this pledge i make to you

[davemerrill]

The controversy about casting people of certain ethnicities as characters of different-appearing ethnicities in a fantasy movie is reaching a fever pitch with the upcoming release of "Who Cares" by the great director Failure. I only hope that the people calling for the boycott of this upcoming film are also calling for the condemnation of the Takarazuka Theater for failing to get actual French people for their production of ROSE OF VERSAILLES.



I bet they didn't even AUDITION non-Japanese talent -- OR MEN - for ANY of these roles!! RACISM MY FRIENDS PURE AND SIMPLE.

I make this pledge to you, my friends. I promise to NOT see "Avatar The Last Shyamalan Film" until ALL the characters are digitally replaced with CROSS DRESSING MIDGETS RIDING PONIES, and the two painfully Caucasian creators of "Avatar" have themselves surgically altered to resemble Asians and their speech limited by law to jokes about the statement of their ethnicity and their execution of jokes involving Coca-Cola. THIS I PLEDGE TO YOU.

Comments

[animejump.livejournal.com]

I think the beef with the Avatar movie casting is legitimate. After all, you can't really expect theatrically trained French actors who are all fluent in Japanese to appear for the Rose of Versailles deal, but one might think it's a little easier to find English-speaking asian actors to play English-speaking asian characters. Instead, the asians play the background characters and extras.

In the final analysis, though, the real problem is the stupid people who keep giving money to M. Night Shamylan so he can keep making horrible, awful movies that fail hilariously at the box office. Seriously, the guy must have better powers of hypnotism than even Uwe Boll or John Carpenter.

If you haven't yet, read Ebert's review of this film. Great stuff. Shame about the movie, the cartoon was really awesome and probably better than any anime TV series I've seen in a few years now.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

This is why I hardly go to movies much these days.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Sure, I think the casting choices are stupid. That kid they have playing Johnny Otaku can't act his way out of a paper bag. What I DON'T think they are is "racist", which is what some people are saying.

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

So was black face perfectly ok?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

And that's exactly what they're doing in this movie - humiliating ethnic groups for the entertainment of the oppressive majority. Right? Call me when they bring back Sleep 'N Eat.

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

Just as I suspected, not racist enough to be any fun.

I mean entertaining....

[dwinghy.livejournal.com]

EL OH EL. The actors in Last Airbender aren't wearing buck teeth in their mouths and mascara and scotch tape on their eyelids to look like cartoon Orientals, they're wearing costumes vaguely inspired by "Asian" "culture" from a cartoon made by a couple of white guys for a western audience. If the movie is the equivalent of black face, the cartoon was too, because it was just cultural appropriation on the level of Chung King Oriental Noodles to put on the chop suey recipe you got out of Good Housekeeping. Oh, won't everyone at the neighbourhood potluck be impressed at how sophisticated and worldly you are! Get some of that foreign beer, too, the supermarket's got it in its own special endcap display!

Incidentally, this is coming from someone who actually does think the casting was a bit of institutionalized Hollywood racism. But "blackface"? ha ha ha.

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

Yes, but back then such actions were not seen as racist. Only in hindsight a generation or two later did whitey see that he was being a dick.

Same with old cartoons and manga. It's just a silly (at the time anyway) charactures of people who've had limited exposure to other social or ethnic groups. At least then it was there to evoke some sense of entertainment one way or another.

I find homogenization far more offensive in some sense. Denial of existence can be just as bad as straight up insensitive parody.

[childings.livejournal.com]

Instead, the asians play the background characters and extras.

I think that's the real problem right there, that the creators of the movie are acknowledging that these fantasy cultures are Asian but not making the conscious decision to cast actual Asian actors in the starring roles.

Reminds me of 1940s Hollywood. It's a bit ridiculous in this day and age. (At least they didn't go as far as putting wax makeup on the actors' eyelids so they would appear Asian.)

Luckily I don't like Avatar enough in the first place to see the movie, so I can avoid all of the wank over this

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

So it's OK for white creators to strip-mine Asian culture for their cartoon, but when they make a movie out of it, suddenly they have to pass the ethnicity litmus test? That's not a double standard at all. Or maybe it is.

[sixstop.livejournal.com]

thank you. -_-

Matt Murray

[(Anonymous)]

So, I have to ask: were the voice actors in the cartoon Asian? If not, it seems about the same: Americans creating and acting Asian characters, just without the outrage.

Re: Matt Murray

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Dude, I just found out that CHUCK HESTON ISN'T EVEN MEXICAN. Now I don't believe in NOTHING no more.

Re: Matt Murray

[dwinghy.livejournal.com]

I just checked, and there was like, one Philippino-American in the cast, plus a Japanese actor who was replaced by what appears to be a white guy in the final season. Maybe that was just enough tokenism to appease the fans.

Re: Matt Murray

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

Well, shit. Fuck the cartoon as well!

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. Takarazuka is an unfair comparison because they didn't have access to Japanese speaking French actors. Hollywood has all the money and access to a multi-racial pool of actors (esp. English speaking Asian actors).

I also don't think the director is racist. It's an institutionalized racism. Can anyone name an Asian leading male actor in Hollywood? How many can you name?

The fact is the Hollywood movie machine doesn't think non-white leading actors will sell to Middle America (incl. Rural South and the suburbs).

If Asians can't play Asians on the silver-screen, what hope is there for Asians playing non-race based leading roles?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Um, the point isn't what they had or didn't have access to. The point is the complete disregard for the ethnicity or sexuality of the actors involved.

Apparently this is OK when Asians do it.

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tohoscope/4751548301/)
I dunno...

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I'm sure people would be complaining about the non-Asian factor in this film too, if they knew it existed.

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, you're right.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

Pretty good example indeed.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I don't think they used real blue cat people smurfs in Avatar, and that's racist!

You know what's REALLY racist to me? when they cast Chinese as Japanese and Vietnamese as Koreans! Where's the outrage then? I can't watch M*A*S*H ever again!

And Eddy Murphy plays fat people! he's not fat!

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

As a fat person representing all fat people I have considered an ACLU suit against one Eddie Murphy. But then I watched RAW and forgave him.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Yeah? Watch his version of Dr. Dolittle. You'll change your mind back.

Or Disneys The Haunted Mansion. Yeah. You'll feel it.

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

But.. but... Beverly Hills Cop....

I don't know what to believe anymore!

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I know, man, I know. I feel the same way about Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.

Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers- brilliant.

Ghostbusters 2, Blues Brothers 2, WTF?

(to be fair, the death of John Belushi was a huge impact on any followup to Blues Brothers. Ghostbusters 2, there's just no damn excuse and yes, GB 3 has me quaking in fear)

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

Here's a better explained criticism of the Avatar movie on the racial front": http://splinterend.tumblr.com/post/749364670/facepainting