Hollywood whitewash manga yet again...
You may remember back in 2009 I blogged about the travesty that was the Hollywood release of every Chinese kids childhood anime favourite Dragonball Z. Back then I saw the film whilst in Hong Kong, which only exacerbated my annoyance and confusion at casting a White guy for the lead role of Goku (if you haven't read that post, click here and take a look before you read on... well worth it just to watch the hilarious Kevjumba YouTube clip, who articulated and visually demonstrated my disgust way better than I ever could!). The film was hideously awful, made worse with the fact that Chinese cinema legend Chow Yun Fat took a starring role along side the lead as his mentor and side kick. What were you thinking man??!
Anyway, it seems Hollywood is set to once again offend and annoy the Asian community once again (and I mean Asian in the American sense here... as in Chinese, Japanese etc), by looking to cast a White guy as the lead in the Manga great, Akira! Why??! Why does the film industry insist in casting Hollywood adaptations of great Asian anime with Caucasian actors?? Is there a great lack of talented Chinese and Japanese performers out there? I think not! Look at Jay Chou, Rain (who just won the Time 100 most influential people poll), Daniel Henney to name but a few. Yet we're restricted to bit parts, side kicks and extras.
When the Green Hornet came out in Hong Kong (and I was there at the time) the posters pasted across billboards in the MTR (Hong Kong's underground train system) featured Jay Chou heavily. Seth Rogen didn't even appear in some of the posters. Casting non Asians in lead roles of Asian films is offensive to the Asian community. Our culture and our art is good enough for the West, but not the people?
George Takei has taken up the banner of the Asian community and is calling for Warner Brothers to reconsider their casting choices for the role of Akira. I suggest we do the same. Take a look at his interview on Perez Hilton here.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Anyway, it seems Hollywood is set to once again offend and annoy the Asian community once again (and I mean Asian in the American sense here... as in Chinese, Japanese etc), by looking to cast a White guy as the lead in the Manga great, Akira! Why??! Why does the film industry insist in casting Hollywood adaptations of great Asian anime with Caucasian actors?? Is there a great lack of talented Chinese and Japanese performers out there? I think not! Look at Jay Chou, Rain (who just won the Time 100 most influential people poll), Daniel Henney to name but a few. Yet we're restricted to bit parts, side kicks and extras.
When the Green Hornet came out in Hong Kong (and I was there at the time) the posters pasted across billboards in the MTR (Hong Kong's underground train system) featured Jay Chou heavily. Seth Rogen didn't even appear in some of the posters. Casting non Asians in lead roles of Asian films is offensive to the Asian community. Our culture and our art is good enough for the West, but not the people?
George Takei has taken up the banner of the Asian community and is calling for Warner Brothers to reconsider their casting choices for the role of Akira. I suggest we do the same. Take a look at his interview on Perez Hilton here.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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