Tag Archives: film

Enter the Dragon, Power, and Subversion

In this chapter, I found how ironic it is for Hollywood wanting to portray this Asian vibe, but strip away a lot of meaning behind certain Asian traditions or ways. On page 119, “Lee attempted to work with him on revisions to bring a more realistic portrayal of the character of Chinese and kung fu philosophy to the script.” Lee tries to push for truth about kung fu and the Chinese way and purpose of things; unfortunately, he had no luck, “The American producers, however, maintained a double face: they consented to Lee’s demand, but secretly arranged a new accommodation for the scriptwriter for a designated period of vacation behind Lee’s back (119).” Overall, Lee was deceived and lied to.

This reminded me of Takaki’s Strangers From a Different Shore and how many Asian immigrants were tricked or fooled into thinking that they would have a great life in the U.S. I see a similarity to this happening to Lee and how many Asians feel for the deceit of America. Also, further into the reading,

After watching Enter the Dragon, the book begins to make more sense about its allegories. The book goes on to explain about the scene and Oharra on page 132, “”‘Lee’s’ face beams forth ever-changing impressions from the wrath of righteous deity, to the indignation of a woman, to the ululation of a child victimized by war.” I take this as a way of empires/countries/colonies suffering the consequences of “war for peace.” It’s ironic. Many expansions are due to this greed of power, or the true belief that one’s ruling is the best way, but the first thing that most people see is war or violence being portrayed.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie  because there was a lot of action, but I also see how it fits in perfectly with the allegories presented. As for my comparison to Takaki, I think that Lee coming up and beating Han would be the rising of the Asian cultures against invaders. Han was Asian himself and the book talks about how many Asian countries had to suffer the consequences of violence and war against other Asian invaders, so I believe that was a good representation of the protagonist and antagonist roles cast in the movie.

 

Shaolin Ulysses & The Black Kung Fu Experience

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I was watching Shaolin Ulysses, I found that the movie was more motivating in a journey sense. What I mean by that, is that it was more than describing how the martial arts changed their lives, but how to keep the art alive so it can continue to do so. Many more Shaolin Temples are being opened around America to keep the art alive and it has been a growing art form.

As for the Black Kung Fu Experience, I found myself more interested in this documentary. I the one thing that got me interested in it more was the different styles of martial arts being talked about. I did martial arts for 10 years, specifically Tae Kwon Do and I did jiu-jitsu for 2 years. So I very interested to see each persons individual view of their martial arts experience. One story stood out to me the most, and it was Ron Van Cliefs. He talked, in specific detail, about how he was attacked by white people. I know that the other instructors lived around the same time period and had experienced racism itself, but his stuck out to me the most. I felt like I could relate to it. I grew up in a very violent town where self defense is a very important skill to have. Now that I am older, things are still the same and I still find myself very cautious when walking around.

Also, I enjoyed how each instructor would go to the roots of their Kung Fu studies and pay respect to those who would specialize or have taught it for many years. Donald Hamby went to Hong Kong to visit the writer of the book he was trying to translate’s studio. I guess I also enjoyed the second movie more too because of how it made them famous, but to them, it was not what they wanted. They were all still so humble and it was nice to see and it reminded me of my old instructor and the days when I would train.

I feel like both movies presented these ideals of preservation. Dennis Brown had introduced himself to this “U.S. Capitol Classics” where martial artists would compete. Some may believe that people do it for the fame, or for the glory, but in retrospect, the art is being preserved and passed on. Shaolin Monks, though are in different areas do their best to set up Shaolin temples to preserve the monk Kung Fu fighting styles. In addition to preservation, I believe both films portrayed the idea that martial arts is not just for self-defense, but to be the ultimate self. In all martial arts styles, there is control and strength. Discipline is taught, along with focus and serenity. There are 5 power animals that can relate to martial arts and all animals represent these different techniques of self control and awareness. With all the skills learned in martial arts, a sense of knowing one’s self and surroundings is eventually learned. Overall, I enjoyed these films and the ideas that they portrayed as far as martial arts coming to America.

 

Martha/Mei-Jun/Kungfu

One of the things that really piqued my interest about these movies is that both of them were both directed by Martha Burr and Mei-Jun Chen and the thing I found most interesting is that they were women who had directed these documentaries about Kungfu. So far, from my understanding, it seems as though this recreation/sport/way of life seems to be predominantly male (although the documentaries did show women and girls doing it) as far as historically speaking. I was really interested in these two women though and what drew them to this so I decided to do a little bit of research.

