 John Wick 4 has a lot of Asian actors and Asian themes in it, but is it a great movie and is it good for Asian male representation? We just watched it last night David. Let's talk about it. Yeah, we just caught an advanced screening You know the critics the reviewers they've dropped their reviews Andrew long story short John Wick 4 is a very very very good movie It's great if you like that genre, but today and we're not gonna be breaking down things like a movie critic We're talking about the Asian representation and specifically the Asian male representation in John Wick 4 Honestly, I think it could be the best representation in that specific way that we get from a blockbuster Hollywood movie this entire year All right, everybody if you guys are excited about our breakdown on why John Wick 4 is such a good representation for Asian males Please hit that like button check out other episodes of the hot-pot boys real quick David how Asian is this movie because people are like yeah, I see fighting. I see martial arts I see some Asian faces, but how Asian is right right if you see the trailers Especially depending on which trailer you watch the themes and the visuals and the actors are very Asian of the top eight actors on this film If you count Keanu Reeves who was a quarter Chinese himself Andrew For the eight are Asian. Yeah, so but why would anybody question the Asian male representation? And the reason why we're bringing it up is because there was an interview a few weeks ago of Donnie Yen Speaking up about how he's like, you know, I I had to I wanted to talk with the director And I wanted to change the name from Shang and Chang to something else because I said why why does my character also? have to wear the Mandarin collar and and and that's why some people doubt it Whether it was gonna be good right there was some questions, but ultimately they call them Kane Andrew Guess what? He's a blind assassin who uses a cane as well to feel his way around the world He's also got some cool like Computer contraptions and stuff to tell where everybody is but long story short Andrew Let's get into the reasons why John Wick 4 was good for Asian representation, but specifically for Asian male representation I would say point number one Andrew Asians really stole the show the most memorable fight scenes And it's not just the guys arena side of Yama Akira who plays Koji's daughter She probably has the best villain kill in the whole movie. She has one where everybody clapped in the theater Yeah, you got to watch it. I mean it kind of reminds me a fast and furious to where Sun King's character had The best line where he's like, you know life's pretty simple You just make decisions move forward and you don't look back You know sometimes on these blockbusters and Asian will steal the show maybe for the wrong reasons or in a goofy way But ultimately I mean well, this is a hyper violent movie So obviously everybody's like a cold-hearted killer, but man it was cool Yeah, I mean listen guys everybody gets everybody the non-Asians get the Asians the Asians get the non-Asians But if you made me say who came out on top numerically Probably the Asians win. Yeah. Oh, yeah, as far as like I guess kill Moving on to number two Andrew It actually leans into a lot of cultural mythology as well as modern archetypes for example Koji's character whose friends with Keanu Andrew He's very Bushido. He lives by the way of the sword. He's got sumo bodyguards He's drinking like matcha tea with like Keanu in one of the scenes The bad guys that are Japanese have the Hanya theater mask and his daughter Akira is more like a modern-day Japanese customer service Archetype so you have the ancient but you also have the modern archetypes both Yeah, and what I loved about this movie is it's actually very cultural not just on the Asian aspect But there's even they depict Russians and Germans and even French people and what I'm saying is that even though there is like some Sense of a stereotype in the movie It's done and flipped in such a way where you think it's cool And I think that that is very important nowadays because that's ultimately people like to watch the stereotype Okay, there's something funny about it. There's something familiar about it But they do it in a way where everybody everybody is respected. Yeah, and back to the Donnie Yen thing I think originally when I heard that hero Yuki was gonna be wearing samurai clothing or like Bushido clothing from the Edo period I kind of wanted Donnie to be wearing more like traditional Chinese outfits But I realized now Andrew Donnie is actually portraying a very Hong Kong archetype, but it's more of a Mong Kok triad hustler Yeah, and if you guys have ever seen one of Donnie Yen's movies from Hong Kong called called chasing the dragon like Aesthetically and kind of vibe wise this character is more similar to that and that is one of my favorite Donnie Yen characters of recent history So I think that they overall did a really cool job of culturally having him fit the Hong Kong like kind of Ruthless businessman moving on to number four Andrew Keanu is speaking Japanese German Spanish in the film and he's actually also swearing in Cantonese So if you want to hear Keanu say deal a blah blah blah to somebody Watch John Wick 4. Yeah, that's a really fun moment. Um another thing is overall guys the characters are multi-dimensional I want to talk about how and Donnie Yen actually said this in an interview I'll leave the link down below, but I'll play it right here It's like he was saying how like man like his his character Kane is cool He's emotional too. He does have