Asians in Movie ‘Up’ and Others
May 28, 2009
Pixar is Moving Up
I love Pixar, but they must have finally noticed my annual complaints in all its diversity, they have never before cast any Asian characters. In Cars, they cast Cheech, but passed over hippie Tommy Chong. Ratatouille’s Collette looked Asian, but wasn’t cast that way. While a couple of mainstream papers such as USA Today noticed, you’d think Pixar was trying to keep it a secret when most review didn’t notice that Wilderness Explorer Russell who keeps the grumpy old man company in his flying house is as Asian American kid. Though his accent is American, he’s got those almond eyes and straight black hair. Jordan Nagai is a Japanese American, which would make him a sansei plus a couple of generations. Hollywood has given us cute Asian child sidekicks before. Future Hawaii first lady Vicky Tiu was teamed with Elvis in It Happened At The World’s Fair in 1962, while Jonathan Ke Quan clung to Indian Jones as Short Round in the Temple of Doom. On the Pixar Blog, one commenter mentioned that person from Pixar told him they were looking for an Asian child, though 400 kids showed up for the auditions. At seven, Jordan got the part after he was spotted as that kid who would not stop talking. While it’s certainly not necessary to cast an overachieving scout as an Asian, it’s nice when it is so common to cast non-Asians to speak Asian parts.
Geek Chic
When Jordan grows up, will he play another cool geek? Grant Imahara of Mythbusters, and Masi Oka from Heros and Get Smart are both pretty popular now. Even in the new Fast & Furious, gopher Agent Sophie Trinh in a modest pantsuit by Liza Lapria got more screen time than any number of women shaking their booties and Asian guy heroes/villains.
Southland
I loved ADAM 12, so NBC’s Southland looks interesting. But how can they get away with zero Asian parts when there are more Asians than African Americans in Los Angeles? Asians could have been cast as the detective, the honor student shooting victim, the gang bangers, the pedophile murderer, the bus driver, or the scared witnesses. How about drawing from some real history with Korean grocers shooting at kids, committing home invasions against other Asians, or even angry geeks who shoot up immigration classes or colleges?
Gran Torino
Maybe it’s not surprising that a movie starring Clint Eastwood was snubbed at the Academy Awards when it was about Asian gangs and racist Walter Kowalski who will point an M-1 rifle in your face and tell how he stacked dead Koreans like sandbags. Sue Lor (played by Ahney Her) tells adopted uncle Walter “Hmong are a people, not a place”, and “we send our girls to college, our boys to jail” But as an Asian, I see a reverse Kung Fu Kid story. To his Hmong neighbors, Walter represents the exotic culture of white guys who can fix anything with a slip wrench, WD-40 and duct tape. He demonstrates how to properly use ethnic insults as an informal communications style. He “mans up” his young Jedi apprentice Thao played by Bee Vang to ask out the girl and stand up to gangs. The Hmong witch doctor can see right through him while his own young Catholic priest is a joke. In the end, Wally sacrifices himself in a Christ-like pose to save his newly adopted Hmong extended family who treat him as a savior, though he is spurned by his own spoiled children. The boy carries on Walter’s legacy by driving the prized 1972 Gran Torino and Walter’s dog as he drives off past lakeshore. If you can step past political correctness, it’s a tribute to the movie’s quality that it is still playing in some theaters, but watch out for the DVD this summer.
Odds and Ends
December 24, 2008
Alternative Energy Czar
Steven Chu may look like a fine, Nobel Prize-winning energy czar. He’s brilliant in developing alternative energy and an advocate of biofuels. But if “coal is my worst nightmare,” as he stated repeatedly in a speech Read more
Madness in Mumbai
December 10, 2008
What is truly evil? Barack Obama’s tortured answer at Saddleback was that the United States had sometimes committed evil. Contrast that to John McCain’s quick response of Islamic terrorism. Read more
White Kids: More Skilled than Asians?
November 26, 2008
According to a 1999 American Teacher article entitled “The homework gap,” Carol Huntsinger, a professor at the College of Lake County in Illinois, compared groups of middle class Chinese American and white students from two-parent families. Starting in 1993, Huntsinger followed them from kindergarten to third and fourth grades, looking at what their parents gave them as homework. Read more
God Help America
November 12, 2008
If Obama’s moment is all about being the first African American president, was it really about judging a man by his character instead of by his color? What does it say about prejudice when it was politically correct to dismiss Senator John McCain as too old or Governor Sarah Palin as a “trailer trash bimbo” for having too many children or going to too many colleges? What I have to say is, God help America. Read more
The Myth of Filipino Inferiority
October 30, 2008
I thank Rodel Rodis for bringing up the “sub-par” performance of Filipino students. It is unfortunate that it is politically correct to dramatize disadvantaged losers rather than celebrate positive achievement. Read more
Barack’s Buddies Versus McCain’s Integrity
October 15, 2008
It’s father book versus father book between Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father and John McCain’s Faith of My Fathers (McCain’s memoir was also made into a 2005 TV movie, now on DVD, with nice performances by Chi Moui Lo as a keyman and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a prison commander.)
Like McCain, his grandfather “Slew” also had low grades and crashed 5 planes-but the senior McCain also Read more
The Affirmative Action Economic Meltdown
September 30, 2008
I thought I’d never live to see my bank go bust. Wamu? Boo Hoo! Barack Obama’s fortunes have been boosted by those who accept that it’s just more of the “Failed Policies of Bush”.
But you don’t have to search far to find a different story than the evening news. In 1999, Fannie Mae introduced rules for sub-prime loans to increase minority homeownership and boost profits. The corporation was founded as part of the New Deal in 1938 before it was spun off to shareholders, but it retained huge Read more
Asian Americans SAT Stars?
September 17, 2008
Model Minority alert! The Hong Kong Standard proclaimed that Asian Americans are “stars” in math. The Wall Street Journal stated “Asian-Americans continue to post stellar results. … 66 points better than the [math] average. Asian-Americans also outperformed in critical-reading and writing, though by less.” Asians were the only group to improve their writing scores. Read more
Obama: A Cliche is a Terrible Thing to Waste
September 3, 2008
Blogger Taylor Marsh proclaimed Obama’s speech to be “unmatched…in U.S. history” and “met Martin Luther King, Jr.” What a load of bitter melon. There is nothing post-partisan about blasting Bush with the title of that ’70s TV show, Eight is Enough. A cliché is a terrible thing to waste. His warm-up speaker already used up the Einstein quote about how insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Compare that with “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live…” Read more
An Olympic Perspective on Diversity
August 25, 2008
Obama has focused Americans on the conversation of diversity and excellence. We are a nation that carefully selects school superintendents, democratic convention delegates, while appointing public officials and hiring executives carefully to reflect the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of America. But the Olympics show us that all of our conventional wisdom about affirmative action and radical liberation are dead wrong.
Read more
Chinese Olympic Surprises
August 20, 2008
Looks like even the critics were wowed by the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. It may have taken a year to fake the fireworks footprints in a computer lab, but the most spectacular thing Americans can remember about our Super Bowl is a wardrobe malfunction.
The no-two-identical-parts birds nest stadium, one of a number of stunning buildings the Chinese have hired Westerners to design, was built with Chinese steel and an army of newly trained welders - the water Read more