Asian Images in Film

[mrsl]

Moira:

We definitely hear things with different hearing aids. As a compliment to you, I freely admit you see and hear much more in a 'nuanced' word or look than I ever will, so I bow to your impression. However, I re-ran those 'tweeners' and unfortunately I still get a 'failure to communicate'. I'll watch and listen more closely this week.

Your take on the Anna May Wong thing is interesting also. Do you think that's the same type of thinking that cast Ava Gardner (Showboat), Jeanne Crain (Pinky), and Susan Kohner (Imitation of life), etc?

Anne

[mrsl]

I couldn't find this thread on Wed, so I started a new one on the noir thread, which I am now going to delete, but responses to the questions from both this statement and the last post on this thread would both be appreciated.

Anne

[moira finnie]

Hi Anne,
I think your points are well taken and love that each of us sees and hears such different things in these films.

Your take on the Anna May Wong thing is interesting also. Do you think that's the same type of thinking that cast Ava Gardner (Showboat), Jeanne Crain (Pinky), and Susan Kohner (Imitation of life), etc?

I'm pretty sure that commercial considerations and sometimes unconscious aesthetic values about what constituted beauty prompted the casting of those three actresses in roles that might have readily been filled by a Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge or Ruby Dee, as well as other fine actresses whose full cinematic potential we will never know. While I wish that things could have been different back then, looking at it from a business standpoint, if one had to answer to shareholders, a board of directors and a possibly hostile public, casting men or women of color, no matter how talented, in big budget projects, would have been risky. I can see how that might give a studio pause back then.

The fact that men and women of various races were depicted as more complex human beings in American film especially after WWII--even when they were sometimes played by whites--seems to have incrementally made it possible for Black, Asian and Latino actors to play more fully written roles in movies, (not to mention the pioneering hard time done by such terrific African-American actors as Hattie McDaniell, Louise Beavers, Canada Lee, Rex Ingram, Juano Hernandez and James Edwards in the studio era.), all of which was transformed by the graceful presence of Sidney Poitier in the next decades. It's funny, but I think I've grown up much more aware of Black actors contributions and issues in the film world than I'd ever been of Asian-American actors before this.

It's interesting, but after a lifetime of enjoying movies, this is the first time I've ever seen such a range of films featuring Asian actors in American movies such as Anna May Wong (whom I'd only seen in the very good Piccadilly (1929) & Shanghai Express (1933) before this). Really having a chance to see more of Sessue Hayakawa, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Richard Loo, and being able to follow the depiction of this minority group from the silents on has been fascinating and revelatory to me.

Anne, if you have a chance, you might like to check out Go For Broke! (1951) which is being shown on Tues., June 17, at 8pm on TCM. Peter Feng's comments before the film acknowledge the step forward that this film, so soon after WWII, demonstrated in dramatizing the history of the 442nd Infantry Regiment in Europe, the all volunteer Japanese unit that was the most decorated in army history. Feng points out that this film is remarkable because it acknowledges injustices done to our fellow citizens in a fearful time, while presenting these brave men as human beings and good Americans--and depicted by Asian actors. It's a terrific story, imho.

[Synnove]

It's interesting, but after a lifetime of enjoying movies, this is the first time I've ever seen such a range of films featuring Asian actors in American movies such as Anna May Wong (whom I'd only seen in the very good Piccadilly (1929) & Shanghai Express (1933) before this). Really having a chance to see more of Sessue Hayakawa, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Richard Loo, and being able to follow the depiction of this minority group from the silents on has been fascinating and revelatory to me.

I know what you mean. Minority groups seldom get an adequate representation in classic films, so it's a wonderful thing that they're showing these movies on TCM. I hope they'll show some of the films mentioned in the documentary Black Shadows on the Silver Screen one day.

I saw a fragment of the film The Courageous Coward recently. The film ends with Sessue asking his sweetheart if she is going to give up the modern American dances now, and I wonder if he meant to show that she was going to return to the Japanese culture she more genuinely belonged to. I have no idea of the background of that statement, since the fragment was so short.

