WaPo Perspective: "‘Shang-Chi’ doesn’t resist racist tropes. It just repackages them."

[WrenchNinja]

If "Shang-Chi" breaks any ground, though, it won't be for the quality and nuance of how it represents Asians or Asian Americans, but for the simple fact of that representation. The movie is an Orientalist fantasia that presents the same old tropes in slightly updated, somewhat self-aware, very expensive packaging.

Click to shrink...

That village is set-decorated with exotic cliches: recklessly and ignorantly depicted mythological creatures, guys with long beards. Consider the film's animal sidekick, a six-legged, winged, faceless creature that appears to be a Chinese cryptid called dijiang (帝江). Catalogued in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" (山海经), a classic of Chinese literature dating from the 4th century, the dijiang is an agent of chaos. "Shang-Chi" shrinks it into an adorably anthropomorphized plot device and dubs it "Morris," so it can guide our heroes through an ever-shifting forest maze. That'd be like hiring Mr. Magoo as a tour guide. The dijiang is just ethnic window-dressing, sloppily appropriated along with dragons and a herd of do-nothing xiezhi (獬豸) — mythical creatures of great intellect and empathy, used here as the punchline for an Englishman's joke. The movie also treats us to a rehash of the trashy rendering of "qi" that showed up in the recent "Mulan" remake, turning a philosophical concept about the body's energy into a glowing, transferrable "soul ball."

Click to shrink...

The scenes set in the United States are less fantastical but hardly more imaginative. Each time the script tries to knock down some well-worn stereotype — for example, that all Asian Americans are academically exceptional and can speak their ancestors' tongues fluently — it undercuts itself. Shaun and Katy's friends ride them for their perceived underachievement — before immediately clarifying that Katy has graduated "with honors from Berkeley" and Shaun speaks "at least four languages." At the beginning of the movie, Katy establishes that her Chinese "sucks" — as is true for many American-born Chinese — but by the end, she's somehow able to follow obscure directions in a formal, even courtly, Mandarin. Katy, seeing a young woman working on a research paper on their bus commute, laments that this is the daughter her mother wished "came out of her vagina" — a line that feels like a comic actress's ad-lib, but clashes with what we know about her character's educational background. (What "dragon mother," after all, would complain about those credentials?) Far from being a great leap forward, "Shang Chi's" commitment to stereotypes feels oddly hostile toward Asian Americans.

Click to shrink...

That moment is more poignant than the script perhaps intends. For Asians in the diaspora, it's the most charged, and most painful, question we address in our lives. You don't ask an Asian American who they "really" are unless you're prepared to work through the intimate trauma of it. The only thing I've been asked more often than to say something in Chinese or to demonstrate a karate move is, "Where are you really from?" It is the question that implies our perpetual foreignness. But it's also a question that we — unable to assimilate completely, unmoored from our parents' culture and often our parents themselves — wrestle with internally. "Shang-Chi" has answers, and they are a series of dated and racist tropes.

Click to shrink...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/15/shang-chi-orientalist-fantasy/

 

[Bor Gullet]

I didn't realize this was a Walter Chaw article. I'm not East Asian and I don't want to speak for anyone who is, but this article is just insanely nitpicky and reaching for something negative.

Truth be told, everytime you have a Hollywood movie that takes place in the East, some media scholars will always complain about orientalism. It's unavoidable and inherit to the storytelling of it's genre, because it's a fantasy movie.

This movie having an actual Asian director and writing team makes it much more authentic.

