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News & ArtsFriday, May 22, 2009
Books / Film The Unbearable Whiteness of Being
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, May 22, 2009 at 5:19 PM
M. Night Shyamalan has unveiled some pictures from his new movie, the adaptation of the manga and anime Avatar: The Last Airbender. This, of course, is the movie that people are pissed off about because all the characters who are from Asian or Inuit cultures in the source material are being portrayed by white folks in the movie. So let's look at the picture:
Yup. That's a honky, all right.
2
Why do they bother making a live adaption of a cartoon? Why?
And hell, if they're going to do it, I'd love to see Neon Genesis Evangelion compressed into two hours. Especially if they left in that three minute elevator ride scene, which is one of the best bits of television ever made.
And hell, if they're going to do it, I'd love to see Neon Genesis Evangelion compressed into two hours. Especially if they left in that three minute elevator ride scene, which is one of the best bits of television ever made.
4
Neon Genesis Evangelion compressed into two hours wouldn't make any fucking sense. And good luck getting anyone to sit through a live action Shinji. Fuuuuck that x10.
8
Why wasn't anyone FURIOUS that they had a (skinny) white dude play Goku in that Dragon Ball movie?
15
@8
Well technically, Goku was an alien from a different world so who the hell cares what race played him in the craptastic film.
What I want to know is what sin did Chow Yun Fat commit that he keeps staring in such terrible films?
Well technically, Goku was an alien from a different world so who the hell cares what race played him in the craptastic film.
What I want to know is what sin did Chow Yun Fat commit that he keeps staring in such terrible films?
17
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a American animation set in a Asian-influenced world. It's not a adaptation of a 'manga and anime' it's a adaptation of a comic and cartoon.
19
Well, this is totally embarrassing, but I kind of have to agree with @18 on this.
Asian Americans have a higher employment rate and a higher median household income than European Americans. By which I mean to suggest that, whatever prejudice Asians experience in the United States, it's sort of on the scale of the prejudice white people experience -- black girls won't date them and everyone thinks they have small dicks, but they get the cherry jobs and tend to own their own businesses.
All of which is basically to say that Asians in general and Asian Americans in particular don't need your liberal hand-wringing. Please find something that matters to get all wound up about.
Asian Americans have a higher employment rate and a higher median household income than European Americans. By which I mean to suggest that, whatever prejudice Asians experience in the United States, it's sort of on the scale of the prejudice white people experience -- black girls won't date them and everyone thinks they have small dicks, but they get the cherry jobs and tend to own their own businesses.
All of which is basically to say that Asians in general and Asian Americans in particular don't need your liberal hand-wringing. Please find something that matters to get all wound up about.
20
@19: Thanks so much for speaking on behalf of all us Asian-Americans out there. I would point out how staggeringly ignorant your statement was but I'm too busy getting blown while playing violin and completing complex math equations while on shift at the mini-mart I own.
21
Is this different than Naomi Watts being cast in the American remake of The Ring?
I'm not really familiar with this particular comic/anime.
If a Chinese director remade Lord of the Rings, I wouldn't be upset if they cast Jet Lee as Aragorn.
Also, after reading up on the kid that got the lead role, it seems like this is the fulfillment a dream he's had for most of his life.
This just doesn't feel racist to me.
I'm not really familiar with this particular comic/anime.
If a Chinese director remade Lord of the Rings, I wouldn't be upset if they cast Jet Lee as Aragorn.
Also, after reading up on the kid that got the lead role, it seems like this is the fulfillment a dream he's had for most of his life.
This just doesn't feel racist to me.
22
It's always weirded me out that (for the most part) characters in anime have Caucasian features, almost as much as the near-omnipresent sociopsychological trauma evident in replaying the Hiroshima meme in apocalyptic Japanese pop culture like Akira, Godzilla et al.
23
The obsessive-compulsives can correct me if I'm wrong, but I did watch a pretty good chunk of the series and as far as I can remember it's never actually stated that these characters are of Asian or Inuit descent. Yes, the animation style and overall philosophy of the show draws heavily from Asian cultures, and the characters all have Chinese-sounding names, but the world they inhabit is pure fantasy and is never referred to as "Ancient China" or anything similar. So does that still make these casting decisions racist?
24
@20
I'd point out how staggeringly boring and predictable your comment is, but this comment string is dead.
I'd point out how staggeringly boring and predictable your comment is, but this comment string is dead.
25
@ 20 = <3!!
