"Yellow Face" the documentary Part 5 of 5

[BlackCanary87]

I think the best thing about the photo montage at the end, is that there were a couple of points where I thought "Yeah, but that wasn't serious..." (e.g. Peter Sellers as Sidney Wang in Murder by Death was clearly part of the parody, since Charlie Chan was most famously played by Peter Lorre), but then you showed it being played straight right after (Peter Ustinov playing Charlie Chan years later), and, well, *facepalm*

A compelling conclusion to a really great documentary.

[smukase]

it s true, by ignoring a problem u r just allowing it to take place unnoticed and on a far larger scale than it even was. if u keep brushing the dust under the carpet, it ll keep accumulating until the day it all blows back in your face and makes your whole house inhabitable

[MizzDiamonds]

loved the photo montage at the end this has to stop i will also be boycotting AKIRA

[PUFFYsaidgo]

I wonder if reverse racism does exist. I have read people post online ridiculous things like, "Why isn't there a channel dedicated to white people" or "Why isn't there a white history month?" Um... before, all television channels were white, and many still are, and before the history months were made, twelves months out of a year *were* white history months!

[ryu8888]

2:29... oh look, a fucking TWINKIE

[xXHuckleberryFinnXx]

The sad thing is, there's gonna be a sequel. -_-

[BlackCanary87]

*wild applause*

[tokutom]

Well that was good. The war images,the really heavy stuff got repetitive but I see that they were needed to get the point across.

[bchenscorp]

That Asian lady in 2:30 is a sellout and disgraceful.

[blahmeblahblahblah]

@bchenscorp She's spineless & pathologically camera-shy.

[blahmeblahblahblah]

@bchenscorp She's spineless & pathologically camera-shy.

She seemed genuinely threatened that (gasp!) an issue should be discussed (gasp again!) OPENLY!

Mustn't talk, discuss, rock the boat.

Dumbass waste of human life, she is.

[SabrinaCD21]

i loved this documentary.. it's soo true and i may live in america but i'll admit this... this is a racist country... if i could have chose where and what culture i could have been born in i would have chose japan.

[cannoir]

@SabrinaCD21 Uh.. Japan has issues of its own with minorities. If I started typing them I would still be here tomorrow. Japan has blood on its hands also ( Japan was always the equivalent of Germany in 2 WW )

[prodigychild1988]

@SabrinaCD21 Japan has it's own race issues. Try being half-Black, half-Japanese, and growing up in Japan.

[NelsonStJames]

@prodigychild1988 This is a true statement, but no one is talking about Japan at the moment, this is about Hollywood and America. To bring up another society in this discourse clouds the issue. Rather like stating that "African's sold other African's into slavery" when discussing the wrongness of American slavery. It's a true statement, but not germaine to the conversation.

[prodigychild1988]

@NelsonStJames i was responding to a girl who said america was too racist and she wanted to live in japan because they were less racist. it's fine to answer like i did, in that case. all i said was that japan has it's own race issues, as does all of asia. that doesn't lessen these issues. i was on this video because i care about asian issues in hollywood, not to bitch about being half-asian. you should look where someone is responding to before replying to them. :)

[smukase]

@prodigychild1988 every country has its own race issues! dont put this in the wrong context ok, but u cant compare any country in this world with america. america sells the lies of change, tolerance, peace, dreams etc. and all in the name of multiculturalism. yet it s white europeans who run it and they do so by making sure all other ethnicities always stay behind them. all this in a country that belongs to someone else in the first place. sorry but that is smth a whole lot different

[prodigychild1988]

@smukase I don't mean to distance the US from it's race issues at all, don't misunderstand. I grew up in the US, a black/asian child, and I certainly experienced the racism here first hand. I was merely stating that racism/colorism/nationalism/wh­atever -ism it may be, is not purely a US issue, and moving to Japan would not be moving to Utopia. The comment I responded to was saying something about moving to Japan. Taking nothing away from this issue, the world as a whole is screwed up about race.

[prodigychild1988]

@smukase I hope you don't misunderstand... The whole reason I was watching this documentary is because I care about this issue, too, as an Asian-American.

