Comments

1. IkoIko wrote:

   In reality, Carradine is actually “multi” himself: Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh, German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Cherokee and Italian descent. He’s actor John Carradine’s son, and the half-brother of Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Bruce Carradine, and Michael Bowen. He’s also the uncle to Martha Plimpton and Ever Carradine (Athena on “Grey’s Anatomy”).

   I’d strongly disagree that Carradine himself is trying to cash in on a “wise Asian man” persona– if the public perceives it that way, they obviously never watched “Kung Fu” (1972-1975) or missed the point entirely. Though admittedly weird (what 70’s show wasn’t), it was a pretty daring show for its time.

   Carradine’s character, Kwai Chang Caine, is a late 19th century orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman raised in a Shaolin monastery. He has to flee to the Old West to flee execution after killing the emperor’s nephew. He discovers he’s got a white half-brother, whom he tries to find over the course of the series.

   Every episode features racial animosity towards his character’s mixed identity and appearance. He’s never fully accepted in either Chinese or American society *except* by his blind master or other marginalized groups facing trouble (cue heavy symbolic overtones). Because he’s a priest, he wants to be low-key and non-violent, but he’s in the West and gets provoked in an unaccepting society, so…

   The original show actually explored the implication of violence and racial tensions with a host of unexpected guest stars you’d never get elsewhere (including Cannonball Adderley, James Hong, José Feliciano) alongside, well, Leslie Nielsen and William Shatner…

   Incidentally, Carradine didn’t know martial arts before playing the role, but he actually became a serious student, and continues to practice to this day.

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 10:41 am ¶

2. dcase wrote:

   Same as the case with Angelina Jolie, I am not so troubled by the fact that a white man is playing an Asian person in a movie. Race blind casting can be okay; it depends on the situation.
   However, in this case, it is clear they are attempting to sell Carradine as being some wise Asian man in a temple who is privy to “Eastern secrets” among which is YellowBook. That is a bit much, in my opinion.

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 12:00 pm ¶

3. IkoIko wrote:

   Great point dcase about context. I can’t see it the same, though, as the latest Jolie “outrage” for two reasons.

   First, he’s parodying a role, itself steeped in racial ambiguity, that he’s been playing for three decades (”Kill Bill” anyone?).

   Second, he really is that steeped and immersed in Eastern cultures and philosophies (note plurals), enough to be the “white guy in a Zen robe who goes ommm…” offscreen– though one who could through a really mean punch too.

   The effectiveness of the campaign (anyone notice the dead-on “Tarantino-type student” actually receiving the “wisdom”) rests in part within the criticism it evokes: Folks have complained about his portrayal of an “Asian”, while for most his life, persona, and career turn on ambiguity– even before “Kung Fu”, moreso if you didn’t know the identity of his dad.

   It’s his shtick, and he never claimed it was “Asian”– strangely, that coding was left up to everyone who just assumed that it was.

   I was thinking about Sammy Davis, Jr embracing Jewish life and culture in that same vein. Maybe sincere passionate border crossing was just a generational thing…

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 12:58 pm ¶

4. gatamala wrote:

   Is Carradine part Chinese?

   I think it shows how sad a shape we were in if the concept of Kung Fu was daring, but casting someone of Chinese (or at least Asian) heritage was going too far.

   I think the frustration stems from Hwood not seeing anyone non-white as having the ability to be universal. It’s terrible that non-whites can’t play the race neutral parts - it’s vile that ____ can’t even play his/her “own” race or ethnicity!!! What can you do??????

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 3:26 pm ¶

5. Ann wrote:

   “What can you do??????”

   1. Create a film though adept funding. Robert Townsend, a black actor of the 1980s on a shoestring budget (borrowing a loan from a friend, charging on his credit card, and using some money he had saved, was able to finance a film he had been wanting to create on his sheer bravado of not giving up on his cinematic dream. The film about a black doo-wop singing group, went on to garner praise and acclaim, mostly through Townsend’s directorial skills and his chutzpah to not give up on his dream to bring his film to fruition.

