current selection | misia – kazenifukarete
feelin’ | hungry
an interesting article from the ny times talks about hollywood portrayals of asian culture in movies. people have been rather particular about the way japanese are depicted in recent movies like lost in translation (short men, engrish speaking, etc…), kill bill (dragon lady), and the last samurai (uber-honorable, much to learn from the foreign man, etc…). while ill admit to having been a little grated at the thought of maverick as the last samurai, i do think we live in an age where people are a little overly p.c. and being culturally sensitive. the potentially stereotyping depictions in past movies like rising sun and gung-ho, and the even worse yellow-facing of the far past…mr. wong, sayonara, shit…even breakfast at tiffany’s…are things of the not-too-distant past. but cinema has progressed alot since then, and cultural understanding (as opposed to overt cultural sensitivity) has allowed movies to broaden cinematic diversity again. attempting to depict something as absolutely “accurate” is near impossible anyway because perceptions of cultural inheritances will differ from person to person. what one person may find scathingly accurate (the talk show host in translation), another person could see as a perpetuating stereotype. is o-ren ishii a depiction of a dragon lady (which is a chinese stereotype), or is she just portraying a bitch? there are so many facets of culture thats exposed to media and portrayance today, that if someone were to tread as lightly around everything that could be perceived as offensive, they wouldnt be able to engage culture at all. likewise, if they were to go ahead and try and make something that was sensitive to everybodys culture, it would be just as sanitized.
ok, wheres this going? oh yea…movies have come a long way since daughter of the dragon, and for asian depictions in particular, theres still a ways to go. but its progressing…theres at least no more yellow-facing. and we should all be glad for it.
> land of the rising cliches (via ny times)
m3ntal side note
i also found it interesting how the last samurai portrayed the samurai caste as honorably flawless and absolute with their bushido code. this was of course a wholly idealistic portrayal, since samurai were for the most part politically corrupt. the “ideal” samurai was a fantasy, a fabricated notion glamorized by literature and chambara cinema. on a similar note, i was watching terry jones’ medieval life on the history channel last nite where they were discussing the european knights of old. while many attribute chivalry and damsel-saving with knights of yore, the historical fact about knights were that they were little more than professional fighters…and later in history, rich religious professional fighters. rather ruthless ones at that. history, as it turns out, seems to be able hide alot of facts…so its comforting to know that sanitizing the past isnt confined to just one culture.