[smukase]

@prodigychild1988 no i didnt, i was just pointing out that it s not possible to compare japan to america. god bless

[XtremeNoobie]

Excellent 5 part series, really explain a lot on the serious issue at hand

[ZeframMann]

Aren't Goku and Ming the Merciless aliens? And there was a plot-relevant reason for Randal playing 7(!) different characters in Lao. Also, the casting of Walken in Balls of Fury alwyas seemed more farcical (possibly lampshading the trope?) Most of the other examples are rather suitably damning though.

All in all, a very good conclusion to a well-thought out series. I hope to see a follow-up at some point, as I don't see this Hollywood trend ending too soon.

[PUFFYsaidgo]

@ZeframMann Goku is an alien who looks Asian, just like how Superman is an alien who looks white (why isn't he called Superalien?). There's a reason why Goku is known as the "Asian Superman." Goku was adopted by an East Asian man and no one was the wiser that they weren't related, just like in Superman's case. Also, from what I've read, Bulma asked Krillin and Goku if they were related, and Krillin is pseudo-Chinese.

[1Nanalo]

Best way to stop hollywood whitewash, is for rich Asian Americans to produce movies.

[PUFFYsaidgo]

@1Nanalo It's not just about them making movies. It's also about distribution. After they make the movie, who will show it? Paramount? LOL!

[cannoir]

@PUFFYsaidgo distribution is key.they have cornered the market.if blk and asians could own 30% of marketshare that would make a difference

[sumfilipinodude]

the last segment is so haunting. i can't stand america sometimes. "american dream" is right. we are living in a dream.

[SipherothXIII]

the video left out a lot of other recent examples like Bullet Proof Monk, 21, and The Forbidden Kingdom.

[blahmeblahblahblah]

@SipherothXIII Great points!

[CostlyChris]

I would also argue how role playing forums also have a effect on why so many white people feel its ok. They simply dismiss it as a extention of role playing which acting is but fail to connect it to white supremacy through media. This documentary is very insightful I am currently blogging on the same topic

[cannoir]

@Chris it is called entitlement, they generally feel like we are annoying them when we bring this up.Like I said I'd like to see Gong Li casted as Elisabeth II or Kelly Hu as Marilyn Monroe.They just fail to see that we are being short changed.Not even Ian anthony Dale will play a white role and he is eurasian.

[Europasingstome]

To the defense of Balls of Fury, I believe they cast Christopher Walken for comedic value, not to be historically or ethnically accurate.

[DaTruth2024]

The point of this is

Fire Nation - Based off of Imerial Japan and how they conquered most of Southest Asia and the Pacific Island. The culture/Architecture is mostly Japnese .

Water Tribes - Based off of Inuit, Yupik, and Native American cultures/people

Earth Kingdom - Mostly Chinese culture/Architecture with some Korean and Japanese influences

Air Nomads - Straight-out based off of Tibetian peoples/culture/spirituality

[DaTruth2024]

@DaTruth2024

Even when you get into the animation the eye color of each character depends of the element that their nation can minipulate/bend. The art style animation even points to it. If the animators wanted to draw them as Caucasian their eye brow ridges would have been more pronounced, their nose bridges would be higher, their eyes would have been drawn more suken in and their chins more angular.

[DaTruth2024]

@DaTruth2024

The features the characters (small noses/lips and their bone structure in general; "Mongloid") is much like the peoples of East/Southeast Asian, Inuit/Yupik and Native American descent.

Any artist knows this.

[DaTruth2024]

@DaTruth2024

Psychologically most watchers are Westerners are egocentric/ethnocentric when it comes to animation and this alone would explain why many see some animations as being "white" when according to the animators of different series that is not true.

See the video "The Last Yellowface" as an example.

[DaTruth2024]

@DaTruth2024

*Sunk In*

[DaTruth2024]

I was actually waiting to seen Yul Brynner listed. My family got the "The King and I" on VHS as a gift when I was younger. I also have "The Ten Commadments" on VHS also. I had NO idea until I was older (10-13) that not only is he not a person of color but he isn't even tanned. I was disgusted when I found out they "browned" him up for these parts. Ugh. Yellowface for "The King And I" but "Brownface" for "The Ten Commandments". Seriously Yul Brynner for an Egyptian Pharaoh! WTF!

[ssjLancer]

@DaTruth2024

Yul is half mongol.