 

[808s & Villainy]

The scenes set in the United States are less fantastical but hardly more imaginative. Each time the script tries to knock down some well-worn stereotype — for example, that all Asian Americans are academically exceptional and can speak their ancestors' tongues fluently — it undercuts itself. Shaun and Katy's friends ride them for their perceived underachievement — before immediately clarifying that Katy has graduated "with honors from Berkeley" and Shaun speaks "at least four languages." At the beginning of the movie, Katy establishes that her Chinese "sucks" — as is true for many American-born Chinese — but by the end, she's somehow able to follow obscure directions in a formal, even courtly, Mandarin. Katy, seeing a young woman working on a research paper on their bus commute, laments that this is the daughter her mother wished "came out of her vagina" — a line that feels like a comic actress's ad-lib, but clashes with what we know about her character's educational background. (What "dragon mother," after all, would complain about those credentials?) Far from being a great leap forward, "Shang Chi's" commitment to stereotypes feels oddly hostile toward Asian Americans.

Click to shrink...

I feel like the author completely misses the point that both characters are wasting their potential and instead just falls into criticizing it for having Asian American characters deal with things that Asian Americans deal with

Also yeah Katy learning to be an expert bow and arrow marksman in like a day is unrealistic. It's a movie

 

[Patrick Klepek]

Walter is an incredible and insightful critic. He's one of my favorites to disagree with, because even in that scenario, you always come away smarter for having read his perspective. (I have not seen Shang-Chi yet, as I wait for VOD, but just speaking to Chaw's broader credentials as a writer.)

 

[Squirrel09]

Walter is an incredible and insightful critic. He's one of my favorites to disagree with, because even in that scenario, you always come away smarter for having read his perspective.

Click to shrink...

You know, I typed out a fairly negative response but refreshed the page before I submitted. I think this take is appropriate and the best I've seen. You can disagree but respect the author enough to still learn from their perspective. And if we ignore that we're being more of a hinderance than help.

 

[Mesoian]

So...

I'm not gonna say he's wrong. Ultimately I don't think he 100% is.

However, when it comes to Asian fantasy, and this is coming from an outsider's prospective, it becomes difficult to meaningfully take in criticisms as set dressing and character design being distinctively historically Asian, or picking and pulling from Asian mythology for certain things and complaining that doing as such is racist. Like, I feel like his subtext here is that the only middle ground to be had is a modern setting with an all Asian cast doing non-descript things extremely well or else the film is either white washed or sinophobic, because of Asian depiction. Like, as if the only good story you could tell with an Asian cast on an Asian slant is something like Space Sweepers (which is Korean, I know) where the core cast is all Korean, but the remaining cast comes from a wide variety of cultures and it's about how this Korean cast deals with their specific problem in a world devoid of traditionally Korean history or culture. I don't know if I can get down with that.

The whole thing reads like, "white people reciting asian problems through jokey ha has is inherently racist", but if that's how you feel, how do you ever make an asian film outside of asia without being racist? Furthermore, if an asian film made in asia plays into the tropes that we see in Shang Shi, is that internalized racism? Or is it fine when they do it like when I use the n-word?

I don't know. He's welcome to his opinion, and there are elements of this where I could be like, "I mean...sure, okay." But...like...if you feel this way, how do you feel about the dozens of chinese and korean period dramas on netflix that are 100% asian cast, crew and culture that are just as hollywood blockbuster focused as Shang Shi is? Where's the line? How do you define it?

 

[Bor Gullet]

Walter is an incredible and insightful critic. He's one of my favorites to disagree with, because even in that scenario, you always come away smarter for having read his perspective.

Click to shrink...

Personally I find a lot of his writing up it's own ass and unnecessarily hostile/aggressive .

 

[BringBackSonics]

As a Korean American, I see what he is saying, But having an Asian star in a extremely succesfful MCU movie matters. Would I want the next break through actor to star in something with out tropes etc? YES. But I'm going to dismiss Shang Chi for breaking other barriers. Representation matters, I saw it my kid's eyes.

 

[Jeffolation]

I was expecting a review from his site, not an article in the washington post. Really happy to see his stock rising.

 

[Supercrap]

he writes like a film critic looking for clicks, i dont care about his credibility as a "chinese-american film critic" , because myself as a chinese american, can see the effort put to make a comic book fantasy film work in the MCU. its not trying to do some of the things he's expecting to because its really not supposed to.

