So how does one come up with and rank the top 25 Hollywood blunders on this list? In the past, I’ve presented lists of the most influential Asian Pacific Americans in Hollywood and the best APA film moments. Coming up with those lists of the “best” was difficult. Compared with that, making a list of the “worst” was much easier. Why?
Partly, I think it’s human nature to be able to more readily see the bad things in life. We may not appreciate all the good things we have, but we seem to have no problem bringing up the bad.
Before compiling my previous lists, I sought opinions from friends and colleagues about what I should or shouldn’t include, but this time, no such consultations were necessary. I sat down and just started a list of all the awful or embarrassing things Hollywood has done when it comes to APAs.
I remembered movies like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and how awful I felt watching Mickey Rooney’s stereotypical “yellowface” performance. I remembered moments like the 1987 Academy Awards when The Last Emperor received numerous nominations but none for the talented APA cast.
Before I knew it, I had my list.
Why is it important to document these “negative” moments? Because by remembering them, we can take stock of where we’ve come from, where we are and how much further we need to go (which by the looks of this list is still a long way).
So here it is — a walk down the memory path filled with weeds and potholes …
25. TWIN TRAGEDY
Over the years, a number of Asian-themed film projects have come close to receiving a green light only to be derailed at the last minute, including bio-pics of acting legend Sessue Hayakawa (to have starred John Lone) and 1920s Korean American gangster Jason Lee. But in the late ’80s, Hollywood was ready to undertake arguably the most interesting Asian film biography: the story of real-life conjoined twins Chang and Eng. A script was ready to go, and Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, signed on to direct what he called his “dream project” (at the time, Nimoy was an in-demand director after the successes of Star Trek IV and Three Men and a Baby). But Hollywood got cold feet, and even Spock, who got himself successfully returned from the dead, could not rescue these twins from development hell.
24. THE CURTAIN FALLS ON CEDAR
After the success of his film Shine, director Scott Hicks turned his attention to David Guterson’s best-selling novel Snow Falling on Cedars as his follow-up. The book told a story of a Japanese American fisherman on trial for murder and his wife’s past relationship with the Caucasian reporter who may hold the key to the case. Although the story’s characters are American-born, Hicks hired Japanese actress Youki Kudoh for the lead. Kudoh’s “foreignness” betrayed the character’s “Americanness” despite some fine acting and underlined the notion that Hollywood can’t tell the difference between Asians and Asian Americans. Making matters worse was the casting of model Rick Yune as the man on trial. Yune’s lack of experience was evident in the numerous scenes he shared with acting legend Max Von Sydow.
23. NO SENSE OR SENSIBILITY FROM OSCAR
In 1995, Ang Lee’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility was a critical and commercial hit and earned Oscar nominations in most major categories, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Emma Thompson), Best Supporting Actress (Kate Winslet) and Best Screenplay (Thompson again, who won). But notably missing was a nod for Lee, who did no less than direct the whole venture. This wasn’t the first time the Academy snubbed the APA guy while honoring almost everyone else associated with the project (see #18). Apparently, the Academy tried to make amends five years later by awarding Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon multiple awards.
22. THE SEED GIVES BIRTH TO A BOMB
Katharine Hepburn is a Hollywood legend and one of the greatest actors to have ever graced the silver screen, but even the best artist bombs on occasion. Hepburn hit her artistic low with the 1944 film adaptation of Pearl Buck’s Dragon Seed. Playing Jade, a Chinese woman fighting the Japanese occupation during World War II, Hepburn falls prey to every stereotype from the taped-back eyes to the thick, ching-chong-y accent. Other great actors have arguably had their biggest misfires playing Asian characters (check out Marlon Brando in The Teahouse of the August Moon, or better yet, don’t) so maybe the lesson here is to leave the “yellowface” to the real “yellow” brothers and sisters.
21. SULU VERSUS KIRK
After years of lobbying, actor George Takei was finally going to see his character, U.S.S. Enterprise helmsman Sulu, promoted to captain of his own ship in a scene where Captain Kirk (William Shatner) breaks the good news to him in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But as Takei explained in his autobiography, To The Stars, when it came time to shoot the scene, Shatner became uncooperative. “Bill played it … disinterested,” he wrote. “No eye contact. No emotion. No relationship. Nothing.” Takei was disappointed but not surprised when the scene he fought so hard for was cut from the film. Sulu finally got his promotion four films later in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
20. NOT PICTURE PERFECT
Japanese American filmmaker Kayo Hatta made a splash with audiences at Sundance with her 1994 debut feature Picture Bride, prompting indie powerhouse Miramax Films to purchase and release Hatta’s sensitive story about a Japanese picture bride who comes to Hawai‘i in the early 1900s. Miramax’s marketing campaign for the video release tried to “sex up” the film with artwork on the package emphasizing the back of a nude Asian woman — something which had nothing to do with the film itself. Asian American critics, including Hatta herself, cried foul at the blatant misrepresentation, but the brothers Weinstein refused to budge.
19. VAN DAMMIT!
By the time director John Woo arrived in the United States in 1993 to helm his first American film, Hard Target, he was already an internationally acclaimed filmmaker thanks to high-octane action flicks like The Killer. Used to having creative control in his native Hong Kong, Woo instead found a Hollywood studio system that was unwilling to let John Woo have the freedom to be … well, John Woo. Studio executives, producers and star Jean-Claude Van Damme all kept tight reins on the director (it was rumored that Woo was even barred from the editing room), which resulted in a film that showed signs of Woo’s distinct touch but overall was an artistic disappointment. Fortunately for us, Woo learned to work the system and later produced films more worthy of his talent including Broken Arrow and Face Off.
