End for Asians in Hollywood?

[nliu]

I am waiting for the day that an Asian can play a normal role. No more kung fu fighting, no more gun slinging, just a regular dramatic role.

dude, then it's all about Harold and Kumar- John Cho and Kal Penn are the shit.

Oh, have you guys seen Better Luck Tommorow, Robot Stories, The Debut, Yellow and Charlotte Sometimes? They have Asian people acting normal in them.

nien

[James Ko]

Perfect Score has an asian in it... he was always high on drugs, don't think that is typical image of an asian with good grades.

I think the actor's name is Leonardo Nam

[Moinllieon]

dude, then it's all about Harold and Kumar- John Cho and Kal Penn are the shit.

Oh, have you guys seen Better Luck Tommorow, Robot Stories, The Debut, Yellow and Charlotte Sometimes? They have Asian people acting normal in them.

nien

Define "normal". Normal Americans? Normal Asians? Normal Asian Americans? There are some differences between what's considered normal behavior for each of those groups.

[James Ko]

I think Nliu is just trying to say that Asian can gets roles other then Kung Fu fighters. I don't think there is a need to pick on the "normal" part of what was said.

[Moinllieon]

I think Nliu is just trying to say that Asian can gets roles other then Kung Fu fighters. I don't think there is a need to pick on the "normal" part of what was said.

There are plenty of Asian nerds in movies and pop culture. I don't see anybody making a point about how that's showing progress for Asians in Hollywood.

[James Ko]

There are also lots of roles featuring cauasian geeks and nerds... heck they even make movies about them. Return of the Nerds, Revenge of the Nerds etc So maybe that is why people thought is common to see asian acting as nerds or geeks.

There aren't that many cauasian kung fu movies though... but most of the cauasian kung fu guys are usually bad guys or the movie is consider action instead of martial art movies.

[flyingfox2002]

I wasn't being that clear, I meant starring roles in non-kung-fu, non-gunslinging roles.

John Cho is the only one I can think of.

[James Ko]

What about Anne and the King where Chow Yun Fat was the King? I don't think he was doing any Kung Fu there.

[Moinllieon]

I wasn't being that clear, I meant starring roles in non-kung-fu, non-gunslinging roles.

John Cho is the only one I can think of.

Kinda gets down to the fact that there's not that many Asian stars in Hollywood to begin with. Add on top of that the fact that HK cinema itself made its name in gunslinging/kungfu fighting movies and still makes them by the boatload....

[flyingfox2002]

Kinda gets down to the fact that there's not that many Asian stars in Hollywood to begin with. Add on top of that the fact that HK cinema itself made its name in gunslinging/kungfu fighting movies and still makes them by the boatload....

There's the problem.

First, there aren't enough Asian stars. Second, most Asian stars are from Asia and became famous in Asia, and not America, meaning Asian Americans don't become stars here. Third, when Asian do get to star in a movie, it's only in kung fu/gun fighting flicks - this may be a chicken and the egg scenario with point #2 since such stars would have become famous for such flicks in HK, but even Kelly Hu and Lucy Liu do kung fu and/or have ties to the Triad or some crap like that. What Asian actor/actress is known for acting ability here? Gong Li possibly, but she already achieved stardom in Asia.

[James Ko]

What about Tony Leung or Maggie Cheung, didn't they both win some international award? In a Mood of Love?

[flyingfox2002]

What about Tony Leung or Maggie Cheung, didn't they both win some international award? In a Mood of Love?

I am talking about in America.

The average American couldn't tell between Maggie Cheung or Shaggie Young or Baggie Kung or Crappie Dung.

[nliu]

I wasn't being that clear, I meant starring roles in non-kung-fu, non-gunslinging roles.

John Cho is the only one I can think of.

all the films i mentioned feature asian people in lead roles. and yeah, acting normal means they have a dramatic role and the characters grow and they're not doing kung fu etc. but those films are indie films, but they look really nice despite their budgets. go check them out.

perhaps the only thing we can do about no asian people in hollywood is to support the ones that are trying to make it by watching their films and creating a demand for it.

[XxSimpleeSweet9xX]

Any asian poster here want to start a career in Hollywood maybe we would talk about you in a few years

Watch me i'll be famous! haha! i'm just messin i wish tho, i live in Laguna Beach California, they just had a hit tv show on mtv and i was friends with like 2 of them haha like no joke tho!

[Eliar Swiftfire]

Obviously, the American-born Asians will have a much better chance than those Asian imports.

[XxSimpleeSweet9xX]

Obviously, the American-born Asians will have a much better chance than those Asian imports.

Wait is that bad or good.. American born Asians mean like born in America but is Asian? lol okay i give up!

[Eliar Swiftfire]

Yeah, they stand a much better chance than the likes of Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and Jackie Chan. Only foreign import with a nice future is Zhang Zi Yi (but this will change if Memoir of a Geisha flops).

By the way, Sandra Oh is also a Korean, and already one of the more respected actresses in Canadians. Won a Cannes award when she was really young.

[Zhuge Liang]

They should do a high budget Tale of Genji. Some beautiful costumes alone will mean the film is halfway to an oscar.

[Battosai]

It's over for Asian imports in Hollywood, and I say good riddance! Don't let the door hit you on your way out, chumps! Well, I hope it's over for them.

Let's not just blame Hollywood or racism for their exit, although it undoubtly was there. No, some of the blame lies squarely on the stars' shoulders. Especially Jet Li, who basically sabotaged his own career with a string of crappy, kunghop movies. In the beginning, his stock was very high and he could choose which movie to make (later he couldn't and had to accept whatever was thrown at him). His first mistake was "Rome Must Die", which then narrowly defined him as a "kunghop" action star. He then turned down the Matrix gig, which could've been forgivable if he picked good movies. Unfortunately, "Kiss" and the "One" weren't the movies that were going to catapult him into the next Arnold. After them, his opportunity was essentially gone.

Chow was a wrong man to come over: A dramatic actor with bad, incomprehensible accent? Never was gonna make it.

Obviously, the American-born Asians will have a much better chance than those Asian imports.

In theory, yes, but in practice, no. This is where racism in Hollywood really comes into play. For most casting directors, an Asian lead or a supporting actor must have an accent and it'd be a plus to know kung fu. It's as if the sky will fall if an Asian with fluent English is cast in any major role...

The only real salvation is for Asian-Americans to break through through indies at first, while eschewing obvious kungfuey roles. In addition, it would be helpful for independent Asian-American directors to succeed at Sundance or Cannes.

[Eliar Swiftfire]

The only real salvation is for Asian-Americans to break through through indies at first, while eschewing obvious kungfuey roles. In addition, it would be helpful for independent Asian-American directors to succeed at Sundance or Cannes.

Amen to that, dude.

What I meant to say in my previous post was that, it's more likely for Asian-Americans than those imports to appear in indies that have the chance to succeed during film fests.