Honky or no honky, having only just Googled Avatar the Last Airbender, I can tell you that the young actor playing the lead looks like him.
Honky or no honky, having only just Googled Avatar the Last Airbender, I can tell you that the young actor playing the lead looks like him.
26
I am quite fond of Shyamalan's ensnaring direction (though I confess to not having seen his last two films). It's his storytelling choices that sucked in Signs and The Village.
My concern, when it would come to a live-action film production of something like Avatar is how true it remains to the original material, or rather true to what made the original material good.
Is a white cast going to severely impede the film's chances of following through?
My concern, when it would come to a live-action film production of something like Avatar is how true it remains to the original material, or rather true to what made the original material good.
Is a white cast going to severely impede the film's chances of following through?
27
The blinding whiteness of the cast is disappointing, sure, but if I had to pick what would be the biggest anchor on the film's chances of being good, I'd have to go with M. Night Shyamalan as the director. He's great at building tension, but TERRIBLE at making stories work.
Aang: You could make the argument that if you're going to have a white actor playing one of the lead roles, the Avatar is the best choice, since he doesn't really look like anybody else on the show. At least they picked a kid who has studied tae kwon do.
Zuko: Dev Patel seems like a weird choice - there weren't any Chinese-American actors around? Still, good that he knows some martial arts.
The others: Whitey McWhitersons all.
Aang: You could make the argument that if you're going to have a white actor playing one of the lead roles, the Avatar is the best choice, since he doesn't really look like anybody else on the show. At least they picked a kid who has studied tae kwon do.
Zuko: Dev Patel seems like a weird choice - there weren't any Chinese-American actors around? Still, good that he knows some martial arts.
The others: Whitey McWhitersons all.
28
My goodness...so many fellow nerds. I love it. This is a Hollywood production; anyone expecting a faithful adaptation was bound to be disappointed.
Take it for what it is. I certainly was not expecting the X-Men or Transformers movie to follow every minutiae of their original "versions."
With this said, I am terribly disappointed that a young Asian actor was not cast for the role of Aang.
The animated version's setting was definitely a world full of Asian influence--no blacks, whites, Hispanics. For that matter, the character's names were Asiatic in nature but their features were exactly what you would describe as Asiatic.
Take it for what it is. I certainly was not expecting the X-Men or Transformers movie to follow every minutiae of their original "versions."
With this said, I am terribly disappointed that a young Asian actor was not cast for the role of Aang.
The animated version's setting was definitely a world full of Asian influence--no blacks, whites, Hispanics. For that matter, the character's names were Asiatic in nature but their features were exactly what you would describe as Asiatic.
29
My goodness...so many fellow nerds. I love it. This is a Hollywood production; anyone expecting a faithful adaptation was bound to be disappointed.
Take it for what it is. I certainly was not expecting the X-Men or Transformers movie to follow every minutiae of their original "versions."
With this said, I am terribly disappointed that a young Asian actor was not cast for the role of Aang.
The animated version's setting was definitely a world full of Asian influence--no blacks, whites, Hispanics. For that matter, the character's names were Asiatic in nature but their features were exactly what you would describe as Asiatic.
Take it for what it is. I certainly was not expecting the X-Men or Transformers movie to follow every minutiae of their original "versions."
With this said, I am terribly disappointed that a young Asian actor was not cast for the role of Aang.
The animated version's setting was definitely a world full of Asian influence--no blacks, whites, Hispanics. For that matter, the character's names were Asiatic in nature but their features were exactly what you would describe as Asiatic.
30
My goodness...so many fellow nerds. I love it. This is a Hollywood production; anyone expecting a faithful adaptation was bound to be disappointed.
Take it for what it is. I certainly was not expecting the X-Men or Transformers movie to follow every minutiae of their original "versions."
With this said, I am terribly disappointed that a young Asian actor was not cast for the role of Aang.
The animated version's setting was definitely a world full of Asian influence--no blacks, whites, Hispanics. For that matter, the character's names were Asiatic in nature but their features were exactly what you would describe as Asiatic.
Take it for what it is. I certainly was not expecting the X-Men or Transformers movie to follow every minutiae of their original "versions."
With this said, I am terribly disappointed that a young Asian actor was not cast for the role of Aang.
The animated version's setting was definitely a world full of Asian influence--no blacks, whites, Hispanics. For that matter, the character's names were Asiatic in nature but their features were exactly what you would describe as Asiatic.
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