 

[Sanka]

I mean I thought people knew and just accepted it. Even just looking at the comics I thought that was a common criticism.

 

[Gravidee]

Man, fuck what this guy is saying. As an Asian Canadian, I feel like this is the first time I've seen a blockbuster Hollywood film really get it right in terms of the depictions of Asian characters, themes, fighting styles, and mythological fantasy rolled into one. It succeeded where others like The Kingdom, The Great Wall, and even Disney's recent Mulan failed.

Not saying all of the depictions were perfect, as the bat-like creatures in the movie were depicted in the traditionally Western view as being evil when in Chinese culture they're revered as symbols of good luck and health. But, whatever. As far as a major Asian superhero movie goes, this is a colossal step forward, and I look forward to more positive steps forward in the future.

 

[Superman00]

I didn't realize this was a Walter Chaw article. I'm not East Asian and I don't want to speak for anyone who is, but this article is just insanely nitpicky and reaching for something negative.

Truth be told, everytime you have a Hollywood movie that takes place in the East, some people will always complain about orientalism. It's unavoidable.

I will say this though, this movie having an actual Asian director and writing team makes it much more authentic.

Click to shrink...

As an Asian American. This article is indeed way too nitpicky and far reaching. There is a reason why so many Asian Americans turned out for the movie.

You're not going to get an original story staring mostly Asians that would be a hit in this country like that.

 

[Mesoian]

I mean I thought people knew and just accepted it. Even just looking at the comics I thought that was a common criticism.

Click to shrink...

I mean those comics were written 70 years ago by white people. The fact that Shang Shi is as good as it is is...kind of mindblowing.

Shang Shi fighting his father Fu Manchu and the giant dragon Fing Fang Foom...there's a lot of cultural minefields to get through to make a good story, but they did it. Someone cares about getting it right over there, which is why criticisms of full on Sinophobia make me go "like....what?". Like Wakanda's depiction has some scuff marks, but they are very small and they did a LOT with those characters to not fall into the same tropes that the comics do even today.

 

[Mekanos]

Oh shit it's Walter Chaw. I like his stuff.

I'd say he's right here in some ways but I feel a lot of it comes to a culture clash regarding the Asian-American diaspora (which is not a monolith), and depictions of foreign culture in an American movie is always gonna run the risk of appearing orientalist I think. This is a movie for Asian-American audiences first and foremost.

 

[Rackham]

Is it tropes though if it's using Chinese mythology from a Chinese perspective? Haven't seen the movie so I can't give an opinion. Just wondering if it's still considered a trope in that sense

 

[Nikus]

So...

I'm not gonna say he's wrong. Ultimately I don't think he 100% is.

However, when it comes to Asian fantasy, and this is coming from an outsider's prospective, it becomes difficult to meaningfully take in criticisms as set dressing and character design being distinctively historically Asian, or picking and pulling from Asian mythology for certain things and complaining that doing as such is racist. Like, I feel like his subtext here is that the only middle ground to be had is a modern setting with an all Asian cast doing non-descript things extremely well or else the film is either white washed or sinophobic, because of Asian depiction. Like, as if the only good story you could tell with an Asian cast on an Asian slant is something like Space Sweepers (which is Korean, I know) where the core cast is all Korean, but the remaining cast comes from a wide variety of cultures and it's about how this Korean cast deals with their specific problem in a world devoid of traditionally Korean history or culture. I don't know if I can get down with that.

The whole thing reads like, "white people reciting asian problems through jokey ha has is inherently racist", but if that's how you feel, how do you ever make an asian film outside of asia without being racist? Furthermore, if an asian film made in asia plays into the tropes that we see in Shang Shi, is that internalized racism? Or is it fine when they do it like when I use the n-word?

I don't know. He's welcome to his opinion, and there are elements of this where I could be like, "I mean...sure, okay." But...like...if you feel this way, how do you feel about the dozens of chinese and korean period dramas on netflix that are 100% asian cast, crew and culture that are just as hollywood blockbuster focused as Shang Shi is? Where's the line? How do you define it?

