With the success of #AsianAugust last month, it looks like Hollywood is finally seeking out stories about diversity.
Last month we saw "Crazy Rich Asians" open with the highest box office numbers, bringing in 35 million during its opening week, beating out "The Meg" the previous week and selling out entire theaters. Its numbers have remained steady, and it is now the highest grossing romantic comedy in the last nine years. "Crazy Rich Asians" has an almost a full Asian cast and a story that is modern and relatable to any generation.
Jon Cho and Michelle La's thriller "Searching" hit theaters only three weeks later and has found success of its own after being a huge hit at Sundance, bringing in $390,000 in only nine theaters its opening weekend.
On the smaller screen, Netflix's "To All The Boys I Loved Before," starring Lana Condor and Nick Centineo, tells a high school romance story about a young Korean-American girl. It also did extremely well, charming the hearts of people of all ages. It also caused an internet storm and brought the two lead actors to everyone's attention.
The numbers are in, and Hollywood is taking notice. In the past, Hollywood has overlooked Asian actors when casting their leads in film and TV, using the argument that Asian-Americans couldn't bring in high enough box office numbers.
This was their argument for whitewashing the films "The Great Wall," "The Last Air Bender," "Ghost in the Shell," "Doctor Strange," "Aloha" and the blatant yellow face in "Cloud Atlas." But after much rebellion and outrage on social media about the offense of these castings, Hollywood is beginning to listen.
There was a time in the past, around when "Joy Luck Club" came out in 1993, where a similar uproar arose, with a film starring all Asian-Americans with Asian-American stories. We thought that this was a time where the Mr. Yunioshi's ("Breakfast at Tiffany's") and Long Duk Dong's ("Sixteen Candles") were gone, and Asian-Americans would be on an even playing field within Hollywood.
The hope of this quickly disappeared without another Hollywood film coming out with an Asian-American story until 2002's "Better Luck Tomorrow." After that, progress remained very slow. Asian-American actors appeared as guest stars here and there on television shows and in some movies.
In 2015, the success of the TV series "Fresh Off the Boat" started this momentum again. Shows like "Dr. Ken" and "Master of None" started to pop up and gain popularity. The diversity American audiences were craving to see began to reflect itself in mainstream media.
With shows like these airing on large networks, it became glaringly obvious when characters in films were whitewashed. This blossomed movements such as #StarringJohnCho and #StarringConstanceWu, where movie posters were photoshopped with John Cho and Constance Wu as the lead. In this day and age, where social media has an incredible presence, the voices of those who may have been silenced when "Joy Luck Club" came out in the past could no longer go unheard.
Now, with "Crazy Rich Asians," "Searching" and "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" all being released in the same month — receiving positive reviews and bringing in money to boot — many more productions starring Asian-Americans with Asian-American stories are being developed, and more importantly, demanded.
Being released or currently in production are "A Simple Favor," starring Henry Gold, "Mulan," Jon M. Chu directing Ken Jeong in his stand-up special for Netflix and Alan Yang directing Amazon's "Forever." Just greenlit for production are
"Ohana," a Hawaiian family drama for ABC and Lillian Yu's "Singles Day," picked up by New Line Cinema.
It's looking like this movement is here to stay, and that's probably for the better. The television and film industry looks like it's about to get a lot more interesting, offering diverse stories instead of sequel after sequel. It is an exciting time for those of us who work in the industry — and perhaps even a new chapter for us all.
