AAST355: Asian Americans in Film Neelam Venkata Prasad Akula

Films

"The Cheat": Exoticism highly prevalent through both visual and auditory (piano score) cues, e.g., the use of stereotypical "asian" decor. Warnings against interactions between races, particular demonizing asian men as dangerous against the "pure" white woman. Recharacterizing the character to Burmese to appease Japanese outrage at the time. One notable positive is that the character was portrayed by an asian man, rather than a yellow-face performance. That was rather surprising to see, especially considering the film's age (1915).

"The Toll of the Sea": Exoticism prevalent throughout the film, primarily through visual cues and character development, similar to the effects grown in "The Cheat" however this time focused on romance. Flavours of fetishization of the unknown. Character portrayal indicates that women, in particular asian women are less assertive and inherently more submissive. Also negatively portrays interracial relationships. Expectation that she would remain faithful and patient for her lover (Carver) to return. Last noteworthy element for me was the seemingly self-imposed need to drown herself.

"Daughter of the Dragon": Abundant with stereotyping and is very much the pinnacle example of problematic asian "representation" in film historically. Despite a relatively high potential plot and characters, I personally was distracted by the more racist elements of the film, detracting from what otherwise could have been a strong story. I felt as if Ah Kee's character was among the few non offensive roles in the film, considering his character was portrayed as both smart and physically capable. Besides that the film felt very cliche at times, which might be a symptom of its age rather than its actual writing.

"My Geisha": The film is well-studied and critiqued mainly due to its abhorrent use of yellow-face and portrayal of Japanese culture. The extensive use of artificial makeup techniques is rather disturbing. Alongside the blatant racism found throughout the film we also see clear objectification and sexualization of Asian women through the character of Yoko Mori, particularly the scene in which she is partially assaulted by Bob. Moreover, we have that she laughs off the attack immediately after minimizing the attack as is.

"The World of Suzie Wong": The film feels like it very much set the genre and trope of having the white male protagonist be the hero needed by the woman/minority character in need. A few scenes that immediately stood out would be (obviously) the sequence in which Suzie is assaulted, and her subsequent blaming on Robert, then finally her bragging to her friends. This was rather uncanny and felt ill-intended.

"Enter the Dragon": This film was the first we've seen which introduces an Asian male character (lead) which does not play into an emasculated role, unlike other films such as The Cheat which we see indicate that Asian men need an external resource to compete with White men. Moreover, we see an added positive portrayal of Asian men, through Lee's character, a scene that comes to mind is when Lee fights Norris and ultimately wins (easily). Despite the positive portrayal of an Asian male lead, we still see that the film is significantly demeaning towards the female characters. One scene to note is when Han offers women to the competitors on the island.

"Better Luck Tomorrow": This film is our first encounter with characters that challenge the stereotypes which are so often associated to Asian American characters. The film portrays a (d)evolution of Ben from the model minority perception to a gang member with heavy cocaine usage, and eventual murderer. At the films release, some audience members were put off by how some Asians were portrayed and argued that such portrayals were inaccurate. Overall the film was a positive experience for me, since it challenged the traditional Hollywood roles. One point of criticism however was the objectification that occurs with Stephanie, the opportunity to make her character more than just a symbol of Ben or Steve's wants.

"Who Killed Vincent Chin": There is not much critique on the film/documentary here. Clearly, the actual event has much to be said about it. The whole event was rather disappointing to hear about, and more frustratingly there was little consequence for the murderers, ultimately encouraging racist hate crimes against Asians.

"Gran Torino": This film was very interesting to me. Despite its obvious racist and demeaning language used throughout the film, the film seemed to portray a genuine story. We are introduced to Walt as this hard no bullshit veteran, with a particular distaste to non-whites, in particular foreigners. However as the film progresses we see Walt develop a nurturing relationship with Tau and Sue, in that "tough love" prototypical way. I think the film really speaks towards younger audiences as when it comes to progressive ideologies and thoughts we typically dismiss the idea for older generations as we think change is hard for them to adopt (naturally so), but when presented with the right scenario we can see the older generation transitioning to adopt this ideas slowly.

"Surname Viêt, given name Nam": This film/documentary was by in far the most difficult to watch, where difficult speaks towards my ability to keep up with the narrative the film paints. Moreover, the odd shift from what is initially meant to be a documentary to a then film where the actors are then interviewed, the whole experience was rather odd.

"Mississippi Masala": I enjoyed this film quite a bit, its the first film we've viewed which focuses on another demographic than traditional Asian groups. For me the trope of a "Forbidden love" is something I've seen a lot of through Bollywood films, so the plot was not too interesting. However, the film presented a really compelling argument which occurs in Jay's character as he faces the changing environment of his home country, eventually relinquishing the nostalgic views he holds throughout the film. In terms of representations, I think the film did a good job representing the characters in an appropriate manner. There is almost always some room for improvement, but I think the majority of the film was done tastefully.

"Saving Face": Saving Face is a film which addresses many of the issues we have yet to explore in this class, particular the LGBTQ+ struggle faced by those people, in this case under the context of being Asian American. Particularly, it focuses on Will's acceptance of her own sexuality, and dealing with the backlashes she faces from her immediate community for it. The film focuses on what I call "generational gaps" where the older generation assumes a non-progressive mentality and acts as adversarial to our protagonist. We see that Will's mother faces backlash from her community for getting pregnant out of marriage, and yet despite this Will's mother still takes an anti-LGBT when faced with Will's coming out to her. We also see that Will's girlfriend constantly challenges her by encouraging her not to hid her identity from others, ultimately we see that they get back together and dance, must to the chagrin of the extras at the wedding, indicating that Will has come to terms with who she is. Her mother also acknowledges this and accepts her too.

"Crazy Rich Asians": Like Saving Face, Crazy Rich Asians is a more modern romantic comedy film, celebrated primarily for its ensemble of Asian actors. Here the adversary takes the form of socio-economic class, with the two sides being Rachel and Nick's family---particularly his mother. In one respect, it was refreshing to see genuine Asian representation, but the film is frustrating in regards to its dependency on the ultra rich. Here there is not much to be said about how the representations of Asians are, since it is fairly genuine, instead the critiques come from the other tropes the film utilizes. Another positive of the film is how they go against the "man is the bread earner of the family" idea, with the relationship of Nicks sister and her husband who cheats. Overall, the film was quite good and has paved the wave for a (hopefully) long era of true Asian American cinema.

Yellow Peril
"The Yellow Peril is a racial color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. "

Model Minority


"A model minority is a minority demographic whose members are perceived as achieving a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average, thus serving as a reference group to outgroups."

Lotus Flower
"This image of the Asian woman simultaneously signifies sexual difference and racial otherness; the trope of submissiveness not only constitutes a quiet and frail woman, but also takes the form of prostitution as the women remain at the whim of the white men"

Emasculation
"..mean to deprive anything of vigor or effectiveness.."

Capitalism
Prevalence of capitalistic ideas and/or necessity. Elements of classism etc..

Racism
Yellow face, disingenuous performances, etc..