One thing I learned about Martha Burr was that at one point in her life she was “named the Executive Editor of Kungfu Magazine”
(ITVS.org) and so I was able to better understand why she went on to direct two documentaries about Kungfu in particular.

With Mei-Jun Chen who is a native of Taiwan  founded the Lotus Film Productions and has focused her career on primarily making documentaries. (newvideo.com)

Overall I liked that both documentaries were similar in the ways in which Martha and Mei-Jun obviously wanted to focus on each individuals stories of how they got into Kungfu and the interviewees history with it and what was nice about watching the both of them back to back is that I was able to pick up on some of the similarities in the stories between the films. Even in two different countries and two completely different times, most of these Kungfu masters all at one point in their life saw someone else doing Kungfu and feeling overwhelmed by it, they also wanted to take part in it.

 

The Wedding Banquet?

I’m not entirely sure why we have watched two movies that explore the process of coming out to your family as a semi positive experience. I say ‘semi positive’ because in the end, everything is better at the end and the families in both ‘The Wedding Banquet’ and ‘Saving Face’ accept their child’s homosexuality.

I’m not trying to make a generalization here though, I don’t want to state that all families would be much harsher towards their children if they were to come out of the closet but I can say from my experience that the Japanese side of my family would never be accepting of this if I were to ever come out of the closet. The times that I have told my mom about different friends coming out of the closet, she was always very quiet about it and would occasionally make a remark on how unfortunate that must be for my friends parents.

I would have liked to see a film that didn’t have so much a happy ending.

However, like I wrote about in my previous post about ‘Saving Face’, this  movie also explores the pressure that Asian American kids feel about the obligation to their parents. It’s really hard to just live freely in America when you know that at the end of the day you need to be faithful to your family and to make sure that you meet your families needs and expectations.

Orientalism in Joy Luck Club

In Slaying The Dragon the history of Asian American women in American cinema is presented. There are several prominent stereotypes of Asian women: the dragon lady, Suzy Wong, and the “China doll”. For the purposes of this post, I’d like to examine what I’m calling the “China doll” stereotype, which positions Asian women as being exotic, deferential, and submissive. Quiet and subservient, Asian American women are seen as catering to and pampering their husbands.

As a viewer, I enjoyed some elements of Joy Luck Club, I also realized how it was pandering to Western audiences and relying on stereotypes of Asian women. The film centers on mother-daughter relationships, bringing generational trauma to the forefront. Using flashbacks, the film showcases the four mother’s traumatic childhoods in China. At some point in the childhood narrative, each mother is presented as a “China doll”, submissive, and helpless. China is seen through an Orientalist lens, exotic, inscrutable, mists, and mountains. The traumatic experiences that the four mothers face at the hands of Chinese men, and the atrocities they commit for survival are presented through the misty haze of Orientalism. The West and China stand in dire contrast to each other. China is patriarchal, hierarchal, a site of sorrow and loss. The West is the place of new beginnings, of middle class lifestyle, and “hope”.

The mothers themselves are Others, representative of the East. While their daughters represent the West. Each narrative involves a cultural clash between mother and daughter. In Orientals, Lee talks talks at length about the Victorian domestic sphere, a concept that I found to be particularly intriguing. A central theme of Joy Luck Club is divorce, and marriage. All of the women go to great lengths to accommodate their husbands and maintain their domestic households, even to the detriment of their own needs. It’s interesting to note that the film presents the disruptions in the daughter’s domestic lives as being caused by their internalized generational trauma passed down from their mothers, instead of relating it to gender or sexism within marriage as an institution. For example, Rose gives up her chance to study aboard and becomes completely deferential to her husband’s needs. Yet, her submissiveness attributed to her Chinese heritage, rather than the structure of the marriage itself.

Joy Luck Club has interesting things to say about generational trauma, and is one of the only well-known Hollywood movies that centers around Asian American women. I actually did enjoy this film, at the same time, it relies on Orientalism and stereotypes to get across its message.

Week 4, Thursday II. Crisis within Films

The Midlife Crisis.