As for 'brownface' yeah sure. I feel bad for you if you if the 'racism' in the 10 Commandments prevented you from enjoying it.

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer Why are you patronizing DaTruth2024 about how he or she feels about facepainting? The movie expects the viewer to tacitly approve the replacement of a character of non-White origins with a very White actor, and covers it up with brownface. Regardless of the message of the movie, this substitution gives the film an air of inauthenticity and has implications of racism. Note the lack of quote marks.

[DaTruth2024]

@thephieffect

Thank you. Atleast you get it. Unfortunately most fans and movie goers do not.

[DaTruth2024]

@ssjLancer

I am a person of color. Of course the facepainting rubs me as offensive. They could have EASILY got modern-day Egyptians or other peoples of East or North African origins to protray the peoples and not Northern European descended actors/actresses like they still do today! It goes back to people of color never beinbg given any oppotunites at that time period (1950s). Yul Buner has Buryat (Mongolic) ancestry but is mostly Swiss, Russian and Jewish.

[DaTruth2024]

@ssjLancer

Jesus! The fact of the matter is that at that time brown skin of ANY prevented people of color from getting ahead any feild of work but then for apart that would require such a skin tone they get white actors/actresses and "brown" them up. How is that NOT racist???

[DaTruth2024]

@ssjLancer

Have you even seen Yul Brynner without the facepaint! He is extremely light-skinned/pale! In fact most sources have stated that his is not even of "Mongolic" ancestry (ONLY Swiss, Russian, Jewish) and others state that at the most his mother is part Buryat and not even half at that. Lol!

[mochawitch]

Excellent film by the way. thanks SO much for sharing this.

Hugs,

aNg

[mochawitch]

Mickey Roarke...Genghis Khan in 2013???????? AW HELL NO!!!

[mochawitch]

Okay only one thing I have to say to the black dude WTF???? If I had a time machine my brotha...time for a history lesson..

[DaTruth2024]

@mochawitch

Exactly. I can't believe he as a person of color would say that's its "OK" to do ANY form of facepaint/YellowFace. Apart of me thinks that alot of people view Yellowface as not a serious matter b/c of the phenotypical similarities as far as skin tone/hair texture between European Caucasians and East Asian populations. But still WTF.

[ssjLancer]

Goku is a saiyan.. not asian. And Noah Ringer looks almost exactly like the cartoon aang.

[SunnasChariot]

@ssjLancer And Superman is a Kryptonian. You're point?

Look up 'Are anime characters Caucasian or Japanese?' on this site. The show drew heavily from anime in regards to style, etc. Aang, for all intents and purposes, is what we would identify as Asian. To assume he's 'White' based on broad assumptions is pure ignorance.

[rmDiablo79]

@SunnasChariot

Correct Superman is kryptonian. But more importantly he 'looks' anglo.

As for anime I dont know what your point is. Whether the character is asian or white the animators dont draw them any differently. What differentiates them is the setting. And DBZ or Avatar arent based on the real world.

Maybe its a white kid wearing asian clothing that you dont like? or mexicans wearing inuit clothing? In that case dont watch Serenity. Theres a bunch of white people wearing kimonos.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 Magaka differentiate race by setting AND cultural markers. Avatar does just that; all of the cultural markers point toward Asian and Inuit.

Simply because the Avatar world isn't real doesn't mean it isn't affected by conditions in our world. LotR has cultural markers for Europe, and so White people were cast. Avatar has Asian cultural markers and... the main characters are White. How isn't that weird?

People have been upset over Serenity. But we're not talking about that show.

[ssjLancer]

@thephieffect

LotR doesnt try to hide the fact that it isnt multicultural. Western nations are european, the eastern invaders are all arab etc.

Avatar makes no distinction. For example Sokka and Kitara who are supposedly inuit have no problem posing as fire nation even though the fire nation is supposedly based on the chinese.

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer Avatar doesn't try to hide the fact that it isn't multiracial. Every single cultural group seen on Avatar is mirroring one or more in real-life Asia or the Inuit. What race of people can be found at those locations? Not the White race, and not the Black race.

Because the Avatar world only has one race as we define it, the conflicts of that world are focused around ethnicity and nationality. I assume that's how Sokka and Katara blended into the Fire Nation population.

