The great wall movie whitewashing11/20/2022 ![]() ![]() There are five major heroes in our story and he is one of them - the other four are all Chinese. Our film is not about the construction of the Great Wall … The arrival of (Damon’s) character in our story is an important plot point. “I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry. “For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of the largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tent pole scale for a world audience,” he said. Responding to the racism furore in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Zhang asserted that his film is the opposite of what is being suggested by detractors and that Damon’s role was never originally conceived for a Chinese actor. Celebrated for his faithfulness to the subject matter of his films, Zhang is also renowned for his recurring cinematic theme about the resilience of Chinese people in the face of hardship and adversity which he explores in many of films. Known for his fiercely authentic films like 1990’s Ju Dou, 1991’s Raise The Red Lantern, 2003’s Hero and 2004’s House of Flying Daggers, he has won many international film awards. The trailer and its whitewashing hullabaloo might come as a bit of surprise to fans of Zhang, who is one of China’s most respected and revered auteurs. The controversy comes in the wake of a slew of other casting decisions that have seen Asian characters being played by white actors: Scarlett Johansson has been cast in the lead role in the remake of the classic Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell and Tilda Swinton plays a Tibetan character in Marvel’s Doctor Strange. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time.” “We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world … Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon,” she lambasted on Twitter. This is the war I’ve seen worth fighting for.”Īmong many who criticised the casting and raised concerns over Hollywood’s regular whitewashing was Asian-American actress Constance Wu, star of the American hit comedy series Fresh Off The Boat. In the trailer of the US/China co-production, Damon’s character says in English: “I was born into battle. And there was added concern about the type of character Damon is playing. Some Asian-Americans took to the Internet to express their unhappiness that a white actor had been cast in a role which, they argued, could and should have gone to an Asian. The problem? One of the lead actors in the fantasy epic, which is set in ancient China, is Matt Damon. SINGAPORE: When the first trailer for acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou's upcoming blockbuster The Great Wall was released on Jul 28, it was greeted with a sense of outrage in some quarters. ![]() I don't think the excuses people try to use to justify that 'norm' hold up any more.Matt Damon in The Great Wall by Zhang Yimou ![]() "So when I see Matt Damon's face staring at me from a poster that says The Great Wall. "I'll fork over half my bank account if they ever make a superhero movie starring Constance Wu," Kuhn said. Speaking with the Daily Beast's Jen Yamato Friday, Heroine Complex author Sarah Kuhn said she's had enough of the "positively archaic" notion of whitewashed spectacles. With The Great Wall, the discussion has another worthy talking point: why is Matt Damon the guy saving ancient China from big-ass dragons? From Emma Stone playing an Asian woman in Cameron Crowe's box office bomb Aloha to Scarlett Johansson's petition-inspiring role in Ghost in the Shell, the industry's apparent whitewashing problem doesn't seem to have made very much progress despite decades of potential moments of epiphany. That "ongoing conversation" has received plenty of new talking points in subsequent months. ![]()
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