Slanted Screen: the crisis lies in stereotypes and the negative portrayals of Asian American men in films. However, like Slaying the Dragon, hindsight is 20/20, especially when the opportunities for Asian Americans in lead roles were nonexistent. At the birth of the movies these artists were groundbreaking in their contributions to the films. And while the racism, sexism, and other discrimination existed it isn’t until later, during it’s “midlife” when people begin to take these roles and plots apart, analyze them closely, compare them to history, and then critique them. Orientals is in, itself, an example of this midlife crisis. With Lee’s descriptions of movies such as Year of the Dragon and Rising Sun he illustrates the ways in which Asian American men are still misrepresented, underrepresented, and in need of a midlife crisis.

Saving Face: this movie moves past and breaks other stereotypes, such representing Asian American male sexuality (the many dates that Wil’s mother goes on, Cho’s attraction, and Little Yu’s surprise role) and the role of two queer Chinese American young women. While Wil’s character is a hard-working surgeon (at the beginning of the film the head surgeon says she will be Chief of Surgery by the time she is 45- five years before he stepped into the role) she is also seen as a multi-layered, complex woman. Other than the few, quick scenes in which she is seen in scrubs or her beeper is going off the majority of the film is focused on her as a daughter and a lover. This film also pushes back against the stereotype that women need to be put in physical danger or pressured situations to find love and be saved.

So here it is. The midlife crisis of Asian American films; without forgetting the contributions that Sessua Hayakawa or Bruce Lee made in showing other Asian Americans that representation is possible, it is now time to look at how those representations are limited and how the presence of Asian Americans on screen can (and needs to) still grow. Likewise, in Slanted Screen one of the people interviewed (the only women-who was white-) said that “there aren’t any good roles for Asian men in film.” I had a problem with this because it assumes that Asian men only have specific roles and unless those specific roles are written there is no part for them. As Lee points out in Orientals, the roles written for Asian American men were roles that subjected them to embodying the stereotypes that white America had projected onto them. Similarly, by writing “Asian roles” the projection of what an Asian role is and what the lead hero role is, recognizing the pattern in both of them to influence our acceptance of these stereotypes. On page 220 in Lee, there is an analysis of film Falling Down‘s main character and how his excessive reactions become comical.  Lee comments the audience is prompted to laugh at his reactions which becomes comedic despite his obvious, unnecessary rage. By “writing these roles” for white men and then writing the role for his antagonist and casting an Asian American man we are training the audience to desensitize themselves and accept the protagonist as funny. (See: Gran Torino.)

Saving Face

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today we talked about CRISIS and what role it plays in Asian American culture. Overall, I feel like there is a crisis within the Asian realm of media. For instance, in today’s movie earlier, we watched The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film and Television. In the documentary, there was a typical stereo-type of Asian men being either being a bad guy or some sort of “kung-fu” master. There was a famous actor, Sessue Hayakawa, who was the first Asian-American actor to incorporate himself in interracial relationships. Though it was a ground-breaking move for Asians in media, it still has not helped too much in today’s society. Keep in mind that these films were made many decades ago; however, movies today in 2014, are still very similar. Yes, there are Asian protagonists, yet there are still typical Asian stereo-types portrayed. In Romeo Must Die, Jet Li is Asian and he is very good at martial arts and the main female role, Aaliyah (African-American) does not end up with Romeo who essentially saves her. The title says ROMEO, so it implies a Romeo and Juliet sort of a tone, but they do not fall in love. Though that it just an implication, there are still stereo-types of Asian American men with knowing karate and being the bad guy in today’s society, creating a crisis of Asian American identity within media.

In addition to the stereo-types, there are also different standards that Asian-American men are held up to in America. There was a snippet of one of the Actors from The Slanted Screen about Bruce Lee and how in America, he had to keep his mask and clothes on to do his physical scenes; however, in China, he can reveal himself and take his shirt off to do his fighting scenes. I thought that this was a crisis in a way that, Lee’s films ended up being famous here in America anyways. Also, it sets up this standard that Asian’s cannot reveal their true-selves in a way. So again, a crisis with who Asian American’s are.

We also watched a movie, Saving Face, which is about a lesbian Asian woman who takes in her mother who is pregnant and will not tell who the father is. Their two roles already are seen as “disgraced” in a typical Asian culture. In this movie, this also creates a crisis again with identity. The characters do not stand as stereo-typed Asian women in a crisis with playing cheesy stereo-types, but a crisis in which they do not fit within typical Asian cultures.

