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Mickey Rooney as a Japanese in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
Burt Lancaster as a Native American in "Apache"
Tony Curtis as a Native American in "The Outsider"
Ricardo Montalban as a Japanese in "Sayonara"
Jean Peters as a Native American in "Apache"
Comments? Any Others?
Follow Ups:
Politically correct (incorrect?) casting has been going on for a loooooong time.
it may not be overtly racist, but I would think the casting of Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, and Zhang Ziyi surely the height of insensitivity to Japanese feelings.
...in a case like this where the subject is so essentially Japanese, and considering that there are a great many Japanese actresses of great skill and experience, it simply wasn't necessary to go so far as to cast all three of these key roles with Chinese players.
It's not so much fundamentally unethical as, to me, simply unwise, a bit foolish, and unnecessarily insenitive. Can anyone doubt Japan has an incredibly rich cinema history. Although there may be countless films never exported to the west, China's entering the world of universal cinema at least *appears* a relatively recent phenomenon, though this is likely due to the constraining effect of enforced "communist" ideology on creative artists. I strongly suspect there are a great many more Japanese films than Chinese that sensitive international viewers would say are great films.
(I put "communist" in quotes because I remain unconvinced that there has ever been a truly communist regime anywhere in the world. But that's another discussion entirely and has nothing to do with movies.)
those are sensitivities for which I have no regard. Film making is pretend. what next? Aussies can't play English? Steve Martin has to give up his role in the Pink Panther? Japanese and chinese are both Asian. yes I know there are certain physical traits that predominate both but in fact there are Chinese people who look Japanese and visa versa just as there are Irish with dark hair and skin and Italians with red hair and freckles. I think it's all a load of crap. Race is superficial and culture is something that is not Owned by any group. Let the artists play what they want to play. It's art not real life.
I'm with you - I normally not too anal about these things...
but in this case filling ALL three lead roles with Chinese actresses in a film premised ostensibly on a Japanese cultural icon?
> ...culture is something that is not Owned by any group. <
By definition a culture IS owned by a group. The Japanese has their own and the Chinese has their own. I think you meant to say the human condition is common across all races and cultures. Fine. But surely you don't deny that different cultures has distinctive traits, nuances and undercurrents.
N/T
"...You're all welcome to stay for the next set...we're going to play all the same tunes, but in different keys..." -Count Basie
Amen. Even the anti cell 'phone bit with him they run in theaters is an abomination.
...and sometimes the best actor for the production may not be of authentic race.
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
"Kung Fu" may be TV, but still eminates from the Hollywood mindset.
"...You're all welcome to stay for the next set...we're going to play all the same tunes, but in different keys..." -Count Basie
I thought Alec Guinness was superb as Prince Feisal in Lawrence of Arabia.
However Jean Simmons was not so great as Kanchi in The Black Narcissus.
Rod
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...made a career of character satire outside of his own culture.
His Hrundi V. Bakshi in "The Party" makes me chuckle just thinking about " birdy num-num".
And then there's Detetive Jacques Clouseau of the Pink Panther series.
"Dr. Stangelove"...goes on and on.
I think the operative word here is "satire".
...charicature in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" satirical and intended for humor as well.
Such characterization might be considered racist, or at least insensitive to the cultures that are being, in some cases, mocked -- albeit in a funny way for its time.
One response to a racial mischaracterization I've seen such as "black face", was for blacks to wear "black face" as well -- satire on the satirist so to speak.
Strange as it may seem, some characterization may be an attempt at understanding.
You make some good points. I guess the times are the times. I just saw "Breakfast..." and was very annoyed by Rooney's casting, thnking that an authentic Japanese in the same role would have accomplished just as much.
... helps me to see a bit more into "Breakfast...".
It fun to imagine Truman Capote forging the screenplay in the day.
Eddie Albert as the Persian Peddler in the movie "Oklahoma"
That was the basis for the Pat Buttram Mr Haney character in Green Acres
a
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The Kevin Spacey character was weaving a yarn. You weren't supposed to necessarily buy anything you were seeing or hearing. Turns out Kobyashi was just a word printed on the bottom of a coffee cup.
-------------"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." -Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)
But I know it is easy to cast a shadow on Hollywood moral, but why has this to be view as racist?
I wonder.
Even worse because it's part of the "plot".
Ouch!
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At least Quinn has Mexican Indian blood.
N/T
"...You're all welcome to stay for the next set...we're going to play all the same tunes, but in different keys..." -Count Basie
...in "Viva Zapata!", Lawrence Olivier as a great Othello; so was Orson Welles; Alec Guinness as Feisal, Anthony Quinn as Auda Abu Tayi, both in "Lawrence of Arabia"; Yul Brynner as King of Siam in "The King and I", as Pharaoh in "The Ten Commandments", as King Solomon in "Solomon and Sheba", as The Gunslinger Robot in "Future World"...
Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra...
The list could go pretty long, couldn´t it?
Regards
BF
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
Oh really? What about Jay Silverheels, Anthony Quinn, Ava Gardner, Burt Reynolds, or James garner, to name a few? As for "bankable" Japanese actors, how about Mifune Toshiro or Sessue Hayakawa?
Yes, I had forgotten that one. Still a good movie, though.
John Wayne as Ghengis Khan. Personally i don't like limiting actors to play their own race only. race is very superficial in reality. What would be next, actors not being allowed to play other hair colors?
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Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
Who would want Owen Wilson (blond) playing Luke Wilson (brown hair) for example. :)
as Chinese Officer Lin Nan...
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