"Yellow Face" the documentary part 1 of 5

[o0Rice0o]

i actually laughed at this. Racism is a joke, color isnt important i don't think anyone segregates their crayons.

[MrAngryindian]

@o0Rice0o Actually, the crayon manufacturers used to. They included a color called "fleshtone" and it was the color of a white person. A clear message that white was normal and everyone else was not.

[TheSnuzzle]

The fact that people are so obsessed with this, shows how far we have NOT come with racial issues. Until the day when we can look past race and not say "It's offensive for a white man to plan an asian character" and just look at both of them as MEN. Then we will be truly progressed.

[lostchild06]

@TheSnuzzle The casting was racially biased and asked for caucasian actors, though...So it WAS offensive, since they wanted caucasian actors to play clearly asian characters. That's called yellow face, as the film says. So yeah, it was offensive haha

[o0Rice0o]

@TheSnuzzle thats how mankind is we always try to gain power over one another if its not race it'll just be something else

[MrAngryindian]

@TheSnuzzle That's not called progress. It's called blindness. And since white is currently the 'default" man, what you describe would be assimilation, bleaching everyone nonwhite and turning them into white people.

[ViktorOkane]

Blame the Jews not the White Man. It is the Jew that runs all media.

[tokutom]

Doctor Who is actually quite racist. They've got over the black thing,they've never even had a problem portraying black people but the biggest Asian they've ever had is that guy in the half-American production that was kind of evil but not but he helped the Master and it just got confusing. I prefer the Sarah Jane Adventures. For most of the last series Sarah Jane was the only white person. I think here,in the UK,it's more white. It wasn't until this year that I worked with an Asian.

[MrStrawhatlegend]

@tokutom I watch Doctor who and i love the sarah jane smith adventures too. They portrayed a non-stereotypical Indian family in it. There were talks of the Doctor regenerating into a black man in the future.

[blahmeblahblahblah]

Too bad this documentary is only on YouTube & never got a major theatrical release. Same with "A Slanted Screen".

[cannoir]

07:14 Cinthia Lee is sexi

[PUFFYsaidgo]

I wonder what the Asian guy listening to the questions at 1:33 is thinking.

[SabrinaCD21]

i understand this completely.. it's bullshit that people wants 2 exclude asians from things. they are some of the best people. in fact america wouldn't have a lot of things if it weren't for asians. heck some of the most popular things comes from asians. Fireworks, rice, egg rolls, anime, yugioh, pokemon, tons of game systems. some of my favorite things when i was a kid came from the asian culture. honestly i wish i was asian instead of amercan cause america is full of racism

[PUFFYsaidgo]

@SabrinaCD21 A person can be both Asian and American. American doesn't equate to a certain color. Most people like to use it to mean "white."

[cannoir]

@SabrinaCD21 Uh.. oh so americans wouldn't be able to feed themselves if it wasn't for Asians ? really Sabrina ?

[DaTruth2024]

I don't get how some people do not find putting Anglo-American children in East Asian and Inuit/Native American clothing, culture and setting, racist. (YELLOWFACE;REDFACE) Also putting brown people of EVERY type from Polynesia, India, Iran, Arabia and the Meditteranean into ONE NATION as VILLIANS esp. when the original Villians were Pale-skinned East Asians.

It's the same bullshit Hollywood has always fed us. White=Good;Pure. Dark=Villian;Evil! WTF!

[DaTruth2024]

@DaTruth2024

Not to mention the Unfortunate Implications of "The White Man's Burden" and having the powerful NWT as White and the weaker/poorer SWT as Inuit/Native American (with only three white members). There is also a great deal of sexism within the movie adaptation compared to the original series as well. Ugh.

[PUFFYsaidgo]

@DaTruth2024 On the movie's Web site, the Southern Inuit Water Tribe was described as "primitive." Sigh.

[yunamira]

I love the documentary, but I have to admit that I hate the editing/type styling.

[Einchy1]

Jesse McCartney played Zuko? This people didn't do their homework.

[Elamindd]

@Einchy1 They didn't say Jesse McCartney played Zuko. Jesse McCartney was ORIGINALLY cast as Zuko. Dev Patel was cast as Zuko later on.

[ssjLancer]

If they wanted an all asian cast then maybe The Last Airbender should have been produced by Chinese studios?

The USA is multicultural, and mostly white. And the available pool of actors represent that.

Remember Avatar is a cartoon, its easy to draw asians(even though aang looks white) and have a bunch of white people do the voice acting. Not the same for live action movies.

[SunnasChariot]

@ssjLancer Or maybe they could have gotten in contact with groups like the East West Players, who would have been MORE than happy to provide a long list of possible actors to fill the roles and who, in fact wrote a letter to Paramount after the casting was announced and their expression of concern due to the clear lack of Asian actors starring in the lead roles. There are MANY talented Asian actors, Hollywood just doesn't see them as profitable.