Thinking about the title of the movie I see it relating to keeping the “face” or reputation of both Ma’s and Wil’s family. First off, Ma marries someone who she does not truly love and ends up having Wil. She marries this man to make her father happy and to keep the family’s successful reputation up. So he ends up dying and she somehow gets pregnant! Who is the daddy? Throughout the movie she does not say a thing. Ma ends up getting herself in this arranged marriage to, again, make her father proud of her and to keep his reputation up. However, Wil finds out that her mothers first marriage was not out of love, but business. At the end, we find out it was Little Yu that she had an affair with. And the mother accepts that she must follow her heart instead of instructions and orders.

Wil is a lesbian. Her mother, in the past, found her with a girl but did not say anything about it. Her mother ended up pushing Wil to find a man and get married. Her mother tried to cover up the possibility that Wil could be gay. This causes Wil to be very timid around her  mother about her social life. For instance, when her neighbor, Jay (who is black), comes over her mother makes really racist remarks against him in Chinese, very subtly though. This causes Wil to be aggravated. Then when Vivian pushes Wil to let her meet Ma, Ma accuses Vivian of not liking black people because she did not want to date Jay. When Ma acts up about Vivian dating Jay, it was as if Ma knew they were dating, but did not want to admit it to herself. Wil eventually comes out to her mother and tells her that that was who she was.

In this film, there was also some graphic nudity and identity crisis. I feel like this movie breaks a lot of ground as to having both leading roles to be disgraces to typical Asian cultures. This again, is like an identity crisis within their own culture. Both Ma and Wil cannot truly be themselves because it is not what their family wants to see. As for the graphic nudity, I find it amusing how before, Bruce Lee could not show himself without his shirt on here in the U.S., but now there are movies with lesbian sex scenes. Thus, there is media progress, but still identity crisis.

Overall, the films we had talked about today related to this crisis of stereo-typing and breaking ground in media.  In Slanted Screen there was discussion on both stereo-typing and making media history for Asian-American’s with interracial relationships and breaking the “bad guy” view of Asians. In Saving Face there is lesbian acceptance from her family and Ma’s father accepting her decision to be with who she truly loves. There is a lot of different scopes to see crisis; for instance, identity crisis within the media sphere and the identity crisis within one’s own culture. In the end I feel they all relate to identity and being able to make it within each individual environment.

Relating this all to Lee’s Orientals I would have to bring it back to stereo-types. So in Slanted Screen the Asian actors could not be “sexual” they can be romantic, but that’s it. So in Slanted Screen we saw Asian men as romantics, flirts, or sexual-less. Opposed to Saving Face Ma is a woman who has sex with someone, ends up getting pregnant, and does not share who the father is; thus, giving the stereo-type of Asian women has sly, secretive, and hyper-sexual. Wil, too, gets intimate with Vivian a few times, but acts very timid in public; therefore, leaving the audience to see both Vivian and Wil as these secret sexual beings.Then none of the men in the movie are scene as coming off as promiscuous in any way. This relates to the crisis of Lee introducing the sexual views that American’s have put on Asians. It still lives on in today’s media. So, how do we, as a society fix the media? I suppose that question is a crisis within itself.

Crisis and Transgression in Saving Face

cri·sis  (krī′sĭs)

n. pl. cri·ses (-sēz)

a. A crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point.
Slaying The Dragon and The Slanted Screen are both notably missing LGBTQ representation. Saving Face presents a crisis to the canon of “acceptable” Asian American cinema.
While The Slanted Screen and Slaying The Dragon confront racist stereotypes of Asian Americans, and highlight some of the positive and multi-dimensional characters of recent times, they are firmly grounded in a “we’re just like you” approach to staking their claim in American nationality. The average American is not only white, they are heterosexual, and both films fail to engage with alternate sexuality, embodiments, or non-nuclear conceptions of family. Saving Face presents a crisis to the respectability politics of Asian American cinema, forcing us to acknowledge who is or isn’t being represented on screen.
Saving Face revolves around internal crises. Both Wil and her mother (Gao) struggle with their transgressions of cultural norms relating to sexuality. Gao is unmarried and pregnant with a much younger man’s child; Will is gay and confronting her internalized homophobia. Keeping in mind the above definition of crisis, these characters are at a turning point, at a crisis of choosing to live authentically, or “saving face”. In Orientals, Lee describes the immigration of Asians to the United States as initiating several crises: of boundaries, of the domestic sphere, and racial purity. Chinese immigrants caused a crisis in the domestic Victorian family, “an alternative or imagined sexuality that was potentially subversive and disruptive to the emergent heterosexual orthodoxy” (88).  Wil and Gao both embody sexualities that are subversive to the traditional Chinese American family.