   2. Approach non-white film directors and playrights (Spike Lee, John Singleton,etc.) with your copyrighted novel, play, etc. to see if they would be interested in producing and/or directing it. They may be okay with what you bring them, they may not. But, it is worth a try.

   3. Have the cinematic skills and the thick skin of an Ed Wood. And this means you will definately learn how to shoot a film on a “shoestring budget.”

   -Shoot your scenes when there are no annoying cops, or any other authourity figures around: i.e., you want to shoot in an area that may be off-limits at certain times of the day. Shoot your scenes at very early in the morning, or very late at night. Yeah, it will make for some bad shadowing, grainey scenes, poor lighting, but what the hey, at least you got that fabulous shot of the off-limits landmark!
   -Use no-name actors. And by no-name actors,I mean your brother, your sister, your cousin, Uncle Darryl’s cousin’s niece’s sister. Nothing like saving a little dough, and putting “stars” in the eyes of relatives when you tell them you need their assistance in filming a movie. “Lights!” “Camera!” “Action!” Those words always get ‘em all the time.
   -Need crowds? Got crowds. All crowds, all the time. Shoot scenes like this when people are at their busiest. Shoot crowd scenes when people are leaving their jobs, shoot crowd scenes when peope are going to sports games, concert venues—the lists, ideas, and possibilities are endless. Hey, use your imagination!
   -Trying to put together a film that involves a work crew or construction site? Why pay some union-scale/actor’s guild actors to act your scenes? Scout the city out for any jobsite undergoing construction and,voila!, there’s your “construction scene”! You can use this technique for any “type of scene” you want to shoot:

   +hospital scene (I would advise you to stay out of the ER. It can get pretty gruesome in there)
   +park scenes (make sure that the people you shoot are not aware of your camera. And for God’s sake, please no scenes of people making out in the park unless you are making a “skinflick/nudie”. Wouldn’t want to offend the children’s parents.
   +need car scenes? Easy. Just point that camera and shoot. Highways, roads (especially roads that seem to go on and on forever), tollbooths (who knows, maybe a Godfather-type incident might happen, but if it does, please try to stay the heck out of the line of fire!)

   As you can see, it takes creativity, pluck, skill and a little bit of imagination to get that film you’ve always dreamed of out there for the public to see.

   All it takes is a little elbow grease, some panache, and lots of dedication.

   With the use of some or all of the above, you too can create the cinematic epic of a lifetime.

   And cut!

   That’s a wrap!

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 5:30 pm ¶

6. gatamala wrote:

   Amen Ann!! I knew someone would say “make your own”. I just really feel for newbies who just want to get their foot in the door & can’t even play themselves!! It’s just so damn hard for filmtypes to get their $$$$$ together!!!

   A few years ago I caught an AfAm film fest on Showtime. I don’t know if it was one shot deal or a recurring project. It wasn’t in Feb but in late June/July. I punched it up & couldn’t find anything. Can you help me??

   Now if only folks would stop using rappers…

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 7:19 pm ¶

7. IkoIko wrote:

   Hmmm… An American t.v. show or movie about racial ambiguity, featuring an Asian actor in a martial arts role during the 1970s. Yeah, would’ve been truly groundbreaking. And there’d be absolutely no outcry about stereotypes or typecasting from civil rights groups, you have my word on it. Welcome to t.v. politics 101. Sorry if 2006 filtered hindsight just makes it to impossible to see things through that lens.

   All of this seems to be handwringing about appearances versus substance or what? To an extreme, which of the three gets at the real beef:

   – (a) no one can express the stories/experiences/thoughts of another *except* those who resemble each other on the surface.
   [Though wouldn’t that seem to toss “race blind” casting out on it’s head?]

   – (b) no one *should* tell the stories of anyone unless they resemble one another.
   [Though isn’t that the traditional tug o’ war mindset behind each “make our own” cinematic wave dating back to Oscar Micheaux?]

