Tag Archives: film

Slaying the Lee in a Club

There were two things in which I was able to vividly see the connection between “Orientals” and “Slaying the Dragon” and that would be chapter three in Lee’s book: “The Third Sex” and chapter  four “Inner Dikes and Barred Zones”.

“…Oriental (male or female) was constructed as a “third sex” –Marjorie Garber’s term for a gender imagined sexual possibility.” (85)

In the film, the narrorator describes the development of  fetishization process of Asian women. How the fact that women tend to men and take care of them in a way that’s done in a submissive manner which can be viewed as sexual. In American society, we either have an interest in men or women but with the exotification of Asian women in particular, you can view it as though these women are essentially the “third sex” in that they are a whole different category of sexual attraction. In one case, I knew a person who was suspicious of me hanging out with her boyfriend  but not because I am female but because I am an Asian female.

One thing I immediately recognized as a theme that connects  Lee and the documentary to the The Joy Luck Club is that there was little representation of Asian men in Amy Tan’s movie and what little representation there was, they were represented in a fairly negative light such as June’s husband in her first marriage. At the party, they eventually show June is with a new Asian man but we never even learn his name and his role was incredibly minor.

 

Week 3, Tuesday. Gran Torino

Gran Torino really “zooms” into all sorts of uncomfortable situations. (Har har, a lot like that pun!)

Our first stop on the road of analysis takes us to a problem that can be seen in many entertaining mediums: complex characters with simple titles (think: good guy and his best friend, bad guy). When characters with a range of emotion and endless moral options are represented to the viewer as good OR bad it’s easy forget that good can also be bad and bad can also be good. Therefore, we are watching the film and thinking “or” instead of “and”. This gets tricky when we decide that one character is most definitely bad and then naturally assume that the other characters must be good; as long as our role of “evil villain” has been filled it is easier to forgive and forget other characters.

For instance, using the illness of a not-so-nice character as a way to gain sympathy allows us to be more compassionate and forgiving. So even if a character say… constantly stereotypes, discriminates, and even points a gun at other humans just for being on his lawn the viewer may find it easier to sympathize with him if he is coughing up blood and his son is also seen as a trivial bad guy, too. Similarly, if that character shows a progression of compassion we too find ourselves growing in our fondness of him. But does that change who he was or what he’s done? At the end of the movie, Walt (Clint Eastwood) finally foes to Confession and his confession is quite telling– how much have his views (the viewer sees him “grow out of” or learn from) changed if he feels no need to repent them? So, this complex character looses his complexity in our assigning him the role of “bad guy turned good”. His is our Martyr (literally falls to the ground in a pose like Jesus on the cross, let’s be real), our White Savior, our changed man who makes it all better for this Hmong community. Is this where I’m supposed to swoon…?

Our second stop is one not too far from our last and involves the same dangerous bumpiness. This film definitely illustrates racism  but the obviousness of it overrides the more subtle racism and sexism. When Walt meets Youa (Choua Kue) he intentionally calls her Yum Yum. By the ages of those around her, I believe it safe to assume she’s around 15-17.  Walt is well past half-century age. So with his “ha-ha look, I’m nicer” attitude it’s easy to overlook his intentional botching of her name because it’s “funny” and “innocent”. But. Not really. In calling her Yum Yum he is exhibiting his feeling of entitlement in sexualizing her. And, as an elder white male he gets away with it. Even others who hear him call her Yum Yum accept it and laugh.

Our third and last stop: more sneaky racism (when juxtaposed with the more in-your-face racism), what does the movie leave out? What stereotypes does it accidentally perpetuate? Notice how the two other groups represented (three Black males and a group of Latino males) were represented as “Gangbangers” or “thugs”. When we see other white people in the movie represented we see them as vapid and vulgar (Walt’s family, his barber) however when you compare  this kind of representation there is a major difference. Being vapid and vulgar is innocent and forgivable; their personality is more of a statement on “American culture” (in and terms of the barber “the way to be a man”), whereas with both the Black and Latino representations are stereotypes that are not innocent. By internalizing the gang/thug/criminal stereotype both of these marginalized groups are put into danger in true reality.

This film was predictably entertaining but I’m not looking to be entertained by it gain.

The Debut

de·but dāˈbyo͞o/ noun: 1. a person’s first appearance or performance in a particular capacity or role.
Overall, I feel the film captured a lot of the Filipino/a cultural traditions and instances. At the beginning of the film Ben brings his foodie 020white friends over and he is embarrassed by the smell in the house, but his friends find the smell appealing. Also, when his friends come into the kitchen, the mother introduces herself and offers them a bite to eat, which I can vouch that that moment was a typical Filipino/a thing to do. The over-sized fork and spoon on the wall is something I have seen in majority of Filipino/a households. At the debut the dances, the costumes, and food all looked realistic in a sense that there were real Filipino/a actors/actresses that actually created this atmosphere. In addition to these things, I thought that it was very funny as well that there was a couple talking about how there are many “Oriental” races who are nurses now and the white husband of the aunt corrected them and said they were supposed to say “Asians.” First, I think it’s funny because I know many Filipino/a friends and family who want each other to strive in the medical field; secondly, how the Filipina wife glared at him and continued to say “Oriental” as if she was entitled to say Oriental because she was one. Anyhow, the director and cast did a very good job on portraying the Filipino/a lifestyle and struggles.
After watching the problems go on during this film, I realized that most of these conflicts essentially have the same theme: pride. I think first, I’ll just list off the conflicts and problems. First there is the conflict between Rose and Ben and his desire to be white. Second is the tension between Ben and his father and becoming a doctor. There are also a few little conflicts that do not include the main characters such as his Aunt and Gusto as well, the two cousins fight at the end, and Lolo’s argument with Ben’s father and Ben’s uncle Lenny. Those are quite a few things, but I think they all contribute to this theme of pride of being who you are.
At the beginning of Rose’s debut Ben Rose tells Ben that he wishes to be white and he just questions her, “So?” then she comes back with a line, “You’re just as brown as the rest of us.” I thought that line was very powerful in a way to remind him that he can try to be as white as he wants to, but skin color cannot change and he cannot change who he is. Then at the end of the movie Ben returns to his sisters’ debut and realizes that his culture is actually something to be proud of. In addition to that, his white friends are enjoying his Filipino party and food! It took a very mean racial slur from one of his “white” friends’ party to realize that he is will never be white and his friends’ approval of the Filipino party to take pride in his own culture. There was also a conflict between Ben and his father. Ben’s father wants him to become a doctor and Ben resisting because he wants to pursue a future in the arts which causes conflict and tension between them. Ben’s father tries to impress Lolo by telling him that Ben is the way to becoming a doctor, this creates a pride “bubble” of protection for Ben’s father. Ben’s father knows that Lolo (his father) would take great pride knowing that his grandson will be successful in the medical sphere.
Then there is the Aunt and Gusto. After Ben’s father breaks up Ben and Gusto’s fight, he finds a gun on Gusto and shows it to his mother. His mother is in complete denial, but accepts it and starts slapping Gusto. I feel that she was slapping him because she wanted to believe that he was a good son, but also because of how embarrassing it is to have a gang-banger son.  Gusto, who was also filled with pride being in his little friendship gang then loses all of his pride in front of everyone by taking the slaps by his mother and hanging his head low. Lastly, the scene where Lolo is yelling at Ben’s dad about how embarrassed he is about having his son (Ben’s dad) invite those kinds of people to a party. He then rants on about how he cannot even afford a nice Debut party for Rose, which is not prideful. Lastly, the two cousins at the end get into a little petty fight about one calling the other a “Fob” which usually stands for fresh off the boat. The first cousin basically pushes the second cousin around, like hitting him, calling him names, typically bully behavior. So what starts off the fight is the first cousin makes fun of the other by calling him a “Fob” and making of how he still has an accent, but when Gusto and Ben were fighting, they were calling Ben a coconut (brown on the outside and white on the inside). I thought it was ironic that the first cousin made fun of Ben for not being like a “real” Filipino, but then makes fun of his cousin for being “too Filipino.” Anyways, the second cousin ends up hitting the first cousin and I do not think that the second cousin gets mad at just the slurs, but because he had pride in who he was. The second cousin knew he was not a “Fob” and took pride in himself to stand up against his cousin.
These conflicts all eventually get resolved, like Ben accepts that he his Filipino and finally okay and proud with it. Ben confesses to his father that he paid his own way to his first years tuition to CalArts with all his money and his father realizes that his son does have talent in this field. Gusto gets stripped of his pride and even though Lolo chewed Ben’s father out, Ben seems to be proud of his father for giving so much up after he was born.
In addition to the theme of pride, I also found some historical connections.
There was a part in the film where Lolo was upset that Ben did not know Tagalog. I think that this is reminiscent to the Filipino

Green, Red, or Blue. Which one are you? Choose one.

Green, Red, or Blue. Which one are you? Choose one.

immigrants. It’s like even though they live in America that does not mean that their culture should be forgotten. So I feel that Ben’s grandfather is part of the immigrant population that want to preserve their culture in the U.S. Ben’s parents, I think, portray those who consider themselves as the Asian-American generation. They have adapted to living in America, abiding the laws, but still keeping their homeland traditions. Then I think Ben is generation that goes through an identity crisis. Ben knows he is Filipino, but resists that concept and acts white, as if he can easily change that. So, I feel that Ben represents the generation of immigrant’s children who do not or cannot identify themselves as one race or another. Overall, I think this film related very well back to Takaki and to the program and what we have studied so far.

Stereotypes, Masculinity, and (Mis)representation

I was immediately drawn to themes across movies. Both The Debut and Gran Torino feature main characters who are quiet, and studious young Asian American men. In the case of Gran Torino, we are presented with three archetypes of masculinity: Walt, white hypermasculinity, Spider who represents “gangster” masculinity, and Thao who is quiet, introverted, and is repeatedly seen doing domestic labor, or “women’s work” around the house. Walt attempts to indoctrinate Thao into hypermasculinity, taking him under his wing and teaching him how to “be a man”. He steps in to save Thao from his apparent emasculation by the Hmong women of his family. Thao resists gang violence by silently taking insults, while Walt actually escalates the cycle of violence by intervening with his hypermasculine code which requires retribution for insult. Thao’s stereotype of the geeky emasculated Asian man sits in sharp contrast to the Asian gangster role played by his cousin, Spider. In The Debut this gangster/cousin role is played by Augusto, who acts as a foil to Ben. Unlike Gran Torino, in The Debut there is no white savior. In the face-off with the gangster cousin, there is no Walt to save him, instead Ben’s family supports him and Augusto is publicly shamed for bringing a gun to the party.

I’m noticing that there is a consistent theme of emasculation, and navigating  masculinity across  Better Luck Tomorrow, Gran Torino, and The Debut. Perhaps this is due to these films being coming of age stories about young men. Adolescence is the time when young people begin to confront the adult masculine roles they are expected to fill, and I suspect there is another layer of complexity when race comes into play, especially given the way that Asian men are often seen as emasculated parodies of white hypermasculinity.

The Debut (T.W. Language/Weapons/Weight)

There were three points in this movie that made the wires in my brain go haywire.

When Ben was at the party with his friends from school, the female character makes a joke about him eating dog, and then eating a cat and then she calls him a ‘fucking chink’. His friend tells him to blow it off, saying she didn’t know what she was talking about. Ben responds with “yes, she did.” This moment took me back to a time when I was in high school. I was about 17 years old at the time and I had just started dating an american boy. The first time I went to his house, he showed me a home made sword that his friend had made for him, when he introduced me to the sword, he said his friend named it “The Gook Killer”. I remember being shocked by that name and asked him to never say that word to me again. A little later into the relationship, I was hanging out with that best friend of his who made him the sword and a few other of his friends. We were all playing Mario Kart and I was winning, everyone started calling me a chink, or a gook. I said to them “get it right, I’m not Chinese” and as I was about to cross the winning line, his friends turned off the game out of frustration, turned to me and said “alright, how about this for taste, we bombed the shit out of your family and your country, we killed them and fucked them up!” I broke down, ran into my boyfriends room, and I remember my boyfriend coming after to me, trying to calm me down and basically saying “he doesn’t know what he’s saying, you know he says things like that all the time and doesn’t mean it.” My response was “yes, he did.” I don’t think I will ever, ever forget this.

It was at this point that I was able to see Ben’s awakening, that moment where “that’s right… I’m not white” because I had that same awakening when my exes friends said those words to me. No matter how fluent you are in English, no matter how much you feel like you have assimilated to American culture, people only see you from the outside in, and that shell that we are wearing is essentially a billboard in lights that says “I am not 100% white”.

Similar to the home made sword that my ex had.

Another part of the movie that I saw in myself and in my home life was the relationship between Ben, his father, and his grandfather. At the beginning of the movie, Ben’s father says he’s spoiled and that he gallivants around. Then later in the film, Ben’s grandfather is yelling at his father and basically said the same thing; that he gallivants around. It’s this strange circle that I have noticed is also very prominent in my family. My mom would get mad at me for my behavior and the amount of weight that I had gained, and when I overheard conversations of my mom and grandmother (or my moms older brothers) fighting, my grandmother or uncles would vent their frustrations to her about my moms behavior and then harass her about the weight that she had gained. It makes me wonder if this will ever end.

bottom: My aunt Masako, my cousin Chihiro top: My mom, me, my cousin Hitomi and my uncle Satoshi 2008

The last point I saw was that Gusto referred to Ben as a coconut, white on the inside but brown on the outside and this made me think of last quarter when we learned about Bamboo, Bananas and Bees. More specifically with the term ‘banana’ (yellow on the outside, white on the inside). The internal struggle that young Asian Americans go through with feeling stuck between two different worlds. I could really see in Ben’s character that he felt like he was at a fork in the road of which culture he should put himself in and analyzing the pro’s and con’s of each side.

Gran Torino

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ëveryone a rager, but secretly theyŕe saviors.”This line in the song by Lorde, Glory and Gore describes Walt’s past and present. In the past he was in the Korean war, so everything is hectic and crazy and it gives him a negative view on other Asian cultures (thus, everyone a rager). Then after this war and all the horrible things they had to do, he [Walt] is praised for it and given a silver star and gets this American glory light. Later on in life, however, these Hmong people come into his life and change his perspective. They learn to respect him even though he disrespects them and calls them names right in their faces. While they put up with his insults and still talk to him, in return he becomes at peace with his past and present and gives his life to give Thao a sense of peacefulness.

Glory and Gore also has a line that says, “Glory and gore go hand in hand…you can try and take us, but victory’s contagious.” Obviously, the glory and gore goes along with Walt’s past and how the American’s won the Korean War, but a lot of gore went on during that time. As for the line, “You can try and take us, but victory’s contagious” I feel that it is the reciprocal of was expected. What I mean by that is that the Korean War could change people’s perspectives on Asians, but they still made it to the United States and made little communities. So in the end, though the Koreans lost the war and to Walt, the U.S. beat the “zipperheads,” they still were still able to come into the U.S. and settle. It’s like both the U.S. and Asians lost and won these battles in a different way.

This song not only relates to Walt Kowalski’s perspective, but as the gang bangers perspective as well. For instance, everyone in the Hmong community seemed to know who they were which I think would refer to the lyric, “Glory and gore go hand in hand, that’s why we’re making headlines.” They have this “glory” of being known, feared, and protected by each other, yet what they do is nothing to be glorified for. Also the line, “You can try and take us, but victory’s contagious” At the end of the movie, they all shoot Walt multiple times; however, there were people watching in the neighborhood, so they all ended up getting arrested. Though they got what they wanted by killing Walt, ultimately Walt and Thao get what they want by having the gang-bangers put away; afterall, victory is contagious.

Those were the few lyrics that stood out to me the most and I think portray the storyline behind the movie overall. However, those are not the only lines that I think relate to the movie, those are just the ones that I saw created the bigger picture.

On another note, I feel that Gran Tornio‘s characters portray America and Asians coming together in a sense. Walt Kowalski would protray America at the beginning of the immigration of Asians: Asians are inferior to the white men. However, later on in history American later on accepts Asians. The U.S. eventually extends their laws to protect Asians as if they were native citizens like Walt did to protect Thao from the gang members. Both symbolically and in the movie, Walt saved Thao and Thao saved Walt, which I think makes the movie that much more heart-felt (for lack of a better word).

This movie was very intense and stressful for me. I did like it, though. The Hmong characters that were casted I think had a very powerful effect on the audience as to let us see what their culture is really like. Unlike, How I Met Your Mother‘s episode of the all white cast playing Asian roles. Also, I think the raspy-voiced character that Clint Eastwoood played portrayed his “tiredness” and “discomfort” from his past. I really enjoyed how Walt was completely disgusted with Thao and Sue, but later on gets attached to them. For instance, he starts to let Sue call him Wally, he lets Thao borrow his tools, and he accepts the gifts that the Hmong community had to offer him. Overall, I think the movie was very powerful and moving.

T.W. Language ‘Gran Torino’

I am going to define the following words in the way that www.urbandictionary.com defines them. You’ll have to excuse the spelling errors as this website allows for anyone to define a word, however they want. These definitions were the top rated definitions voted by those who have visited the site.

Maybe this style  of defining words will look familiar to you guys as well.

Zipperhead: 

A derogatory term used in reference to people of Asian descent.

It is said to have been coined during the Korean war by frontline troops whom had run over enemy troops in jeeps.

2,751 people liked this.

Gook:

A derrogatory term used for the purpose of describing a korean. (Obtained form the korean pronunciation of their country, Hangook.)

3,668 people liked this.

Chink:

A racist term used to describe the Chinese.

7,027 people liked this.

Nip:

A Japanese person (derogatory, from Nippon, the Japanese word for Japan)

1,071 people liked this.

The reason I included the number of likes a definition got is because I think it paints a sad picture of language within our society. The fact that anyone can attach the word ‘like’ to a word that so many of us have been called in a hateful manner paints a grim painting for the future. Now, people could have ‘like’d the words purely because it is the closest definition to the word and paints the most accurate portrayal of that word and there will always be reasons but I guess that in some sense this relates to pop culture because sometimes we aren’t really sure why we ‘like’ the things that we like that pertain to our pop culture and we just might ‘like’ things purely for the fact that they are just there. Not adding any weight to anything.

I tried to keep count how many times Walt and any other white characters used a derogatory term towards or about Asians. The total was 27 but I may have missed some words. It doesn’t sound like that much especially considering how prejudiced Walt was but that’s still 27. To some people, those words are just words, but for people like me, for the people like the Hmongs, that sort of language, carries so much depth and pain. 27 words could easily equally to 2700 times that we have been called that, 2700 times we felt we weren’t welcomed because of what we look like, 2700 times just in one year, 27,000,000 times throughout our history in the United States, starting from now to when we first landed on the shore of the Land of the Free.

Better Luck Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a new day, but for what? Is tomorrow a new day to repeat what was today? Or is tomorrow a new day to start over? For Ben, Virgil, Daric, and Han tomorrow, is what ever you make of it. Better Luck Tomorrow was a very interesting film. It states simple Asian stereotypes and breaks it, it creates the ideal student image and makes the image crumble. Overall this movie had an entertaining storyline and interesting themes.

The storyline of this movie is that the main character, Ben, is a hard working Asian student who is joining clubs, playing sports, doing extra curricular activities to amp up his college applications. His best friend Virgil is also a very smart student, but is not so bright in his choices and he hangs out with his cousin Han. Han is more of the “bad-boy” of the group. Daric is the fourth member of their circle and he is he president of most clubs on the school. He does an article on Ben and that’s how they meet. Daric offers Ben money to do a cheat sheet for him. Ben takes up the offer and all four of them end up befriending each other. All four of them get into mischeif by drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and even scamming people. They essentially have a “gang” going on and they become the popular students of their school. However, with their great power of being popular and pressures of their mischeif, they also pay hefty prices.

One of the themes of the movie is based on stereo-typing. All of the main characters are different kinds of “Asian.” Also, most of the main characters are very smart and are very capable of getting into ivy league schools because of their grades and their extra curricular activities. A second theme I found would be the image of the perfect model student. Ben got good grades, he studied hard by practicing a vocabular word every day, played basketball, and participated in many different clubs; however, when he befriends Daric he ends up doing drugs, smoking, and drinking. Sadly, he ends up almost killing someone. It’s like the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” As soon as the audience gets passed the exterior of the model student, Ben really is not the model student after all. Lastly, the one theme that stood out to me was the different kinds of pressure. Ben, Daric, Virgil, and Han all dealt with the pressures of school and being able to move onto college. However, when they began to scam people, drink, and do drugs, did it seem like the pressure was really on. Ben was peer-pressured into staying with the group and scamming against Steve (who Ben almost kills). Daric pressures Han into going through with the plan to hurt Steve as well. At the end of the movie Virgil feels the pressure of actually killing Steve and attempts to kill himself leaving Ben and Han very heavy-hearted and Daric unaffected by Virgil shooting himself; but Daric felt the pressure and worry that Virgil would confess their crimes to the police. At the end of the movie all four of them end up feeling the pressure of all the responsibilities they put on themselves and the audience sees how they all broke the mold of the model Asian students.

I think that those three themes are very important to breaking the “images” or stereo-types that are put against the model student or citizen. Things are not always as they seem.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie more than I enjoyed The Beautiful Country because I think that this movie was less upsetting. For instance, in The Beautiful Country, Binh goes through all this trouble and heartache just to find his dad who he doesn’t reveal himself to and I just wonder if it was worth it? Was leaving his mother alone worth it? Was holding his little brother until his last breath worth it? Or the one woman who paid any attention to him who ends up choosing someone else over him worth it? The movie Better Luck Tomorrow was different I feel. We saw how each character benifited and there were multiple things going on in the movie. It could be that I already knew how harsh things were going to be in The Beautiful Country so I knew what would happen, opposed to Better Luck Tomorrow where I did not know what to expect. I believe this movie had a lot to offer for my learning in this class in so far as there were many themes that contribute to the challenging against stereotyping.

Better Lemon Tomorrow

Our skin compared to the color of lemons. Yellow, such an inviting color on the outside, however when you cut a lemon, whether you eat it or the juice creeps into a cut that is on your hand, it stings, it’s not inviting, the look of uneasiness on your face. A fruit that looks so juicy, but tricks everyone.

Go beyond, get through the uneasiness, and one finds that it’s still just a fruit. A fruit that provides good health just as any other fruit. A fruit that is commonly used to help ease the burn of alcohol in your mouth, refreshing. A hot summer day, lemonade.

Yet at the end of the day, we still equate lemons to sourness. A lemon does so much good but is only seen for it’s color and acidity. So which can part of a lemon can we trust? Does a lemon ever get tired of it’s bright color and is that the reason why it’s so bitter on the inside?

Week 2, Thursday. “Better Luck Tomorrow”

Dear Journal,

Today I found out my first kiss of the year killed my -technically- still boyfriend and my first kiss’ best friend tried to kill himself and still no one is asking how I’m doing! I mean, I’m really happy that people are paying attention to this group of guys that are so often over-looked, stereotyped, and used as punch-lines but come on! AGH. Okay okay, I guess I should calm down…

I should be happy for these guys to be represented the way that they are. They even purposely make fun of themselves to bring stereotypes to the forefront. With this technique elements in media and life that are problematic (but so common that they become overlooked and normalized) are blatantly put into the spotlight and challenge the “normalcy”. Even Ben says that it was nice to do something that wasn’t going on his college application. Which I think really illustrates how the pressures to be a “perfect over-achieving Asian” can stress someone into the “work hard, play hard” mentality. Of course, this isn’t an infallible excuse (for their drug-dealing, gun-carrying habits) but it is important to consider when critiquing the “model minority” myth. 

But just mentioning Ben makes me angry all over again!!! Even though I ended up having feelings for Ben by the time all of this heartbreaking drama happened, I still trusted him as my friend. I thought that because he understood these stereotypes and how overwhelming they can be that we would be together in solidarity, but no! I’m still misrepresented as a girl and treated solely like a prize to be won! He treated Steve with more same-level respect and he killed Steve! I just wish that the positive lens they use to project racial issues wasn’t so narrow that it left out the issues on gender. And others, for that matter! Those boys use slurs like r*tarded, p*ssy, and f*g as well as other discriminatory phrases. Sigh… I just really wish that for once both my race and my gender could be represented in a way that made others step back and think about the way I and other Asian American women are portrayed.

Better luck tomorrow, I guess.
Stephanie

PS. I don’t know who this Justin Lin guy is but thank you for letting show off our fabulous early-2000 wardrobe.