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asians in classical Hollywood cinema

asians in classical Hollywood cinema

Daniel Kevins

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Please read carefully

Asians in Classical Hollywood Cinema

As far as Hollywood was (is still?) concerned the Asian, regardless of where he comes from* has always been considered and treated as the “other” and that sensibility extended to its refusal to cast an Asian in the very successful series of Charlie Chan films of the 1940s and blockbuster films of the 1980s and 1990s.

(1) read the pages outlined below (total of five);

(2) select a Charlie Chan film to view from the links in the movie section of our content area. You will notice that the CC character is always treated with the utmost respect by the white characters (in contrast to how black characters were treated and presented during the same cinematic time period). Tell us which actor plays Charlie Chan in your film. Is it possible to view your CC film on its own merits knowing what we learned from our text?

(3) the text mentions many karate/kung-fu/martial arts themed movies that contain Asian characters in prominent roles. Have we moved forward from the time period of our text book so that we now see Hollywood movies with prominent Asian characters that do NOT have a karate/kung-fu/martial arts theme? Can you name one? Also are you aware of any 21^st century villains of the Fu Manchu type?

(3) view Wayne Wang’s film “Chan is Missing (1982) in its entirety.

(4) read Film Comment Magazine’s “Film of the Week” 2016 article about the “Chan is Missing” movie and compare your own present-day viewing experience to a point Film Comment makes (you only have to read the upper part of the article that relates to “Chan is Missing”). The article’s author first viewed “Chan is Missing” in 1982 but finds it still fresh in 2016. Do you agree with his assessment? Have you ever viewed a Chinese-centered film remotely similar to this one? Did you enjoy any part of this film? What do you think are the different layers of meaning to the title?

Read Textbook (I will attach pages)

page 120 (1^st and 2^nd paragraphs: “Arguably the two most pervasive; and Charlie Chan was a Chinese detective…”);

pages 121-top of 123;

page 126 (last paragraph: “While the Vietnam war was being mostly ignored…”)

page 127 (first paragraph: “The kung fu movie…”)