   – (c) if one does a reasonable good job of approximating the experience of another that it’s akin to an offense of some sort.
   [Though wouldn’t that negate the universality of stories/experiences/thoughts/ideas/etc.?]

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 8:11 pm ¶

8. Y. Carrington wrote:

   Yellowbook.com. As Jenn at Reappropiate pointed out, the subtext is no coincidence. That alone makes it a racist ad.

   Yes, Carradine is multiethnic (as are MOST American whites), but he ain’t Asian. And in an industry where Asian actors have an damned hard time getting roles, there is nothing benign about either this ad nor Carradine’s stint thirty-plus years ago on Kung Fu.

   Then as now, when given a choice between an Asian actor and a white guy, they always go with the white guy. And that’s the problem.

   Posted 13 Oct 2006 at 11:45 pm ¶

9. Jay wrote:

   *Sorry if 2006 filtered hindsight just makes it to impossible to see things through that lens.*

   I’m sorry, that’s just an excuse. Hollywood can and routinely does ignore civil rights groups when it suits them, so civil rights groups pressure isn’t really an excuse.

   Truth is, if you’re an Asian and want to act on TV or film, you get nothing roles, even if you’re a good actor, or you have an established fanbase (Andy Lau has routinely said that Hollywood ignores him even with his fanbase, so he’s declined to work there. And that’s why the “only money matters” argument is also really tired) So when somebody like David Carradine says, hey, you Asians, you don’t even get these roles anymore, we’ve found somebody to replace you (essentially that’s what it’s saying), that’s not insignificant, and if you think it is it’s because you never put yourself in those peoples’ shoes.

   Posted 14 Oct 2006 at 2:05 pm ¶

10. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    From Ikolko: “Carradine’s character, Kwai Chang Caine, is a late 19th century orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman raised in a Shaolin monastery.”

    Sure, but please understand that there has been a long history of making movie characters biracial (mixed with white) specifically so that they could be believably played by white actors.

    Posted 15 Oct 2006 at 12:35 am ¶

11. IkoIko wrote:

    … And there’s the rub, once more: Carradine isn’t pretending to be something that he isn’t. He’s parodying something that he actually is, a carefully cultivated persona– not an Asian person. The difference in framing is key.

    Why miss the more obvious criticism, the lowest hanging fruit here: the mere simple fact that purely on religious grounds, anyone portraying a guru, monk, or spiritual leader of vaguely stereotyped “Eastern” religious faith for trivial commercial gain would be committing sacrilege?

    Does a person’s faith and personal beliefs matter less than their racial identity ? Or would that be an unfair, impossible, inseparable– even false choice to make? Point being that’s the reduction you’d be heading towards by that line of reasoning. That’s why I raised my earlier questions– still noticeably unanswered.

    Think about this way. If the role: were, hypothetically, cast strictly as a “wise guru” role– without regard to an iconic t.v. actor with high familiarity and recognition to a key demographic– and *not* as an “Asian” would the suspicions of the crowd here have been lessened?

    If so, then I’d take a gander at the notes from the agency of record, because I suspect that’s exactly what they did.

    [Cue murmuring from the conspiracy theorists going “yeah right”…]

    Anyway, could an Asian face in any event have filled the role? Absolutely.

    Now *would* it have actually been? Tough to say, unless it was someone, ironically, like the late Pat Morita. Not to be offensive, just practical: that’s because it would either need to be someone with instant name and/or face recognition to make it worth my time and ad $$$. Familiarity breeds attempt, that’s the basis of my campaign.

    [Now here’s where the chorus says, “well damn, you should just change your campaign or ad agency then…]

    Now *should* it have been filled by an Asian actor under the exact same circumstances? If the principle is always give the nod to actors of color in these circumstances, even if they are unknown, and to not let the industry hide behind a smokescreen, then don’t cry foul and complain of “racism” down the road when the industry and society begins to make a pigeonholed stereotype from resulting images and depictions.

