work, choose that person. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Punpun's ghost
 Posts: 73 Location: Wales |
|
|||||||||
|
Fair points. Whitewashing aside, I kinda feel SJ might do a good job if she's in the mood. She does sci-fi well (I thought Under The Skin was really good); and I'd say most Hollywood actresses would be very happy to be able to play a character as full-on yet rounded as the major - with a less ludicrous costume, of course! The story will be the biggest stumbling point, I fear: bet it's just a jumbled mess.
Despite feeling frustrated about the whitewashing thing generally within mainstream Hollywood films, I do feel ambivalent where anime or manga adaptations are concerned. Although I could only see some characters as Japanese, and many stories wouldn't translate at all, some could surely be relocated to the West in terms of characters and context... One thing that does strike me, too, is the fact that in most cases, anime characters look alike, whether they're from Japan, Russia, Jolly old England, or the US... Mangawashing!!! I do wonder, though, whether manga has influenced a few more female leads to creep into films: that's an appropriation I can cope with... Seeing Amy Adams smack Tom Cruise on the head with a bass guitar and then shake him by the ankle until a robot fell out is something I'd pay good money to see for instance (buy the rights now, Paramount: it'll save your bacon!) All that said, I'm struggling to think of that many anime and manga series Hollywood could plunder, and even hope to be successful. I'd love to be a fly on the wall if someone tried to pitch a studio Mawaru Penguindrum! |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Gemnist
Posts: 1757 |
|
|||||||||
|
When was there an Evangelion movie in the works?
Also, very good article. Finally someone who understands that Motoko isn't Japanese. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group