"Harold and Kumar" and award season

[AMWD]

The race for movie award season has just begun.

Especially if you are in the industry, you will notice in the trade papers such as Variety showing "For Your Consideration" ads for Oscar, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and so on. This is because for many movies, the nomination is on the line. You even see some movies with virtually no chance to win anything still putting "For Your Consideration" ads. Also keep in mind that the box office number is irrelevant in award race.

That said, regardless the chance of winning any nomination, should New Line Cinema promote "Harold and Kumar" and its star John Cho/Kal Penn as possible Best Comedy contender for various movie awards this upcoming season?

[AMWD]

Apparently somebody else was thinking about this.... Just came in to our mailbox. Looks like it's a brand new petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/hk4oscar/petition.html

[Shuriken]

Sure. Why not? New Line Cinema can go ahead and promote Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle as Best Comedy Film for the Golden Globes or other honors. Since I haven't seen the film, I can't say whether it deserves an award, and if New Line does campaign for the film, I doubt that they'll do it very seriously. But as long as it keeps the film in the public mind — and more importantly, the presence of Asian American lead characters in an otherwise unremarkable stoner flick — it will be worthwhile.

But the big deal for me this year was something else...



Jackie Chan as Passepartout (Lao Xing) in Around the World in 80 Days.

As I've said on another thread, this is the first time that I can ever recall, in a Hollywood movie or TV show, a white character from world literature or pop culture being rewritten as Asian and played by an Asian actor as the lead role. Perhaps I'm overlooking something from Sessue Hayakawa's days as a star of silent cinema, but that's how far back you'd have to go to find another. (And Lucy Liu was not playing one of the original characters from the 1970s TV series in Charlie's Angels, but a successor to them.) This, I think, was a huge breakthrough that needs to be acknowledged in some way.

Sadly, Around the World in 80 Days isn't a particularly good film: it's story seems forced and doesn't blend the Jules Verne source novel with martial arts very well. I also understand that the movie didn't do especially well at the box office. So — unless Hollywood is desperate for future vehicles for Chan, Liu, Jet Li, and Chow Yun-Fat — I think it's unlikely that this phenonenon will happen again in the near future. This is all the more reason to recognize Around the World in 80 Days.

[nameless]

what else besides H&K are up for nomination? if its other immature comedies, then i'd nominate it for sure. but compared to those more sophisticated comedies...well, i don't think it should be in the same category, but i'd still vote for it anyway!

shuriken...i agree that its noteworthy that a classic literature character is rewritten as an asian character, but the fact that the character was just another fighting asian dude doesnt make me too impressed. what good is a lead role if its a tired stereotype, ya know?

[Shuriken]

Originally Posted by nameless

shuriken...i agree that its noteworthy that a classic literature character is rewritten as an asian character, but the fact that the character was just another fighting asian dude doesnt make me too impressed. what good is a lead role if its a tired stereotype, ya know?

I agree that the Asian leading man in Hollywood needs to go beyond the martial artist or the Chow Yun-Fat-style gunman. But despite Hollywood's insistance on this kind of character, I don't see him as a "tired stereotype." If it weren't for the figure of the martial artist, there might not be any Asian leading men in Hollywood at all.

That's not to say that Hollywood shouldn't advance beyond this archetype — say, an Asian American leading man in a romantic comedy or a non-action drama instead. But given the dearth of Asian male protagonists in the American entertainment industry, I view the male Asian martial artist in Hollywood as a figure of resistance. As long as Hollywood invents new and intriguing ways to present him, I see the figure of the Asian martial artist as a glass that's half-full, not half-empty.

[Shuriken]

Originally Posted by Shuriken

As I've said on another thread, this is the first time that I can ever recall, in a Hollywood movie or TV show, a white character from world literature or pop culture being rewritten as Asian and played by an Asian actor as the lead role.

While this is not on the same level of world literature or popular culture as Around the World in 80 Days, I think it's worthwhile to recall another Hollywood movie whose lead character in its source material was originally white but changed to Asian for an Asian (in this case, Asian American) star.




White Woman was a 1932 Paramount movie with Carole Lombard (seen above in a publicity still) as the title character. It was based on the play Hangman's Whip by Norman Reilly Raine and Frank Butler. In this pre-Production Code film, a Euro-American woman avoiding the authorities marries a shady Englishman (Charles Laughton) and goes to live on a small rubber plantation in the Malay jungle. As its title not-so-subtly suggests, White Woman smoulders throughout with the suggestion that the Lombard character, the only Caucasian female in the jungle, may be raped at any time by the Malay jungle-dwellers who surround the plantation. Because of this sexual tension, it's hard to imagine White Woman being made in exactly the same way — or re-released, for that matter — after the Hollywood Production Code was enforced in earnest from 1934 to the mid-1950s.




Apparently not wanting to let an expensive property like Hangman's Whip go to waste, Paramount re-made White Woman in 1939 as Island of Lost Men (not to be confused with another 1932 Laughton film for Paramount, and one probably equally unreleasable during the Code years, Island of Lost Souls). In the re-make, the Lombard character is rewritten as a Chinese woman, played by Anna May Wong, who goes into the jungle to find her missing father, an officer in the Republican Chinese army. By changing the character's race and changing the Laughton character to a Eurasian she doesn't marry (and to a lesser extent, by giving her a more noble reason to go into the jungle), Island of Lost Men takes away the sexual tension that pervades White Woman, and this would make the property more acceptable to the Production Code. The Eurasian character, Gregory Prin, was played by Irish American actor J. Carrol Naish in yellowface, while another Eurasian character, Chang Tai, was played by the then-up-and-coming half-Irish, half-Mexican actor Anthony Quinn.

So, changing a white lead character in a Hollywood movie to Asian has indeed been done before, but not to a work of Around the World in 80 Days's standing.

[nameless]

Originally Posted by Shuriken

I agree that the Asian leading man in Hollywood needs to go beyond the martial artist or the Chow Yun-Fat-style gunman. But despite Hollywood's insistance on this kind of character, I don't see him as a "tired stereotype." If it weren't for the figure of the martial artist, there might not be any Asian leading men in Hollywood at all.

sorry. i should have added that i don't give much weight to the role change, not just because its a stereotypical role, but also because it was jackie chan playing the part. that is to say, i don't think hollywood would have done this specific change for anyone else besides chan. in the past 10-15 years, people have become accustomed to his wholesome image. the only reason i think '80s Days' was changed was because producers knew people would accept chan's clownish antics in a family movie. i seriously doubt this would have been the case for some no name asian actor (or even donnie yen or jet li) in a movie that is more serious and/or closer to the original story.

when hamlet is changed to an asian face, then i'll nod my head towards hollywood - even if the final scene is a shoot out between him and laertes (err is that right? ).

[Shuriken]

Originally Posted by nameless

when hamlet is changed to an asian face, then i'll nod my head towards hollywood

Yes, but changing the character of Passepartout to Asian and having him played by an Asian actor — and giving that actor top billing, more screentime, and more narrative agency than the guy who plays Phileas Fogg — is a good start. It will make the Hamlet scenario more possible.

Originally Posted by nameless

- even if the final scene is a shoot out between him and laertes (err is that right? ).

Yes, "Laertes" is right. The shoot-out will probably be in slow motion.