Click to shrink...

I feel like there is no version of the movie that would have satisfied them.

 

[Deleted member 4461]

Incidentally, I can see where he's coming from, but it's always complicated.

Asian-Americans don't all have the same experiences. So while the movie reflects the experience of the director and writer and cast (most likely), it doesn't reflect other Asian-Americans.

It's also really tough to cover the subjects he mentioned without making a mockery of the main characters. For example, assume Shang-Chi and Katy were underachievers or even failures when they're representing the diaspora.

That wouldn't be a positive result either. Or imagine they didn't really care about or connect with their heritage? That wouldn't go over great.

All I know is that it's tough. He's not entirely wrong, but I don't think he's entirely right either.

I feel like there is no version of the movie that would have satisfied them.

Click to shrink...

This is actually a great summary lol

 

[Mesoian]

I feel like there is no version of the movie that would have satisfied them.

Click to shrink...

I think you're right.

I see this mindset a lot with black action movies, most recently with Outside the Wire, a fairly okay netflix action movie that stars a mostly black and middle eastern cast that spends a lot of time showing how modern warfare ruins soldiers. But the soldiers they are showing are black and I've seen a lot of people be very upset by the fact that the "traitors and the cowards", even if their points are not only valid, but are charged to make you think, are black people and the people in the conservative right are white people sitting behind screens miles and miles away. When you overthink the racial dichotomy of a movie, it's very possible to get lost in the weeds with what the movie was trying to say because you get bogged down by cinema tropes, and I think that's what's happening here. "Bearded Elders? GOD! Pagodas and robes? TOURIST! KUNG FU?!? Why am I even watching this?"

But there's nothing you can do to make people come around on that mindset. If they feel that way, then there's no talking them out of it.

 

[kmfdmpig]

Asian family members I saw it with were proud to see a big hit lean into Asian characters, mythology and imagery. That doesn't make the writer wrong by any means, however.

 

[Dali]

I haven't seen shang chi and I'm not asian, but some of what he's saying just doesn't make any sense to me. For instance complaining about the father, the villain of the movie, being a gangster seems odd. Would he prefer he was an accountant? Also the portrayal of mythological creatures is odd considering they are mythological and every other culture's mythology from Egyptian and Greek to Norse and Japanese gets grinded up and regurgitated through a different lense all the time. It actually lead me to look into the myths behind stuff when I was growing up.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

I don't wholly disagree with the article (but also haven't been able to see the movie because covid precautions, so I can't speak to the specifics of the movie) but this bit was amusing to me:

The movie also treats us to a rehash of the trashy rendering of "qi" that showed up in the recent "Mulan" remake, turning a philosophical concept about the body's energy into a glowing, transferrable "soul ball."

Click to shrink...

Because that's how qi is rendered in popular culture in general, especially in east asian media. Can't throw a rock in a hobby store without hitting a manga/mànhuà or novel that basically depicts it like that. Like sure that's a "trashy" rendering of the concept but, like, that's not an invention of these western filmakers exoticising a foreign cultural concept, much less is it new.

 

[Fj0823]

I feel like the author completely misses the point that both characters are wasting their potential and instead just falls into criticizing it for having Asian American characters deal with things that Asian Americans deal with

Also yeah Katy learning to be an expert bow and arrow marksman in like a day is unrealistic. It's a movie

Click to shrink...

Isn't Katy's arrow to the neck portrayed as completely lucky shot?

I think it's just meant to be funny while also showing she has a talent for it.

 

[chefbags]

Man, fuck what this guy is saying. As an Asian Canadian, I feel like this is the first time I've seen a blockbuster Hollywood film really get it right in terms of the depictions of Asian characters, themes, fighting styles, and mythological fantasy rolled into one. It succeeded where others like The Kingdom, The Great Wall, and even Disney's recent Mulan failed.