Saving Joy

It was interesting to see the differences between the stories from “The Joy Luck Club” and “Saving Face”. Both movies deal with an older generation that holds on to their traditions and values of the old country. The common denominator here is that the older generation wants to provide a better life for their children than the lives that they lived in the old generation but sometimes along that the path, the way of the old life can be very hard on those living in the new life.

One of the things I ponder about is that while “Saving Face” has a couple resolutions, one of the resolutions is that her mother accepts her homosexuality but I cant help but ask myself “would she be just as  accepting of this had she not been in a situation where her own family and community turned her into an outcast because of her pregnancy?” I feel like Wil’s mother would have been less understanding towards her daughter coming out of the closet had she not gotten pregnant because she would still be a part of the old Chinese community and within that community, essentially homosexuality is “sin”, but because her mother had already committed a different sin, she is then provided with a better understanding towards Wil’s “sin”, almost as if Wil’s mom can’t be angry at her.

I appreciate in both movies, it showcased that daughters of Chinese mothers have a certain obligation to their mothers. I would say this is true of my culture as well. Anytime I start dating someone new, I have to explain to my partner that I am going to complain about my mother a lot, and I am gonna be angry at her and my mom is gonna say some fucked up things to me but to ever suggest to me that I should just not be a part of that family and abandon it, is useless and disrespectful. It’s very much a cultural thing. When I moved out of my moms house when I was 16, my entire family (even the ones all the way in Japan) were in hysterics about it and even to this day, they punish my mother for allowing me to do such a thing. As an ONLY child, my obligations to her are even bigger and no matter how hard she might be on me, no matter how much I feel like she might drag me through the dirt, at the end of the day, I have to understand that it’s cultural.

 

The Perfect Woman

 

 

She would be exotic, mysteriously sensual, obedient, and pamper her man like a real woman should. In Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women In U.S. most of the Asian women were seen in that tone. Whether the character they played was evil, good, or a stand-by character, they definitely got the attention of the white man. One of the few things that was introduced at the beginning of the movie was how many men commented on how Asian women were “exotic” and in movie clips the women were wearing fitted dresses with slits half way up each side. Then, there was this clip about Suzy Wong and how she was seen as this very sensual being that created this trend of the long haired, party Asian girl. I feel like she portrayed the mysterious sensual role that most Asian women have in most movies. Lastly, Sayonara portrayed the image of Asian women having this role of pampering their husbands and being obedient to them. Overall, all these qualities create this image of the stereo-typed Asian woman.

In 47 Ronin there were 2 main women who played the different sides of the Asian woman stereotype. The woman that Kai fell in love with, Mika, portrayed the obedient, quiet, and polite role; on the other hand, the Witch was sensual-like with her graceful movements, she was very exotic, and pampered her master. In Joy Luck Club the June’s aunties, Ying Ying, An Mei, and Lindo, were young Asian girls who broke the stereotypes that were presented in Slaying the Dragon. For instance, Ying Ying married a man who was a cheater and could careless about him, yet she stayed in the relationship and did what he asked. An Mei and Lindo were like the outspoken ones. An Mei spoke out against her Father and “Big Mother” at her mother’s funeral and Lindo lied to her mother-in-law and everyone else present to get out of a marriage. They were all obedient; however, none of them grew up to still be obedient (in a way to roll over and do what they were told), they all became independent women.

Lastly, in Orientals I feel like the stereotypes of Asians in general, were created by the media. For instance, the “Third Sex” was a suppressing label for Asians. How this relates to the stereotypes of women, is how media affects the views of people. Everyone now has an expectation for Asian women to be sexual deviants, for pampering slaves, or Asian men to be this weird in-between sexual being. Overall, stereotypes have shaped peoples view of Asians in today’s society.