[rmDiablo79]

@thephieffect

Youre saying theres 2 races, inuit and asian. Now youre saying the avatar world has one race and thats why sokka and kitara blended. That doesnt make sense.

You also forgot avatar had indians(guru) and south americans(sun warriors).

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 I'm a little puzzled as to how Inuits are categorized racially, so I was inconsistent in the numbering. That doesn't change the fact that the physical differences between Inuits and Asians are not that striking compared to Inuits, Asians, Whites, and Blacks, the latter of which somehow found their way into the TLA world. The diversity of people in Asia alone also covers how Sokka and Katara blended so easily into the Fire Nation.

[aznperson84]

@rmDiablo79 you're missing the point. the entire airbender franchise is a project that was deliberately designed to NOT focus on whites / blacks. what thephieffect is getting at is that, since they were never the focus, it makes zero sense to suddenly include them in a live-action version. it's unfaithful, offensive, and distorts the original intent of the show.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 (2) Indians are Asian.

The Sun Warriors also bear a close resemblance to SouthEast Asian jungle cultures, which makes more sense in a pan-Asian and Inuit fantasy world.

Candi Sukuh is a step temple in Indonesia that looks kinda like South American ones, and it's strikingly similar to ones used by the Sun Warriors. Search Candi Sukuh, Angkor Wat, or Phanom Rung. The clothing of the Sun Warriors also look similar to warrior dress from those cultures.

[rmDiablo79]

@thephieffect

Asian isnt a race. Indians are as different from China as Russians are from China even though theyre in the same continent.

So weve gone from Inuit and Chinese to.. inuits dont look that different from the Chinese and that South Americans are ok as long as theyre not white or black.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 No, all of Asia is one race. Race is illogical like that. Technically India is Caucasian, but nowadays they're Asian, hence why I say White all the time.

And... What's your point? I was following your lead. I went from race, to the disparity of physical appearance of races, to cultural indicators of an ethnicity seen in Avatar. My point still stands, that there's no good reason why racial diversity needed to be increased; the racial gaffes that TLA has betray lack of forethought.

[thephieffect]

@rmDiablo79 (3) And if the Sun Warriors are indeed fully based off of Mayans, then that doesn't detract from my point. They're not White nor Black as well. So why are White and Black actors injected into this world?

[Enseni]

After having read the Last Airbender Art of the Animated Series hardcover book at a local Borders, the captions beneath the images mentioned the Sun Warriors' city as being modeled after Mesoamerican (Mayan in the book) cultures. There was no mention of any Southeast Asian influences. Indians are geographically Asian but ethnically speaking, there are two major groups (Aryan and Dravidian) amid others. Arabs are in Western Asia but are they "Asian" by race? Nope.

[thephieffect]

@Enseni I don't understand where you're getting at in the second part of your post. Could you expand?

[Enseni]

All of Asia isn't one race. I used the Middle East as an example because geographically speaking, it comprises West Asia. Turkey and Armenia are also located in Western Asia but you're going to tell me and the lot of folks here that Armenians, Kurds, Iranians, Jordanians, and other folks that don't hail from East Asia are the same race as Eastern Asians? Well then, that takes off some slack against Dev Patel's role as Zuko, doesn't it?

[thephieffect]

@Enseni You're right; they're not Asian. Americans would be hesitant to call them White, though I believe that's what they list themselves as. I was over-generalizing and made that mistake.

[thephieffect]

@Enseni (2) What do you mean that your correction of me "takes off some slack against Dev Patel's role as Zuko?" Zuko was one of the palest characters in the show when we saw him in any scene with the Gaang, yet he is now the darkest member of the core cast. He is also still the only non-White character of the core cast. As far as this movie is concerned, he is the indisputable dark-skinned villain to the White Avatar. What slack was taken off?

[Enseni]

"Taking the slack off Dev Patel" was a stab I took at a number of anti-casters who repeatedly criticized the role of Zuko going to a non-Asian and by non-Asian I mean non-East Asian. Disturbingly enough, this follows the same train of thought that if you're not white then you're not truly American. Why? Well, Dev Patel, an South Asian or of South Asian ancestry, does not fit the role of Zuko well because Dev isn't the sort of Asian people have in mind when the word Asian is used.