a soft side. He is he's got some humorous lines little snarky Hong Kong guy Yeah, his style of fighting is very relaxed cool calm and collected and like like he's mastered it And everything like that so ultimately guys This is a multi-dimensional character although they all play assassins and there's obviously all under the shroud of being a dangerous killer But yeah, and there's a lot of talk about like life and death and philosophy actually like real philosophy that I'm pretty sure they got From like ancient books. Yeah, and that leads us to the next point about how all these actors being around almost 60 years old Yeah, they're all Keanu hero Yuki And Donnie Yen are all about 60 and I'm telling you they bring this wisdom this like Asian father vibe And the reason I say that this is Asian masculine representation is because they're not being wimpy But they still have their soft side with their family But they really represent a masculinity to me that almost like our dad portrays or other guys That I know that are masculine around our dad's age. Yeah, and honestly it is kind of like a masculinity from Asia You know, these are wise guys. They're secure. They know their culture. They know where they come from They understand their own identity. So ultimately that was really cool. I mean, I was gonna be white They're not trying to be black. Yeah, these were actually in a weird way Not just for some Asian males, but also some kind of cool Asian father figures, too These were some of the coolest most dangerous Asian dads in cinema that I've seen in a long time To be honest a lot of the recent movies and they're still good in their own way, too It's like they play out the dude as like super wimpy or weak or sort of like a just not how I imagine it I mean, I'm not saying that that's not good to moving on into how Asian is Keanu Keanu is a quarter Asian. He's a quarter Chinese Hawaiian. Here's a photo of him with his grandma Here's Keanu's dad and mom getting married like I'm assuming in the 70s I would say Keanu's dad looked like Bruce Lee or actually the original comic book Shang-Chi I mean this Keanu himself looked like a ooze back EDM DJ. I know you've always been saying he looks central Asian Keanu, he's the Eurasian Prince. Yeah, I'll call him that. I don't care, man I think that he essentially plays as a hopper like a half Asian that's on the squad though Even though he's a quarter. Yeah, so here's my thing about Keanu and a lot of like mixed Asian people I think that at the end of the day, they obviously have an Asian heritage But sometimes on film if they're not leaning into that character or leaning into that culture It doesn't you don't feel it because they're kind of that in-between point, right? So if they're in the middle and they lean this way then it would you say that Keanu got more Asian as he got older I do think so and especially doing all the martial arts films everything from the Matrix to John Wick and Yeah, he spent a lot of time around a lot of Asian like martial artists stunt people directors and honestly bro He really leaned into the Asian side this movie. He did so it's funny because now him being part Asian But leaning into the Asian side. I guess this is he counts kind of Honestly, I think sort of the way he acts is like very stereotypically Asian Keanu almost acts like an 80 year old man in a really good-looking hop a guy's body And I think that's why he's actually so interesting to the Western world here He is handing an Oscar to Bong Joon-ho his doppelgangers exist in Brazil and Markiplier actually looks a lot like Keanu when he wears his hair long So clearly Keanu is he looks very ethnic or at least part ethnic John. You're going to die. You're going to die Maybe not and he still got the Bill and Ted's like excellent Yeah, I mean if you're not a fan of Keanu's acting I think actually you can still enjoy this movie because he actually doesn't have that many lines He actually lets the other characters tell the story I mean, I would say I read a lot of reviews Andrew that said Donnie Yen is almost like the main character in this movie I would say Donnie Yen and maybe the grand marquee the French guy who's actually played by Swedish guy I don't want to say it's just as much Donnie Yen's movie, but action-wise Yeah, John Wick carries it because he's in like every scene, but This is like 30% John Donnie's movie. Yeah, and by the way all the other characters are great the German characters great The French characters great. There's a character was Chilean who speaks Spanish. He's really guys I'm a big fan of Scott Adkins. He always plays the bad guy from the Western world in the Asian movies He's always the international bad guy that's like gets his voice dubbed over So he's very well respected as an action star But a lot of you guys don't know his name, but he did an amazing job acting as this. Well, what do we have? Yeah, genuine Andromeda quandary if you will yeah, yeah, he was in a fat anyway guys Let us know what you think of this movie in the comment section below. Are you gonna see it is a good Asian male Representation what do you think about like more movies needing to be made like this in the future? Is there anything you could take away from it like I don't know I think that guys could take a look into these Asian male characters as much as anything else. Hey, man These were some great Asian father figures at the same time some Asian killers So yeah, you guys let us know what you think about the movie if you watched it or if you're gonna watch it Hey, thank you so much for watching the hot pop boys and until next time we out. Peace