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Asian Americans in Film - Coggle Diagram
Asian Americans in Film
The Cheat
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Historical context: Arakau was suppose to be Japanese, not Burmese. The nationality was changed because of protests from Japanese Americans.
Body language always seems like Arakau is threatening to Edith and invasive. The scenes where there is physical touch between Arakau and Edith made me as a viewer feel uncomfortable which gives off this feeling of repulsion for Arakau and associates his type of character with that feeling of repulsion
Acting-wise wise Fannie Ward uses a lot of facial expressions and is very exaggerated whereas Hayakawa is more subtle with his body language and it seems more mysterious or suspicious and not very dramatic. It kind of reminds me of the stereotype that Asian Americans are not very outspoken and don't make big exclamations or remarks and are more on the reserved side of things
Mob justice is portrayed at the end. When the brand is revealed in the courtroom, the crowd rages. Charges dropped for the defendent- the Hardys.
why did arakau press charges even though he branded the woman? what does it say about his character? is he selfish? foolish?
The Toll of the Sea
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Lotus Flower is portrayed as replaceable/dispensible. Asian women in film are portrayed as easily disposable and not the first choice for anyone romantically or at least for white men. Not registered as anything worthy in relationships and that interracial romance is not something worthwhile. Allen easily drops Lotus Flower for the American woman and the film does not offer an explanation for why he did it, we just have to accept it for how it happened as viewers
connection to Marchetti: Sexual Violence: Lotus Flower depicted as easily disposable is a form of sexual violence
daughter of the dragon
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Ling Moy is used as a pawn in someone elses game that just adheres to what she is told without questioning any command
Ling Moy talks to the "Majestic Father" which is depicted as a talking dragon that speaks back to her and tells her to kill. Villainizes filial piety and attaches a certain stigma or connotation to speaking to ancestors
We see in the movie again the depiction of Asian men being undesirable and their masculinity is taken away from them. meanwhile, Ling Moy is the opposite in which they take away feminine qualities of herself
Ling Moy wants to be the son of Fu Manchu, not the daughter and will fight to show that she can be a worthy son. A connection to a film that I am more familiar with is Mulan in which Mulan pretends to be a man in order to serve her family and protect them in some honorable fashion, which has parallels with this story
Similar to the Cheat, Hayakawa appears in this film as well as the villian
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My Geisha
Leonard expresses his disapproval with Paul wanting to use a real Japanese woman to play the role of Madam Butterfly and says that the public doesn't want to see Bob kissing a Japanese woman, they want to see him kissing Lucy. What does this say about Japanese women? Are they undesirable?
When they enter the Japanese woman's house, they are all wearing kimonos in their house, they have a small bridge in their house, and the door ways are visibly small which can enforce the idea that Asian people are super short
When Lucy first sees the Geishas, she looks at them with a turned head and questions their make up. It almost looks like Lucy is observing them like some type of zoo animal
"Can I put on one of those costumes and make my face white like they do" and they welcome her in. It almost sets the stage for cultural appropriation and sends the message that this is okay for a white woman to adopt the role in a movie as a Japanese woman.
When Lucy acts as a Japanese woman, she lightens and softens her voice while speaking in broken English with some accent that doesn't really sound Japanese. When she speaks Japanese, what is she really saying- if anything at all?
Lucy sets up her Japanese character to be the youngest child of 11 and that she was born in some small village. She was sent to her "honorable grandparents" to live with and then she was sold into becoming a Geisha. Makes it seem like she never had a choice and that her life decisions were never made by her and with her own will. She just follows the life path that is chosen for her which is ironic given that Lucy herself sts her own path with going undercover as a white woman being a Japanese woman
Bob pushes Kazumi away from Lucy on the train and she just does so without saying anything back. Enforces the stereotype that Asian women do as thy are told and never speak up for themselves or are reserved
Setting and scene: A bunch of cherry blossoms in the scene with all the Geishas and on the film set there is distinct architecture of the buildings/temples
Lucy laughs after she uses the excuse that she has to speak to her "honorable ancestors" after Bob invaded her room. Makes it seem like a joke that people speak to their ancestors
Lucy as a Geisha says that she will let a man make love to her if he is entitled. This sets the stage for people to think that Asian women are unworthy of making their own decisions regarding men and that men can have an entitlement to women. Sexualizes Asian women and can put the idea into people's heads that men can be easily entitled to sex with Asian women and that entitlement is the root for the decision, and that Asian women don't exactly have a choice
The movie premier starts off with Gong noises. very similar to the amount of gong noises we hear in Daughter of the Dragon.
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The flag that Kazumi gives to Lucy says "No one before you my husband, not even I." Japanese women are subjects to their husbands and no matter what, their husbands will always come on top of everything as a priority and that a Japanese woman's life revolves around her husband. Sets an inequality between Asian women and men
Continuous Idea we see across films we have viewed so far: no interracial relationships have been successful. Bob and "Yoko" for example or "Yoko" and Paul
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When Paul was doing auditions, one of the criticisms was that the Japanese women are too American. He is looking for Japanese women to fit some stereotype that he believes Japanese women fit and so he is seeking to reinforce certain stereotypes and expectations
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The World of Suzie Wong
The scene when Robert walks through Hong Kong, we see the politics of cleanliness because of how people are depicted and how it seems dirty and too cluttered
Robert is depicted as a level headed and reasonable man who is always calm and rations through his decisions and actions. He distinguishes himself from British people who are closeminded and prejudice and racist. Meanwhile, Suzie seems irrational and childish as a Chinese woman
Robert depicted as the white savior. After Suzie was beat by the British sailor, he avenges her and then takes care of her after despite Suzie telling him to not.