Not saying all of the depictions were perfect, as the bat-like creatures in the movie were depicted in the traditionally Western view as being evil when in Chinese culture they're revered as symbols of good luck and health. But, whatever. As far as a major Asian superhero movie goes, this is a colossal step forward, and I look forward to more positive steps forward in the future.

Click to shrink...

I have the same feeling. Made feel really proud as an Asian American. Did a lot of things right I thought.

 

[Kyra]

I'm sure it would have been better if the main characters were drooling morons. That would have went over very well.

 

[Saturday]

Although this argument tends to be used in bad faith when it comes to discussion, I'm not sure what the solid point of this article is, or if there any solid takeaway suggestions.

Shang Chi's a dude who uses Martial Arts and Kung Fu Magic to fight dragons and monsters. That alone already puts the movie into questionable territory.

Taking this excerpt:

That village is set-decorated with exotic cliches: recklessly and ignorantly depicted mythological creatures, guys with long beards. Consider the film's animal sidekick, a six-legged, winged, faceless creature that appears to be a Chinese cryptid called dijiang (帝江). Catalogued in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" (山海经), a classic of Chinese literature dating from the 4th century, the dijiang is an agent of chaos. "Shang-Chi" shrinks it into an adorably anthropomorphized plot device and dubs it "Morris," so it can guide our heroes through an ever-shifting forest maze. That'd be like hiring Mr. Magoo as a tour guide. The dijiang is just ethnic window-dressing, sloppily appropriated along with dragons and a herd of do-nothing xiezhi (獬豸) — mythical creatures of great intellect and empathy, used here as the punchline for an Englishman's joke. The movie also treats us to a rehash of the trashy rendering of "qi" that showed up in the recent "Mulan" remake, turning a philosophical concept about the body's energy into a glowing, transferrable "soul ball."

Click to shrink...

I understand where the grievances are coming from for the former (but even then, their inclusion would still be 'window dressing' by any standard even if they were treated as outright hostile without their inclusion actually being expanded upon) but I don't know what he expects for the latter, considering this is a superhero movie.

As well, there are some rather unflattering comparisons made near the end of the article (Mulan?) and the ending statement of this article seems really vague to me.

Interesting to hear this critic has a few other well-done insights under his belt. I'd like to read them, but this article seems a bit too easy to disagree with.

 

[Buttchin-n-Bones]

What would be a more nuanced/less stereotypical representation of the western Asian diaspora than intelligent underachievers? Is that not what a lot of us feel like? Wanting to be happy with what we've accomplished outside of crushing expectations?

 

[HStallion]

I'm not sure you can really blame Westerners from turning the concept of Ki into a way to do magic attacks considering Dragon Ball and all that.

I'm sure it would have been better if the main characters were drooling morons. That would have went over very well.

Click to shrink...

If it's just the Trailer Park Boys with asians I'd be game.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

I feel like the author completely misses the point that both characters are wasting their potential and instead just falls into criticizing it for having Asian American characters deal with things that Asian Americans deal with

Also yeah Katy learning to be an expert bow and arrow marksman in like a day is unrealistic. It's a movie

Click to shrink...

i could even say she didn't even understand them giving her instructions but just doing what was obviously needed with the context of the situation and just gestures

 

[Beren]

I feel like the author completely misses the point that both characters are wasting their potential and instead just falls into criticizing it for having Asian American characters deal with things that Asian Americans deal with

Also yeah Katy learning to be an expert bow and arrow marksman in like a day is unrealistic. It's a movie

Click to shrink...

I think the author of the article raises points worth thinking about, but the arrow stuff isn't one of them.

I never see complaints of Ellen Ripley learning how to use guns in a day in Aliens - not sure why anyone would care about Katy learning a bow.

 

[lunarworks]

They pulled a save at the end by not having the final battle be against some Chinese mythological monster, but rather a cosmic horror that ties it into the larger MCU.

 

[Super Mega Man]

I feel like there is no version of the movie that would have satisfied them.

Click to shrink...