[Enseni]

It's been rectified in some circles and some people have taken notice of this but when Asian exclusively means people of East Asia when it's a category shared by South Asians as well, well that mirrors the entire "Who's truly American?" issue. Can you catch that wave?

[thephieffect]

@Enseni It's unfortunate that race is such a tricky category to put people into. The fact that some people may mistake Indians as non-Asian leads me, personally, to consider how race is used by American society to separate groups, namely minorities, from the oppressing majority/status quo.

[thephieffect]

@Enseni (2) Despite the mistake(s) some anti-casters may make in not focusing on the plight of Native Americans or Indian-Americans, their points on society's image of East Asians and all minorities still hold quite a bit of merit. The three main, heroic characters are indisputably White when their characters live in a world of the heritages of people of color. That's still a problem if we ignore Patel's role as Zuko.

[thephieffect]

@Enseni (3) In regards to opposition to Patel's casting, it's a large part anger with the tokenism, the dark evil empire trope, and the clear fact that Zuko was the palest character in the main cast, if only bested in paleness by Toph. Zuko now being the only very dark member of the very white cast should raise warning-flags.

[DaTruth2024]

@thephieffect

That and the fact the original casting had all four nations as Caucasian and the re-casting of the Earth Kingdom as East Asian/Black African and the SWT as Inuit with Sokka,Katara,and Gran Gran as white angered alot of people, including me. It screamed TOKENISM. Plus it still didn't change the fact that the heros were still "White" while in the original source they were (as stated by the creators numerous times) Inuit/Native American and East Asian.

[DaTruth2024]

@thephieffect

The movie honestly reminded me of "The White Man's Burdern".

[thephieffect]

@ssjLancer (2) Why, if every cultural indicator points to Asia or the Inuit, are there White people and Black people in the film? What cultural heritage, what purpose links them to this pan-Asian and Inuit world? If there is no link, maybe they shouldn't be there.

Your last comment also insinuates that people from one end of China look exactly like people from the other end. Considering that Asia and China are both enormous, I'd assume there's diversity in people, even though they're all Asian.

[Enseni]

Correction: Eurasian and it was an ancient population that exhibited plesiomorphic traits not found in modern Asians but still present in Amerindians. Why do you think American Indians can look vastly different from Asians? Go back far enough and all humans share a common ancestor.

[DaTruth2024]

@Enseni

Yeah. 60,000 years ago a group of people (related to the Southern African Khosians) left Africa through the Horn of Africa in different waves and populated the Earth adapting to different environments developing different (but sometimes related) phenotypes.

Black Africans descend from those that never left Africa and branched out into different phenotypical groups developing into different tribes speaking different languages (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, Khoi-San).

[aznperson84]

@rmDiablo79 it's not JUST the settings. sometimes an anime takes place in america and the characters are STILL asian

plus y the hell does it have to based on the real world for them to look asian? there's no rule that says that BS. in spite of what u might think, caucasians do NOT have a monopoly on fantasy worlds

and serenity is a POS. a future where asian culture is supposedly prevalent and yet there's almost zero asians anywhere. WTF.

[aznperson84]

@ssjLancer not this BS again. goku's an alien that is supposed to LOOK ASIAN if drawn realistically. the creator of dragonball said he came up with goku from watching old school jackie chan movies. how the hell do you watch an old school jackie chan movie which ONLY has Asians in it and come up w/ a white goku? that's just stupid. to reiterate, goku's supposed to LOOK asian. NOT white

and Noah Ringer looks nothing like aang. he looks more like charlie brown trying to kick a football

[bar1scorpio]

Why is Christopher Walken as Feng in this, when the point was he was supposed to be a parody of Fu Manchu yellowfa- well, and he was supposed to be Christopher Walken.

Which he was.

[audaciousvideos561]

i love Asia!

[oroyos0]

This stuff is too complicated for the redneck mind.

[mad8london247]

Why is Yul Brynner in The King and I, yellowface? Wasn't he a mixed-race Swedish/Mongolian?

[DaTruth2024]

@mad8london247

He is Swiss, Russian and Jewish.

[kcorth1]

So brilliant! I hope more people watch this!