18. THE EMPEROR GETS SNUBBED
In 1987, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic The Last Emperor swept the Academy Awards with nine wins (including for Best Picture and Best Director) and became one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 1980s. But none of the Oscars — and not even a single nomination — went to any of the (Asian American) actors. Anchored by brilliant, career-defining performances by John Lone as the emperor Pu Yi and Joan Chen as his opium-addicted wife Wan Jung, the cast (also including Dennis Dun and Maggie Han) was uniformly praised by audiences and critics alike, but unfortunately that didn’t translate into recognition by the Academy, which continued to see right through APA actors.
17. SATURDAY NIGHT IS NOT ALRIGHT FOR ASIANS
Some TV sketch-comedy shows have made at least a token attempt to feature APA performers: Bobby Lee on MAD TV and Steve Park in In Living Color (see #15). But the granddaddy of all comedy shows, Saturday Night Live, has yet to feature an APA cast member, even though the late-night show has had no problem featuring Caucasian actors in “yellowface” — still one of the few shows to continue to do so. Sometimes the portrayals aren’t necessarily racially offensive and are even inspired (John Belushi’s Samurai and Jimmy Fallon’s William Hung), but more often than not, the humor skews toward characters and skits like Dana Carvey’s chicken-loving Asian merchant or the fortune-cookie factory that would be right at home next to the old Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan flicks (more below).
16. KUNG PHOOEY
In the late ’60s, Bruce Lee made waves as the butt-kicking Kato, sidekick to the titular hero of the Green Hornet TV series. Although the show lasted only one season, Lee made enough of an impression that producers proposed an idea for a new series entitled Kung Fu. The series would star the martial-arts actor as a Shaolin monk wandering the Old West and imparting life lessons while getting medieval on the bad guys. The show eventually made it on the air and became a big hit — but without Lee. Instead, conservative TV executives cast Caucasian non-martial-artist David Carradine. Tired of Hollywood’s racism, Lee left for Hong Kong and turned himself into a legend in films like The Chinese Connection and Enter the Dragon. Hollywood’s loss turned out to be the world’s gain.
15. ‘IN LIVING COLOR’ LOSES SOME COLOR
Actor Steve Park (Do The Right Thing) made TV history in 1991 by becoming the first APA to be cast in a network sketch-comedy show on Fox’s immensely popular series In Living Color alongside future stars like Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx. Working on a primarily black American show during the height of black-Korean tensions, Park at times felt uncomfortable but knew his presence on the show could have a positive effect. But despite assurances from the producers that he would be back for a second season, Park was quietly fired without explanation. After a few more years of frustration, Park wrote and distributed a personal mission statement calling Hollywood out on its racism and turned his back on the business. Now living in New York, Park recently returned to acting, and we look forward to seeing more of him.
14. GOOD-BYE SAIGON
In the late ’70s through the ’80s, Hollywood discovered that Vietnam War films were box-office gold. While these films often portrayed the experience of the American soldier with understanding and depth, the Vietnamese were mostly relegated to “extra” status or got screen time as caricatures. Whether they were painted as dangerous psychotics (Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter) or just the faceless enemy (Platoon, Apocalypse Now), Hollywood seemed reluctant to show audiences the humanity of the Vietnamese involved in the conflict. It wasn’t until 1993 that a studio film, Oliver Stone’s Heaven and Earth, explored the subject of the war from the perspective of those most directly involved.
13. BUGS BUNNY’S LESSON IN PATRIOTISM
Cartoons, like live-action films, are very much a product of their times. So it’s no wonder that during World War II, when many movies portrayed the Japanese as subhuman, animation followed the lead of live-action films. The most offensive production may be a short cartoon released at the height of the Second World War entitled Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, which found our heroic wabbit fighting a “Jap” soldier on a deserted South Pacific island. Of course, Bugs triumphs in the end but not before introducing his audience (most of whom were children) to some of the worst stereotyping of the Japanese since … actually, there was no precedent for anything this offensive in the world of children’s cartoons.
12. BLACK KOREA
During the late ’80s and early ’90s, Korean Americans weren’t seeing much love after the Latasha Harlins shooting, the L.A. riots and other well-publicized incidents involving allegedly rude and sometimes violent Korean merchants in the inner city. Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon and added to an already tense environment by featuring a disproportionate amount of negative portrayals of urban Korean merchants in films ranging from It Could Happen To You to Menace II Society to Falling Down. We must note that Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing is a notable exception.
11. THE BIRTH OF THE YELLOW PERIL
Movies were only in their infancy when Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 silent film The Cheat set the template for how Hollywood would portray Asians for years to come. The film starred Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa as an inscrutable Asian man who chases after a married Caucasian woman. Though Hayakawa gives a charismatic performance that made him a star, The Cheat was the first major Hollywood film to embrace a stereotypical view of Asians as the “Yellow Peril.” Others quickly followed suit, including The Yellow Menace (1916), The Exploits of Elaine (1916) and The Perils of Pauline (1919), where villainous Asians lusted after the pure Caucasian heroines. Almost 100 years later, things haven’t improved much.
Next week: The worst 10 flicks.
Philip W. Chung is a writer and co-artistic director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble.