Actors Pretending to be Japanese
Feathers have been ruffled by the recently released Hannibal Lecter film, “Hannibal Rising”, which features the Chinese actress Gong Li as a Japanese character, Lady Murasaki, mentor to the teenage Hannibal Lecter. Those who think the character should have been portrayed by a Japanese actress are annoyed, particularly since Gong Li played another Japanese character a couple of years ago in Memoirs of Geisha.
Why does Hollywood turn to Chinese actors when casting Japanese characters? Is this a racist implication that “all asians look the same” or a mere matter of economics? (After all, there are no huge Japanese stars who can be guaranteed to draw a crowd stateside.)
I don’t think it’s a big deal, as long as the actors aren’t perpetuating racial stereotypes or ridiculing other nationalities. After all no-one bats an eyelid when American or British actors play German and Russian Villains in action movies.
Lately, things have been looking up for Japanese actors, as we can see from the recent Academy Award Nominations for Rinko Kikuchi and Ken Watanabe. It’s been a lot worse in the past: Here are the most controversial examples of Japanese characters played by non-Japanese actors:
Zhang Ziyi in “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005)
This was less controversial in Japan than it was in China, where people disowned Ziyi for “selling out” and glamorizing their wartime tormentors.
Sean Connery in “You Only Live Twice” (1967)
In this movie James Bond disguises himself (very unconvincingly) as a Japanese guy.
Marlon Brando in “The Teahouse of the August Moon” (1956)
Marlon gives a sympathetic but patronizing performance as an Okinawan in this dated comedy.
Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961)
Rooney’s notoriously offensive Japanese caricature Mr Yunioshi, complete with buck-teeth, “slanty eyes”, and bad English, is the only reason this is the least popular Audrey Hepburn movie in Japan.
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I think Japanese actors refuse these “great” roles, and Hollywood turns to chinese actors instead.
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Often the Chinese are as upset or more that one of their own would stoop to playing a Japanese….
Sean Connery as Japanese was a joke, but it happened in the book (where such things are easier to overlook, mainly as you don’t have to look).
In that last pic, Rooney does look rather Japanese actually. Don’t know what he looks like normally or in the rest of the movie, which I have not seen. But even here the offence would not be a white person playing a Japanese per se but the unpleasant stereotyping.
And when the French get mad at Patrick Stewart for playing a Frenchman (Jean-Luc Picard) then we can start worrying about race vs nation. Until then there is no immediate reason why a Chinese or Korean cannot play a Japanese – it is, after all, acting and make-believe. All [EAST] Asians look the same? Well, all Europeans clearly do, after all. Hell, Star Trek gets it consistently wrong – Keiko O’Brien and Hoshi Sato were both played by non-Japanese. However it becomes an issue when the production becomes distorted: when the actor, for example, cannot speak Japanese to save his life and mangles his lines.
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Americans cannot distinguish the difference between Japanese culture and Chinese culture completely.
On the other hand, Japanese actors cannot speak complete English.
I suppose Japanese actors would not like to not only play those ‘great’ roles with feeling something strange in atomosphere but also be casted as an alien hard or funny to communicate.
If Westerners can distinguish the race of each face in following site, Hollywood had beeter cast Japanese actors.
http://movie.geocities.jp/zokkokunin/avg.jpg
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Guess what? It’s not only white Hollywood producers who engage in “all look same” casting. Korean and Chinese teleivision programs and movies routinely feature non-Asians in roles that do not correspond with their nationalities. This is painfully evident when an American character speaks with a British accent or even a non-native European accent. I once watched an old Chinese movie about the Korean War and was amused to see a Chinese actor sporting a Halloween costumish plastic nose trying to persuade that audience that he was an evil American general.
I’m guessing the Japanese also don’t check passports or even accents when non-Japanese are cast in TV programs and movies.
It is a plus when the actor physically resembles the character, but acting ability and language fluency also matter, and star power helps sell tickets. Memoirs of a Geisha was made for a North American audience, who do not care that the main female characters were played by ethnic Chinese, just as Korean TV viewers watching a drama about an American Gi who runs over a Korean kid and gets away with it do not notice that the American GI speaks English with a West African accent.
My gripe with the casting of Memoirs of a Geisha was that among the ethnic Chinese actresses, only Michelle Yeoh was able to pull off her part convincingly. Gong Li’s halting English was painful to listen to – Your hands steenk of feesh., although the other Asian actors sounded natural enough. Both Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi were physically miscast. Zhang is tall with broad shoulders and Gong Li seems to have pumped up her aging figure with some silicone funbags. Geishas are petite and delicate-looking, not tall and lanky or busty.
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I think Japanese actors refuse these “great” roles, and Hollywood turns to chinese actors instead.
Well, that begs a few questions:
1) If Japanese actors are turning down “great” roles, why are they turning them down? Are they offensive? Not challenging enough? Is it a question of money?
2) Is it the actors themselves turning down the roles, or is it their agents/agencies/managers turning it down for them? Do the actors have that great a say in what foreign roles they can play, or is it all decided upon by the management?
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If one agrees that film inherently creates an artificial world, then the premise that characters which, within a film’s universe, have a certain ethnicity, should be played by actors who share that ethnicity becomes questionable. What’s the basis for it? Only a German can act a convincing German (not that Hollywood would agree …)? Isn’t the whole point of acting some sort of alienation, impersonation, of someone that you aren’t?
On the one hand, Japanese characters played by Chinese actors does intuitively seem weird and plays into the stereotype of the West’s film industry and audiences not being able to differentiate. On the other hand, one might want to question that intuition – why is this weird exactly? Where’s the problem? Does the weirdness depend on the type of film, the kind of story, the importance of the character in the film?
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Nike wrote:
“I think Japanese actors refuse these “great” roles, and Hollywood turns to chinese actors instead.
“
Did Japanese actresses reject Hollywood or did Hollywood pick internationally recognized ethnic Chinese actresses with box office appeal over Japanese unknowns? The two main male characters were Japanese.
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I came across this website while I was looking for Japanese kites on line and noticed the blog about Hollywood perhaps descriminating against Japanese actors and going with Chinese actors instead. And the constroversy surrounding it.
Well, as a caucasion American I think that I can answer your question. Probably the only reason that Hollywood uses actors from one Asian culture to portray another Asian culture is that the American people are so ignorant of other cultures, that we don’t know the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. etc. Also maybe those actors are available for the parts at the time of the movie.
I do however. And it has bothered me throughout the years. But it has nothing to do with descrimination I assure you. The American people don’t know enough about any Asian cultures to choose one over the other.
I think that my family are the only people in the state of Florida to celebrate Girl’s Day and Boy’s Day. Neighbor’s look at our carp windsocks and ask if it is all for Chinese New Year.
Love your culture!
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I just don’t think there are that many Japanese actresses in Hollywood. Just a guess. Love that Micket Rooney pic. nice one!
Keep an eye out for me(again) this time in the Daily Yomiuri. Still waiting to hear the publication date!
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i don’t think an irish guy could play a french king, or a spanish guy play a russian peasant, but maybe i just don’t think all european ethnicities look alike like apparently you guys think. if a chinese actress doesn’t look very ethnicially japanese i could see someone having a problem with her playing japanese roles, especially more than once. if the character is tall, why cast a short person? if the character is a female, why cast a male? if the character is skinny, why cast a body builer? i don’t agree that since it’s fantasy that all bets are off as to accuracy. race isn’t something that determines acting ability but it does determine some characteristics of how you look. obviously it’s nothing to riot or even boycott about
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A CIA expert recently had similar complaints about Matt Damon playing the role of Jim Angleton in “The Good Shepherd”:
Link
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An online test to see if you can actually distinguish between people of China, Japan and Korea:
http://www.alllooksame.com/
Out of 18 photos of Asians, the average test-taker got 7 right — barely above what you’d get by rolling a dice. If there is a visible difference between people of different Asian countries, then I think it’s safe to say that most people can’t see it.
Personally I don’t think saying that Chinese and Japanese people look similar as a whole is racist. I wouldn’t find it racist if somebody told me he can’t tell the difference between a German, a French and an Englishman. Heck, I can’t.
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LOL, I took that test and got 10 out of 18. Japanprobe posted this video before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T3tQGU8Q7c
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Julie Lancaster-Whann wrote:
“Well, as a caucasion American I think that I can answer your question. Probably the only reason that Hollywood uses actors from one Asian culture to portray another Asian culture is that the American people are so ignorant of other cultures, that we don’t know the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. etc. “
Thanks for enlightening us ignorant expats and Asians. Now go back to googling about Japanese kites.
