Hollywood is at it again: yellow-facing. With the recent release of set photos of “Ghost in the Shell” and the new “Doctor Strange” trailer, we witness the erroneous portrayal of Asian characters by actors of European descent.
And these aren’t isolated incidents. Me, and many other Americans of Asian descent, are getting sick and tired of having what is clearly supposed to be Asian descent characters played by European descent actors. Yellow face goes back from the 1937 film “Good Earth” to films in more recent years like “Aloha,” “The Last Airbender Movie,” and even movies that had characters based on real people, like “21” in 2008 and “Argo” in 2012. Hollywood seems to only cast Asian-Americans in stereotypical roles, or when there are roles that do have depth in them, they just cast European-American actors, because apparently Asian-Americans can’t play real humans with depth?
Some might argue that these actors were cast for name recognition. It is hard to argue that Scarlett Johansson, and Tilda Swinston are not household recognizable names. Yet, when it comes to Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” actor name recognition really shouldn’t be an issue. It’s a Marvel film! It’s going to attract a loyal audience regardless. And the role Tilda Swinston is going to play isn’t even the main character. She is playing The Ancient One, who in the comics was traditionally an old Tibetan Buddhist monk. Now, when it comes to having the monk being Tibetan, there are political issues to keep in consideration with China. The short hand version of it is that China has in the past absorbed the country of Tibet, and wants to erase all Tibetan culture and make them wholly part of China, while many Tibetans are trying to fight for independence. With China now a huge portion of international movie profits, it is understandable why they might try to not deal with the Tibetan origins of the character.
Yet, Tibet isn’t the only place with Buddhist monks? I mean, there’s countries like Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, and Vietnam to name a few. Yes, it is sad to erase the Tibetan identity of The Ancient One for profit reasons, especially with the current erasure of Tibetan cultural identity, but you could have at least have kept the origins of The Ancient One in a country near Tibet. Marvel’s Kevin Fiege argues he’s being progressive by hiring a woman to play The Ancient One, and yes, it is nice to see a woman in a place of power, especially with how few powerful women there are in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but why couldn’t it have been a woman of Asian descent? Is it so implausible to cast a woman who is both a female and Asian? And with this going to attract audiences no matter what, this could have been a break out role that many Asian American actors and actresses need.
Scarlet Johansson is playing Kusanagi, a cyborg police woman hunting a terrorist hacker in Japan. Cause, y’know, it is based off a Manga made in Japan, and the story takes place in Japan. So it would make sense that Kusanagi would be Japanese. They didn’t even bother to change her name; she still has a Japanese name! And as aforementioned, many argue that Scarlett Johansson was cast for her name recognition, and that there aren’t any Japanese actresses that have any name recognition. First off, if Hollywood is refusing to hire Japanese actresses, then yes, there won’t be any actresses with household recognition. Second off, there are a few actresses who are Japanese who are building household recognition for themselves. First off, there is fan favourite Rinko Kikuchi who starred in the blockbuster “Pacific Rim”, who has been nominated for an Academy Award for her movie “Babel” and has starred in some indie movies that have made it big like “Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter”. A rather impressive resume if you ask me. Not to mention Karen Fukuhara who is staring in the upcoming “Suicide Squad” as Katana. Or even Rila Fukishima who starred as Yukio in “The Wolverine” and also played Katana in CW’s “Arrow.”
These actresses may not have the same recognition as Scarlet Johansson, but honestly it would have been wiser to hire any of these actresses. Especially with the whole fiasco where they tried to do some post production of Johansson's face to make her look more "Asian". The fan base of the Ghost in the Shell fan base is going to be the meat of their advertisement, and their core audience who are going to go see this movie. Yes, you want to make it open to the general audience, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. And angering the fans is never a good idea. Look at the incident with “the 100.” Anger the fans, and you will get backlash, especially when it comes to minority bashing.
With both “Doctor Strange” and “Ghost in the Shell” being so deep into production, it is too late to go back on the whitewashing of clearly Asian descent characters. Yet, hopefully Hollywood will learn it’s lesson. With films like “The Wolverine” and the upcoming “Suicide Squad” and “Pacific Rim 2”, with Asian descent characters played by actual Asian actors, we’ll keep seeing a trend of less whitewashing and yellow facing. Hopefully.