Look up 'Are anime characters Caucasian' .

[rmDiablo79]

@SunnasChariot

Wow you just admitted that Hollywood doesnt seem them as profitable.. what is this, a charity?

The other day I watched Sukiyaki Western Django, a western with all chinese actors, made by a chinese studio. OMG racist!

Its funny that you mention East West players, an organization trying to fight the stereotype that asian actors can only be in Kung Fu roles.. woops.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 No, it isn't a charity. But that's not going to stop people from frowning upon and refusing to pay to see racist Hollywood decisions, like historical Blackface and now straight-up Whitewashing.

You bringing up a film from the Japanese film industry derails the conversation. Since this film was made in the American film industry, it has American contexts. How the Japanese cast their films has nothing to do with this.

ATLA is much more than a stereotypical KungFu flick. Seen it?

[SunnasChariot]

@rmDiablo79 When did I mention 'charity' or even suggest it? The ideology that 'Asians aren't as profitable as Caucasians' has been time and again, proven FALSE.Look at 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'. Look at 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. Most recently 'Slumdog Millionaire' .ALL starring Asian actors and ALL MAJOR HITS. The majority of Americans being White says NOTHING about their preferences. No one's asking for charity. We're asking for equal opportunity, which Asian actors currently don't receive

[ssjLancer]

@SunnasChariot

Crouching Tiger is in Mandarin.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a perfect example of why they wouldnt use an all ethnic cast. None of the cast members spoke english fluently, and if they did the studio purposely told them to add in an 'asian' accent.

Equal opportunity? when black america decided that they werent being represented enough you know what they did? they made their own movies. People like Tyler Perry are helping black actors succeed in hollywood.

Asians should do the same.

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer You're insinuating that there aren't Asian-American and Inuit actors who can speak American English without an accent. That is simply untrue.

Also, Memoirs of a Geisha is set in Japan. What does that have to do with this?

Asians are making their own movies. But that doesn't change the fact that THIS production appropriated Asian and Inuit heritage yet conveniently gave Asian-American and Inuit actors background roles. That is marginalization, appropriation, and racism.

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer I believe the Geisha example was brought up as an example of successful movies with Asian leads. You said that Geisha is an example of why Hollywood would not want to use an "ethnic" cast, because of the stilted English. I pointed out that the story is set in Japan; stilted English is understandable in the context that it's hardly expected for common Japanese people to speak English with an American accent. But let's leave that behind.

[rmDiablo79]

@thephieffect

And thats retarded and downright insulting. How stupid would it have been if they got the voice actors of the cartoon to read their lines in 'stilted english.' No. They read it in perfect english.

The same reason the cartoon is in english and with non chinese voice actors is the same reason you got non chinese characters in the live action movie.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 Chinese-Americans are as "non-Chinese" as any American; they just have Chinese heritage. They should be able to play roles that live in a world that is obviously influenced by their heritage. There are Asian-American/Canadian and Inuit actors who can all speak English fluently; if the production had any real intent on being respectful to cultures, they would not have cast ethnic actors as background characters. Instead you get three White heroes who do Asian things in an Asian world.

[strangergirl]

@thephieffect lol the last samurai made me laugh

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer (2) In the same way that it's awkward to see an upper-middle-class White guy being all "ghetto" and "Black," it is awkward to see three White kids taking on the roles of characters whose heritages are clearly Asian and Inuit.

Hollywood can't just take the culture of minorities and banish the colored people that come with that culture to the sidelines.

[ssjLancer]

@thephieffect

White kids acting 'all ghetto and black' would indeed look ridiculous.

Are you saying the characters in Avatar are acting all 'Inuit and asian?' lol. If they got a white kid trying to speak mandarin yeah I would agree.

It isnt just white people, they threw in Indians and hispanics too. I dont see how the suspension of disbelief falls apart for being multicultural.

For example the actor they got for Princess Yue looks perfect. And she's mexican.

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer (2) The original cartoon had all its visible writing in proper Chinese. Many of the names have been written in Chinese, and from the sounds alone one can usually figure out that they're not European in origin. Am I to understand that you believe that these kids are actually speaking English, and not that what we hear as English is really just a convenient on-the-spot translation?

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer (3) Architecture, clothing, mannerisms, philosphies... etc. are all Asian or Inuit. They clearly speak some Asian language from the writing and the names. How is this not equivalent, if not comparable to, upper-middle-class White kids acting "ghetto" and "Black" inauthentically?

Shyamalan kinda haphazardly threw all the dark-skinned people into one nation. He said so in one of his interviews. That's also a problem, but I'm more focused on cultural appropriation at the moment.

[rmDiablo79]

@thephieffect

How does a 'race' look upper class? are you saying all white kids are upper class and all black people are ghetto? eminem was fine in 8 mile but I guess you think the movie would have been more authentic if they used a black actor.