Can't help but feel like it. No one can ever satisfy everyone but this article comes off nitpicky and a little mean. He's entitled to his own opinion, of course.

 

[Idde]

Not sure if I'm allowed to say he's kinda reaching here, as a non-Asian person but...the MCU is filled with tropes. Tropes about New York, tropes about Norse mythology, tropes about the military. To me it didn't seem like Shang-Chi used more hurtful Chinese or Asian American caricatures, than the MCU used other caricatures.

 

[SpartyCrunch]

Walter is an incredible and insightful critic. He's one of my favorites to disagree with, because even in that scenario, you always come away smarter for having read his perspective. (I have not seen Shang-Chi yet, as I wait for VOD, but just speaking to Chaw's broader credentials as a writer.)

Click to shrink...

Completely agreed. I love his recent appearances on The Filmcast and on Dave Chen's podcast (Culturally Relevant) too.

 

[Richiek]

Not sure if I'm allowed to say he's kinda reaching here, as a non-Asian person but...the MCU is filled with tropes. Tropes about New York, tropes about Norse mythology, tropes about the military. To me it didn't seem like Shang-Chi used more hurtful Chinese or Asian American caricatures, than the MCU used other caricatures.

Click to shrink...

The film doesn't even take place in NYC but he writes this:

None of this, of course, plays back in New York City, when, at the end of the movie, Shaun and his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) try to tell their skeptical "modern" friends about how they saved the world.

Click to shrink...

I find it hard to believe the author mistook San Francisco for NYC.

 

[HStallion]

The film doesn't even take place in NYC but posts this:



I find it hard to believe the author mistook San Francisco for NYC.

Click to shrink...

It was obviously Tokyo

 

[Brinbe]

yeah, a lot of what they showed, especially when they were in the states, was like legit proper representation for so many asian-americans around that age. wild seeing it in a marvel movie of all places.

 

[Thorn]

yeah, a lot of what they showed, especially when they were in the states, was like legit proper representation for so many asian-americans around that age. wild seeing it in a marvel movie of all places.

Click to shrink...

I know some people wished the entire movie took place in SF.

 

[BlackGoku03]

I mean those comics were written 70 years ago by white people. The fact that Shang Shi is as good as it is is...kind of mindblowing.

Shang Shi fighting his father Fu Manchu and the giant dragon Fing Fang Foom...there's a lot of cultural minefields to get through to make a good story, but they did it. Someone cares about getting it right over there, which is why criticisms of full on Sinophobia make me go "like....what?". Like Wakanda's depiction has some scuff marks, but they are very small and they did a LOT with those characters to not fall into the same tropes that the comics do even today.

Click to shrink...

Yup, like Black Panther was made by white guys decades ago. It holds up well despite some scuff marks, as you said.

The article itself is interesting, but I'm more interested in what other people with Asian backgrounds have to say.

I haven't seen the movie (planning to) but it looks like it's trying to not be offensive to anyone.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Yup, like Black Panther was made by white guys decades ago. It holds up well despite some scuff marks, as you said.

The article itself is interesting, but I'm more interested in what other people with Asian backgrounds have to say.

I haven't seen the movie (planning to) but it looks like it's trying to not be offensive to anyone.

Click to shrink...

I connected with it a lot. The themes of family/loyalty/honor definitely hits home.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

I didn't really like the village. Felt like they were trying to recapture wakanda. But maybe it's because they didn't have time to develop more because it felt kinda rush.

 

[Candescence]

I don't wholly disagree with the article (but also haven't been able to see the movie because covid precautions, so I can't speak to the specifics of the movie) but this bit was amusing to me:

Because that's how qi is rendered in popular culture in general, especially in east asian media. Can't throw a rock in a hobby store without hitting a manga/mànhuà or novel that basically depicts it like that. Like sure that's a "trashy" rendering of the concept but, like, that's not an invention of these western filmakers exoticising a foreign cultural concept, much less is it new.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure you can really blame Westerners from turning the concept of Ki into a way to do magic attacks considering Dragon Ball and all that.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it makes no goddamn sense when the concept is so popular in Asian media to begin with.