    For what it’s worth:

    Based on a national USA Today weekly ad tracking poll of 2700+ people conducted mid-September that rated the Yellow Book spot at issue , only 9% actually liked the ads bunch while 10% considered them “very effective”. By comparison, Yellow Book reportedly saw 75% increase in site visits and 400% spike in email inquiries about advertising. The ads may suck, but go figure…

    I’m still wondering to this day how “The Last Dragon” (1985)– produced by Berry Gordy & Motown– got away with some of the same “sins” as this dang Yellow Book spot, and with a predominantly African-American cast to boot.

    Maybe because the film was a bomb and the Yellow Book spots were effective (notice I didn’t say well liked)?

    Posted 15 Oct 2006 at 1:11 am ¶

12. Jay wrote:

    *Why miss the more obvious criticism, the lowest hanging fruit here: the mere simple fact that purely on religious grounds, anyone portraying a guru, monk, or spiritual leader of vaguely stereotyped “Eastern” religious faith for trivial commercial gain would be committing sacrilege?*

    Because trivial commercial gain is what the networks are all about, and complaining to them about that will get you exactly nothing.

    Moreover, that only works if Asians weren’t boxed into these roles in the first place! The association between wise religious kung fu master and “Asian” is very strong, and the better way to undo it (that is, if you care about Asian representation in the media) is to portray Asians in diverse roles - something that still doesn’t happen in 2006.

    Getting whites to be able to portray spiritual masters doesn’t do anything for Asians - they can already do this, right now. It just removes their small barrier to entry, and so whites get everything and Asians get nothing (well, more of nothing. But at least some Asian actors can still find work right now.).

    Your “solution” doesn’t solve anything, and in fact makes things worse.

    Posted 15 Oct 2006 at 3:26 am ¶

13. dcase wrote:

    Well, the difference between The Last Dragon and this YellowBook ad was that there was no ambiguity fostered about the main character. Leroy is a “black man,” who lives in Harlem, who is a martial arts teacher of students of various ethnicities (including asian), who is bullied by a “black man” and his cronies, and pursues a [beautiful] “black woman”. Leroy also happens to be a big fan of Bruce Lee and chooses to emulate him.

    While the Last Dragon has a host of other stereotype problems, the main character actually studied under an asian man[ who interestingly is portrayed fairly humane ; he tells him he has no secrets, he sends Leroy on his “quest” to disabuse him of this master notion and leaves to see his mother in Miami. ] and there are actually asian characters who do something different than fight.

    I’m not holding The Last Dragon as some great movie or without problems but I think it is unfair to compare a bad movie[ it was produced by Barry Gordy] made 20 years ago to a YellowBook.com ad today. Also, for full disclosure, it was my favorite film from ages 6-8, so I’m also defending the hundreds of times I watched it[ hey, I was in love with Vanity!].

    Posted 15 Oct 2006 at 8:15 am ¶

14. IkoIko wrote:

    Nope, time’s no excuse for a stereotype to slide by– if indeed there’s a stereotype at work..

    Central to the premise of “The Last Dragon” are two Black characters who code under “traditionally” Asian roles.

    The hero (in reality, a mixed Black-Italian) so strongly identifies with a Bruce Lee (in reality an American-born Chinese-German martial arts Hong Kong star).

    The villain is a black caricature of a shogun (a Japanese army “general” rank abolished in the late 1860s). Not sure if Berry Gordy meant “samurai”, but he went shogun, sho’nuff. So shouldn’t the rival/villain, at least, have been played by an Asian or similarly mixed character to balance things out? They had no problem making the gangster white, after all…

    I always found it interesting that the hero and object of his affection were light skinned and attractive and the bad guy was quite dark skinned and made to look as unattractive as possible.

    Central premise of “Kung Fu”: half-Irish half Chinese outcast character left at monastery to study as a priest under two Chinese masters (yes, played by two Asian actors). One master is murdered by the emperor’s cowardly nephew (with a gun!). Biracial character kills nephew both in defense and retaliation, forced to flee to Old West, with a bounty on his head in China and America, discovers he has Irish-American half-brother.