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At the ending, when Robert tells Suzie to marry her, her asks her in a very vulnerable place when she had just lost her baby
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white savior depicted again when Suzie waits for Robert to get home after the mudslide and her baby dies. he steps in to help with the police and get her baby
Better Luck Tomorrow
The stereotype of Asians as the nerd who are overachievers in school. Applying to ivy leagues and being involved in all the clubs at school. Even the crimes they were committing were interesting because it started out as academic dishonesty of all things.
Depiction of Asian men as unattractive. When Ben says that he had it all except for the romance in his life.
Stephanie is emasculated and Ben is seen with more feminine attributes in the relationship between Ben and Stephanie. She kind of wears the pants in their friendship/relationship and Ben seems intimidated and more out of control than Stephanie
towards the end, we see Virgil try to kill himself and Ben kills Steve. This depicts Asian men as irrational and when they snap, they snap to an extreme and uses violence as a way to express their stress.
How does Stephanie relate to Suzie Wong in the hyper sexualization of women and how do their characters play into each of their sexualizations as an Asian in America versus an Asian in Hong Kong?
Who Killed Vincent Chin
Talks about the formation of the model minority myth that Asians tried their best to just assimilate and work their way up from working at laundromats to working as engineers. "keep their heads down, be quiet, and stay out of the way"
Reaction to the documentary: seems bizarre that they can just interview the killer and Ebens is willing to be interviewed and speak on his murder of Chin. He shows no remorse and almost owns this as part of his life and adopts the privilege of being a white man in America without progressively acknowledging the privilege as a privilege
Police officers, Chins mother, and dancers (witnesses) were not kept in the loop about the case. Only testimony from the dancer was eventually admitted but the justice system seemed to skim over parts of Due Process for Chin and not take the correct steps in collecting evidence and people to testify especially witnesses
Judge says that he has so many cases and sentences to go through that he cant give attention to detail to the Chin case when asked about his responsibility to consider both sides of the cases he is brought
Kia says that she doesnt think that any civil rights case would have been brought if there was no pressure. Pressure from the public is needed to affect the criminal justice system and try to make some change. The system is set up to only let the people in power stay in power and make it work only for who they want to make it work for
Stereotypes: The Passive Asian
This is seen in so many ways. In remembering how Asians assimilated into the country at first. With the auto industry collapsing, Asians were used as scapegoats to blame for the economy and perhaps they were used so easily as scapegoats because of this passive Asian stereotype that society can use them to blame for their problems and they won't bite back or speak out.
Also, in the criminal justice system. Was this case overlooked because Chin is dead anyway and the Asian American community won't speak out either way because they are perceived as passive?
The medias influence: the media stared taking the investigation into their own hands. when the criminal justice system fails, the asian american community takes it into their own hands by protesting and mobilizing to restore justice for Chin
investigative journalism appears to do the work that the justice system failed to do. the media made the case a case more than the justice system did
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Crazy Rich Asians
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what does the film say about the need for money for asian men to be attractive? Reminds me of the conversation between Astrid and her husband where we see her husband's insecurity of Astrid loving him because of the differences in their success. Advances the idea that asian men are not attractive, and adds on this idea that money is needed for them to be wanted
the visuals of the whole movie is particularly interesting. for example, the colors throughout amahs house and the decorations/architecture we see throughout her house. also, the visuals of the wardrobe is interesting. It was interesting to see Rachel wanting to wear red because it is lucky in Chinese culture but awkwafina has to style Rachel for the party because that snot what she really should wear there
did rachel win over Nicks family's love or did she just earn their respect by beating them at the game. what does this mean for the basis of asian families?
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Gran Turino
interesting choice to represent Hmong people because they are usually excluded in representations. But, if this is a choice for the directors, they should do it properly. what does it say about the directors to choose to represent a historically excluded group of people, but not do it properly? Seems as if the directors just picked to represent Hmong people just because they are usually excluded and wanted to make it seem like they are progressive, but in reality since they didn't have accurate representations, then it shows that their want to represent Hmong people wasn't genuine and was just done for the sake of DEI
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Mississippi Masala
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Pressures from family about marriages and relationships. Not only their own families- not one sides because they clash. Wonder what it would look like if it were a White family clashing with an Asian family. Then what would the power dynamics look like and suggest at
Interesting choice of the ending to run away instead of a more confrontational approach. What does this suggest about minority families structures. Most east Asian families are depicted as unaffectionate and cold so would running away have an affect if Mina was east Asian.
Enter the Dragon
biggest take away for me was the depiction of Asian men and when the film industry wants to put Asian men in a different light. When it comes to martial arts, then the media wants to depict Asian men in a more empowering light. But when we see other film in which there is no martial arts involved, we see Asian men as manipulative, villainous, predatorial etc.I think overall impacts of these choices have an affect on the actors themselves. When are they chosen for certain roles and when are they not and what does that mean about what the director or casting crew thinks about them
Surname Viet, given name Nam
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