[SteveLC]

I've never understood where the studio bosses developed the equation that said, 'Audience interest in Asian stories precludes Asian leads". As acting became more natural, less stagey in the late 20s and 30s, why weren't more realistic actors used?

I suppose a good excuse could be the limited talent pool, as if every '30s film only had movie stars with 20 years experience, as if no new talent was ever brought in.

[traceyk]

Steve, I think one reason was because of the miscegenation rules in effect at the time. Many states had laws forbidding marriage between any different races, so when the Production Code was drawn up, that became a part of it. Since, as someone said, they needed a "name" actor in at least one of the lead roles in movies like "The Good Earth" in order to bring in revenue, casting a true Asian in the other role (say, Anna Mae Wong in the role of O-Lan) would have meant she'd be married and doing love scenes with a white actor. That was a big no no. Even Sessue Hayakawa wasn't allowed to do that.

Tracey

[Ollie]

And we all know how devoutly upheld every State and Country's law variations are held by studio execs. Oh yeah. Sure. Right. That's GOT to be the reason - they weren't making their OWN decisions - they were 'just obeying the laws'. Uh huh.

That IS a good likely argument they could trot out and use, I know, and for getting huge established star names on marquees, "Hepburn" was up there for that one film. Warner Oland's masquerades were quite legendary long before his first Charlie Chan appearance in 1931 (he'd already accumulated some 60 film credits, with a dozen or so as Orientals). I have a feeling he was a contract player by that time, and the studio was using what they had based on that actor's history within Hollywood community.

I still wonder about the main point. How DID such an equation get started - that interest in Asian stories disallows Asian actors? I think it was far more a statement of the studio prejudices than anything external. It was their community and Hollywood was (is?) infamous for having tight (closed?) relations.

[moira finnie]

I still wonder about the main point. How DID such an equation get started - that interest in Asian stories disallows Asian actors? I think it was far more a statement of the studio prejudices than anything external. It was their community and Hollywood was (is?) infamous for having tight (closed?) relations.

I sure don't have a conclusive answer on this bizarre form of prejudice, Ollie, but then, I've always wondered, why would anyone in a million years think it was a good idea to perform in blackface? Yes, I realize that this was adopted to allow what was then politely described as Negro music to be presented to white audiences who might balk at sharing air in a theater with Black people, but it always seemed so strange to me.

One aspect of earlier depictions of Asians in films that occurs to me after seeing many of the films offered this month is that, despite strong feelings against interracial sexual relations in many of the movies and a condescending tone in many, doesn't it seem that there's a subtle shading to the cliches that showed up in American movies, especially in contrast to racial attitudes toward Blacks? For instance, from The Cheat (1915) on, filmmakers seemed to acknowledge that:

1.) Asian people, while usually found "inferior" in some vague, un-Christian way in film, (never mind the inherent un-Christian attitudes toward other races in movies), were recognized as sophisticated, accomplished people with a culture that garnered some degree of respect by the white race? This seems to be most clear in the Charlie Chan movies to me, since Chan, while a walking cliche, played by an Occidental, was invariably the smartest guy in any room, despite his deferential manner.

2.) Asian women, in particular, were seen as beautiful and desirable by whites and Asians while few Black women were ever acknowledged as such? This seems to have been part of seeing an Asian female as subservient too, which I suppose fed some male fantasies, while the allure of a complex figure such as Sessue Hayakawa was also allowed to exist, presumably in part because women found him appealing.

3.) There seems to have been a measure of guilt about white attitudes toward Asians in some films, (particularly in their seclusion from the U.S. following the needed influx of labor in this country in the 19th century). This seems to be in marked contrast to the sub-human depictions of Black people in movies, perhaps in part because this race was right here at home, throughout the country, and with the added complication of a history of slavery on top of everything else?

Is it just me, or do others see any of this too?