 

[Arkeband]

I can see his problem with the dijiang repurposing but I don't get how you'd appropriately represent qi/ki/etc if the story you're telling is inherently supernatural, like that ship sailed the moment Chinese cinema popularized wuxia.

 

[jph139]

Shang-Chi dips into stereotypes, because it's built on a character and universe that was built on stereotypes - dude is literally "the master of kung-fu" and essentially exists as a way to cash in on martial arts flicks with a Bruce Lee knockoff. It's cultural ephemera, something authentic filtered through a Western, corporate sieve until it's something marketable, and it's never going to be an "authentic" version of those things. How much tolerance you have for that is going to vary wildly from person to person.

It's ultimately a problem of representation. Marvel has all sorts of white heroes - they can run the gamut of personality types, motivations, backgrounds. But Asian characters? Like, before this film, you had Wong, and... Jim Morita? Jimmy Woo? Maybe Hogun and Mantis, if "aliens played by Asian actors" count. So Shang-Chi has to be THE Asian hero and THE Asian movie; if you don't like this angle on it, well, fingers crossed you get an Amadeus Cho movie 10 years from now or something.

 

[Timbuktu]

He had a discussion with Dave Chen on his podcast here:

https://www.culturallyrelevantshow.com/episodes/shang-chi-asian-american-perspective-JlFXYSut

 

[OSHAN]

Chaw's reviews for Rogue One and Minari come to mind:

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One ***½/**** starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Alan Tudyk screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy directed by Gareth Edwards by Walter Chaw A deep cut for Star Wars fanatics, Gareth Edwards's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story also happens to be the single most topical...

www.filmfreakcentral.net

Minari (2020)

****/**** starring Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Youn Yuh-jung, Will Patton written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung by Walter Chaw I didn't like my grandmother, either--the way she smelled (mothballs, I think)--but I always equated it with Taiwan and foreignness, you know, the parts of myself I was...

www.filmfreakcentral.net

Haven't seen Shang Chi yet, but I imagine I will once it is available on 4K. I was waiting for his review. Nice to see him get exposure on WP. Best critic working today.

 

[Ashhong]

I don't really think it's about breaking tropes. I liked what they did with Asian stereotypes because I could relate as a 30 year old Asian American to what I was seeing and hearing on the screen. That is more than we've gotten in god knows how long, barring a few outliers.

 

[Joeytj]

I wonder what his opinion about Coco would be... repackaging Mexican stereotypes? It was absolutely adored in Mexico and by Mexican-Americans in the U.S.

Or Black Panther? Wakanda doesn't exist, so it repackages and reuses a lot of aspects from several African cultures.

 

[Mesoian]

I wonder what his opinion about Coco would be... repackaging Mexican stereotypes? It was absolutely adored in Mexico and by Mexican-Americans in the U.S.

Or Black Panther? Wakanda doesn't exist, so it repackages and reuses a lot of aspects from several African cultures.

Click to shrink...

or Watchmen (HBO) which uses a lot of black historical events that did happen and uses the fallout to paint the frame of a superhero story.

 

[Desi]

I think you're right.

I see this mindset a lot with black action movies, most recently with Outside the Wire, a fairly okay netflix action movie that stars a mostly black and middle eastern cast that spends a lot of time showing how modern warfare ruins soldiers. But the soldiers they are showing are black and I've seen a lot of people be very upset by the fact that the "traitors and the cowards", even if their points are not only valid, but are charged to make you think, are black people and the people in the conservative right are white people sitting behind screens miles and miles away. When you overthink the racial dichotomy of a movie, it's very possible to get lost in the weeds with what the movie was trying to say because you get bogged down by cinema tropes,

Click to shrink...

I saw it and I didn't even know that was a black movie. People mad at the robot soldier movie?? I mean you could say his ostracized nature being similar to a black superior officer/boss back in the day.