Forum - View topicINTEREST: Netflix's Death Note the Next Target of Whitewashing Claims
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chronos02
Posts: 268 |
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What I'm tired of isn't the fact almost all the staff is based on the west, no, what I'm tired, annoyed and pissed off about is the fact they only want to use mostly famous and/or rising actors to push the movie/series popularity up. It's a marketing stunt that vomits all over the artpiece and makes it dumb in nearly all the cases this has happened.
Is it that hard to actually look for people that actually fit the roles? Death Note's events happen mostly in Japan, and most of the characters are of Japanese descent, why can't they simply get Japanese actors and make them act as they should, make the shootings in Tokyo or the relevant areas, then add dubs in the case the actors don't know how to speak English correctly (or viceversa), then actually make an appealing marketing campaign? Is it really that hard? Do they only want to vomit trash content to earn some dumb bucks and keep going? Oh wait a minute... THAT'S WHAT THEY ACTUALLY WANT TO DO!!! I don't even know why I wrote this, sigh. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4389 Location: New York |
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People act like this is going to retroactively erase the numerous Japanese LA adaptations, most of which sucked by the way, because a story is being made with a black detective hunting a white killer, who pals around with Willem Dafoe.
If the story was set in Japan and everyone was white, that's one thing. But this? This is fine. |
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FackuIkari
 Posts: 411 Location: Argentina |
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L is black what are you talking about? |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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Race issues have nothing to do with the story of Death Note. He's against criminals he deems unworthy and those who try to oppose him. He has a God complex which stems from his self-rightiousness and boredom. The whole point of his character is he thinks he's doing the right thing to make the world a better place, and those who aren't with him are against him.. If anything, Light should be a left-wing college kid who thinks they can change the world for the better by punching people they call Nazis and rioting in the streets and burning down public property if they really wanted to make the story fitting for contemporary America. |
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Woomy
 Posts: 110 |
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Oh my Godzilla. *bangs head against wall* People are stupid.
How can you sit there and honestly start claiming something like this is being racist when this cast is more diverse than the original ever was? People use the term "whitewashing" too loosely. This is just a localization of the property, and it's a two-way street. Whitewashing would be casting nothing but a bunch of white people in Exodus:Gods and Kings. Whitewashing would hypothetically be casting white people as Black Panther or Storm. I'm all for entertainment being more progressive, but let's consider the context and pick the battles wisely people. It almost seems like these people just want to be outraged by something. This kind of stuff isn't helping. |
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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Wake me when they criticize the film for its creative choices with the source material and how they'll effect the fidelity to its story details or themes, not what actors the country of production casts.
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Woomy
Posts: 110 |
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How? L's ethnicity is not crucial to his character, and the guy never was Asian to begin with. He's from Wales. Plus, Keith Stanfield is a great actor. I'm looking forward to seeing his performance as L. From the photo, he looks to still be conserving his eccentric nature. Seeing him sit weird made me smile. |
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Rainbowlink
Posts: 2 |
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Hello, I am an Asian American, I am offended on my own behalf. A lot of my Asian friends agree with me, so y'know. Of course I nor anyone else speaks for all Asian Americans, but I do represent a sizable portion of us. We're like 6% of the population in America (though that statistic is all Asians, not just East Asians, so take that as you will.) Plus, according to the 2010 census, we make up 13.8% of the population in Seattle. http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cityplanning/populationdemographics/aboutseattle/raceethnicity/default.htm To note, I would not be upset if this were an isolated incident, but there is quite the history of white-washing and westernization in Hollywood. Also, also, I'm not calling for an all-Asian cast (in fact, I think it's great they've cast an African American as L), but it'd be nice to have an Asian-American play an Asian lead role in a Hollywood film.[/url] |
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Re:SOUL
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People take these things far too seriously. I was bothered by Scarlett Johansson playing the lead in Ghost in the Shell but that was because I didn't want a white character playing a character with name that is clearly Japanese. However, at that time I thought if they simply referred to her as The Major that's a way to get around this issue. I had even forgotten about Motoko's backstory and how that was even her real name.
In the case of Death Note the argument doesn't have much weight because the film isn't set in Japan, it's set in America. Why don't people complain about Power Rangers having non-Japanese people in the cast? Because the adaptation isn't set in Japan. Would I have liked a Japanese actor as the Major? Sure, especially since the film seems to take place in Japan and diversity doesn't hurt. Still, people need to consider these things carefully. It's hypocritical for fans of the source material to call whitewashing here but stay silent over the fact that the cast of the Fullmetal Alchemis movie are Asian when the protagonists are from the western world which is evident from the fact that Xing is an eastern country that closely emulates China. |
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Bandanaman
 Posts: 6 |
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Jesus Christ this is getting completely idiotic. It's as if these people are professional victims who are getting paid exorbitant sums of money to be offended at what amounts to non-issues. This politicization of every single aspect of human interactivity and entertainment will have a massive backlash and these perma-offended virtue signaling posers who complain and whine about meaningless crap like "whitewashing" 24/7 will rightfully bear the brunt of it.
I personally can't wait for it to happen. I am so friggin' tired of this crap and I know I'm not the only one. Please, for the love of God, can't we all remember it's just a show and relax for once!? |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I get where you're coming from, but I actually really like the casting for Death Note for a lot of those reasons. Like you mentioned, Light is perfectly representative of the type of character he is playing. And to the point about there being non-white Americans, Death Note features the HEROES as a BLACK guy and an ASIAN AMERICAN. Both of whom, do not seem to be playing to any sort of racial stereotype. While whitewashing complaints are valid in many cases, Death Note, I do not think is one of those. This movie features a very diverse cast, with some awesome potential(albeit, likely to be wasted), to make some social and racial commentary. Last edited by relyat08 on Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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The term whitewashing is not reserved exclusively for black>white. Other non-white races and cultures besides black exist out there. If all it takes is a single black casting choice for you to dismiss any notions of the rest of the cast being changed, you might want to ask yourself why that is. It's always an interesting phenomenon to see Asians being ignored as a minority while blacks seem to be at the forefront of the diversity parade. It's okay to recast an Asian character, but a black character being recast is where the line is crossed? Odd, to say the least.
People complain about that all the time, though. Especially in cases where ego-inflated actors like Jason David Frank says how badass "he" is by pointing to a fight scene from the show, ignoring the fact it's a Japanese stuntman inside the DragonRanger outfit in stock-footage from a Japanese show. -Stuart Smith Last edited by Stuart Smith on Wed Mar 29, 2017 2:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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It's almost as if you've completely missed the point of the backlash against white-washing. The complaints are not about the nationality, but the ethnicity of the actors, it's not like Hollywood is lacking in under-utilized Asian-American talent. Why could this not be set in Japan and have Asian-American actors play the Japanese characters? (L was British so I don't particularly mind his casting choice) Goes back to my complaint of needing everything to be American because Hollywood seems to think Americans are too dumb to understand anything that's not about them. |
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maxs2d2ace
Posts: 8 |
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If your going to complain about one race being changed than you should complain about the whole cast too. Its an american adaptation, I don't care at this point. |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2338 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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Yeah this movie isn't exactly The Good Earth, where the lead girl went to Louise Rainer instead of Chinese American actress Ana May Wong, thank you William Honkey Hays.
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