    Taciturn hero goes on quest to discover his identity, has lots of surreal freaky flashbacks to his childhood and training in China. Tries to maintain anonymity, security, and pacifism amid lots of Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Indians in a violent racist society. No metaphor for the 1970s at all.

    FOr those too young to have watched the show, especially in the first (and best) season, it’s not an action-oriented series, though there are fight sequences.

    The main draws, however, were the flashbacks, featuring the training dialogue among Young Caine a/k/a “Grasshopper” (played by child actor Radames Pera), stern Master Kan (played by Philip Ahn), and blind Master Po (played by Keye Luke).

    Luke actually was Chinese, Philip Ahn was Korean-American, Pera wasn’t Asian, but like Carradine, could pull off the mixed-race look of the character. They probably should have cast only a Chinese actor in favor of Ahn, no? Or would “any Asian face do”?

    Incidentally, Bruce Lee actually was a shoo-in for “Kung Fu” lead role played by Carradine, except for concern that 1970s American t.v. audiences wouldn’t be able to understand what he said. It was dialogue heavy (albeit with lots of brooding and wistful existential staring), and Lee himself was uncomfortable in the screen tests in his earlier t.v. efforts. That’s why his earliest US roles weren’t heavy on dialogue.

    His screen presence and box office draw on the three films right around “Kung Fu” broke a huge barrier, and he was actually developing serious acting training to break his own discomfort at the time of his accidental death.

    He would have been a larger success, but I’m willing to bet that the complaint would then be that Yellow Book USA would be accused of… running a campaign featuring a t.v. icon making money off of a thirty-year role he popularized that had devolved into a stereotype. But then it would’ve been okay, because it would’ve been played by an Asian. So what makes that any better?

    Side Notes:

    The show helped to resuscitate and launch industry careers for a number of Asian players.

    David Chow (who also appeared occasionally onscreen) and Dr. Kam Yuen scripted and advised the martial arts training and fighting sequences. Both were well-known masters before the series and would go on to introduce Carradine to the Eastern spiritual philosophies and martial arts he would go on to study for the next thirty years. Chow has an “a” list clientele, Yuen has thriving practice, training, and lecture circuit.

    Keye Luke and Philip Ahn were among a very small roster of groundbreaking 1930s-1940s male Asian American character actors (I’m thinking of Victor Sen Yung, Benson Fong, and Richard Loo for starters) that not only had to but definitely could play a full range of stereotypical roles with great dignity intact.

    Luke, in particular, was arguably the most visible Asian actor on t.v. in the early 1970s because of “Kung Fu”. He had a long career in the film industry as an actor (the original Kato in the “Green Hornet” serials and the only Asian lead actor to play a detective in an American film during the WWII era), graphic artist (he did the press book for the original “King Kong and painted the murals in the interiors for Grauman’s Chinese theatre and its ceiling!).

    The real crime was that Luke was actually considered for, and lost part of, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now you may boycott everything “Star Wars” related in good conscience…

    Posted 15 Oct 2006 at 11:20 am ¶

15. Jeffrey - HB wrote:

    David Carradine - I liked his work as an actor. He’s different and unique. Had the displeasure of meeting him in person the other night. We were at event and when we happened to be next to each other at the bar at the reception, I shared that I enjoyed his work. He just stared back as if I’d insulted him. He did this with several people that were just as polite and respectful of his night out with his family and just wanted to pass on their praise.

    He’s someone that doesn’t walk his talk in any way.

    Posted 15 Jan 2007 at 4:01 pm ¶

16. Hank wrote:

    I have come across this ranking on rankopedia.com: who’s the best martial artist ever? The answer so far is Bruce Lee.

    Posted 22 Jan 2007 at 7:48 pm ¶

17. Clive wrote:

    Interesting dialogue… but i fear yu all miss the point… i see lots of mention of hollywood… this is east coast - a la Madison Ave… nuff said.

    Posted 13 Feb 2007 at 2:00 pm ¶

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