On a Lonely Planet thread about this topic, a European retold a travel experience on a Greek island popular with European tourists. A local merchant would stand outside beckoning passersby in their native language. Nine times out of ten, he got the language right.
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Will be interesting to see what happens when Ken Watanabe takes a role as a Chinese guy in some Hollywood movie yet to come.
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there are Japanese actresses in Hollywood. I am pretty convinced movie studios just like to typecast, and are culturally ignorant. To them, famous Asian faces can be plugged in wherever vaugely applicable.
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That Greek thing reminds me of when I was in Venice. When I wore nice shoes (leather) I was greeted in Italian. When I wore sneakers/casual shoes I was greeted in English. It may be the fashion as much as the face….
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Why on earth do I have to register and log in to take that AllLookSame test?? Who’s going to bother for just a test?
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Jerry Lewis played an even more offensive Japanese character in “Hardly Working”; at least Mickey Rooney had the excuse of Breakfast at Tiffany’s being made in 1961 (where racial stereotyping was considered more status quo); Jerry Lewis made Hardly Working in 1980.
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24084
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That story about the Greek merchant is interesting. It’s true, there are noticeable differences between white Europeans, as much (or almost as much) as those between Japanese, Korean and Chinese. And i’d bet that the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans that get pissed off when “whitey” can’t distinguish between the three wouldn’t be able to tell an English from an Italian.
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I’m always tempted to be annoyed by this too, but on the other hand, no one cares when (for example) Nicole Kidman, an Australian, plays a woman from the US South in Cold Mountain, or anything along those lines.
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I am sorry, but I dont know the answers for you. I just think, the american misunderstanding of the geishas (geisha = whore) is led the Japanese actresses (or their managers) to chose not to play the roles. The male roles are different, (handsome male and else, sorry, I dont remember correctly) and because of this, were acceptable to actors. But, these are just two guess, I dont know the truth.
In the other hand, Gong Li is eager for screen time, I think she accepts every role, and we know that there are a lot people in China has a thing for america.
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overthinker wrote:
“It may be the fashion as much as the face….”
Yes, indeed, and the body language, too. Often I was able to pick out Japanese and Koreans while living in China, more so by the clothes and make-up than by the physical features. While visiting Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, in northeastern China I could not tell the difference between Han and Korean Chinese unless I tried speaking Korean to a local. Likewise, ethnic Koreans from North America and Europe stand out in South Korea because they dress and act differently.
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I will tell you the reason that Chinese are chosen to play Japanese in the movies in the USA. It is because JAPANESE ACTORS CAN’T SPEAK ENGLISH. Guys like Ken Watanabe who go the extra mile and learn to speak English get the jobs. In a country with more English Schools per capita they don’t take the time to learn English.
Look at Katori Shingo. He can’t say 3 sentences in English and he had a private teacher for 6 years on Smastation.
I would hate to sit through a movie for 2 hours listening to a crappy accent with broken English.
The same can be said in Japan. 99.9% of the foreign “Talent-o” are never famous for more than 2 or 3 years. Dave Spector being the exception because HE SPEAKS JAPANESE LIKE A JAPANESE. See how that works?
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As an expat American who has been living in Asia for nearly a decade, I’d estimate my success rate distinguishing Japanese from Chinese is no better than 50%. My wife hardly fares any better, and she’s Taiwanese. I do even worse trying to distinguish Koreans from Chinese. Given centuries of intermingling, the physical distinctions are pretty minimal. I’d say the analogy with European stock isn’t too far off the mark. While there may be a certain stereotypical “look” we associate with, say, the Germans, that hardly guarantees success with identifying any given German by looks alone. (I have some personal experience experience here; while living in France, I was amused at how often I was mistaken for a German).
I’m not suggesting all Asians look alike, unless you make the mistake of equating “Asian” with Chinese-Japanese-Korean. There are dozens of millions of southeast Asians, hundreds if not thousands of aboriginal groups (30 or more right here in Taiwan), and Russo-Siberians, whose appearance is strikingly different. Just don’t ask me to bet the farm on whether the woman sitting at the next table is a native of Tokyo or Taipei.
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