And if Shyamalan made the water nation inuit and the fire asian I guess he 'kinda haphazardly threw all the dark skinned people into one nation.'

You'll always have something to complain about.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 (2) I'm saying that upper-middle-class White kids who try to be "ghetto" and "Black" look funny because these upper-middle-class White kids have no ties to the conditions that create that culture, namely not being upper-middle-class and not being White. There are exceptions, but this is the general rule, imo.

In the same way that this looks weird, it is weird that there are White actors parading around in Inuit costumes in a pan-Asian and Inuit world. They don't belong there.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 (3) "The second group is the Fire Nation; when Dev was cast as Zuko, I said, OK, I have to cast an Uncle Iroh who looks like his uncle. We're going to go from Indian/Persian to Mediterranean, all that group with all its darker colors including Italians." -- Quote from Shyamalan at roundtable discussions.

"Haphazardly" is admittedly my exaggeration of the matter, but he pretty much did throw all the dark-skinned people into the Fire Nation. Because India's like Italy, natch.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 (4) Hollywood should not be allowed to appropriate Asian and Inuit culture yet hire White actors for the lead roles, especially when Asian-American and Inuit actors can hardly get "normal" roles because they're ethnic and thus not "mainstream" enough. In this film, it is fact that all important, named characters aside from the villains are played by White actors, while the nations are still populated by minorities. That's institutional racism at work.

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer (4) This also isn't an issue of suspension of disbelief. Although that plays a part, this movie is an example of cultural appropriation. Every aspect of culture and life in the TLA world is based on existing ones in Asia and the Inuit. How is it okay for three White actors to have the roles of three characters whose heritages are very clearly Asian and Inuit? The situation is made worse by the casting of Asians and Inuit actors as background characters or scenery.

[rivengle]

@thephieffect you're completely missing the point

[thephieffect]

@rivengle What are you referencing?

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer Just because the US is mostly white does not mean that White people have a presence in every single story in American media.

[ScottYarmel]

Well to be honest i did not see the movie so i can't say if the actors were good or not. I was just saying the best actor should get the job regardless of race. And darkfenx if a black actor gets a role in a movie then he isn't playing a white role his character just became black, it usally doesn't matter unless it has a greater significance in the movie like the black guiter player from O Brother Where Art Thou. But if a white man was cast to play Blade than he would be white no big deal.

[ScottYarmel]

"Ugh, it's disgusting that people actually think someone can put on makeup and play a different person from another race"- Its called acting and if someone is a good enough actor to pull it off the roll wouldn't it be racist to not consider them as someone for the part?

[DarkFenX]

@ScottYarmel Then let's see you guys try to cast some white people to play black men in movies. If role is the only thing that matters, I would like to see Asians being casted as whites, whites being casted as blacks, and blacks casted as Asians. Let's see if the public will live that done.

[thephieffect]

@ScottYarmel I'd also like to point out that PUFFYsaidgo's comment is in context of Asian-American and Inuit actors' marginalization in Hollywood. Their cultures have been appropriated wholesale, and then they themselves are put in the background or cast as villains. White people, Hollywood insinuates, are better suited to playing characters with Asian or Inuit heritage than Asian or Inuit actors are.

This film series is not about acting ability; it's about racist implications in Hollywood.

[PUFFYsaidgo]

@thephieffect Thank you for the back up!

[SunnasChariot]

@ScottYarmel It says that White people are 'better able' to portray Black people than Black people themselves are. Same goes for Aisan people. There are many, MANY capable actors of color available, but Hollywood does not tap into those pools because they do NOT view them as 'profitable'.

[PUFFYsaidgo]

Thank you SOOOO MUUUUCCHHH for uploading this! I've been waiting so long since I saw the trailer for this documentary a few months ago! Ugh, it's disgusting that people actually think someone can put on makeup and play a different person from another race. Would those black people mind if Jackson put on shoe polish to play a black character like in the early 1900s? Gross.

[ScottYarmel]

@PUFFYsaidgo Its called acting and if someone is a good enough actor to pull it off the roll wouldn't it be racist to not consider them as someone for the part?

[PUFFYsaidgo]

@ScottYarmel Because most people wouldn't be able to suspend disbelief. I will never believe a white person can play a nonwhite Asian. I won't believe an Asian can play a black person, etc. And obviously, most of, if not all of, the actors in The Last Airbender were awful. So much for the "best actors" being chosen. Meryl Streep should've played Aang. Can YOU suspend your disbelief enough for that? I mean, it shouldn't matter what actors look like, as long as they pull it off, right?

[CheesyReviews]

Indians in the movie don't bother me. It's just the freaking white people. UGH. They just don't belong at all.

[audaciousvideos561]

ASIANS ARE THE BEST!!! im not asian, but i know this is accurate.

[jmlew]

Thanks for the upload.