The Japanese love Scarlett in the Ghost
Not sure whether to put this here or in the Politics forum. Have been reading THR about the white washing controversy over Scarlett Johansson acting as Major Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell. Despite all the heat generated in America over this, the Japanese themselves are pretty cool over it, including the original director of the anime, Mamoru Oshii. But what struck me was a comment made by a Japanese moviegoer they interviewed. He said "I heard people in the U.S. wanted an Asian actress to play her. Would that be OK if she was Asian or Asian-American? Honestly, that would be worse: someone from another Asian country pretending to be Japanese.Better just to make the character white. " WTF, does that mean the Japanese didn't want any Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean playing Japanese. Is that such a big deal to them? I mean we have tons of British, Canadian and Australian and even Mexican actors acting as Americans. Vice versa even. We even have an Australian acting as a Norse god. Thank goodness Star Trek wasn't made in Japan, they might have blown a fuse over John Cho acting as Sulu. So wtf Japan. Another article on THR on the same subject mentioned that it's because people in Japan worship white people. Which now I think they do as shown in their anime obsession with blond hair, french maids, combat butlers and victorian steampunk. But maybe they are not so keen on non-white races, Africans and fellow Asians included. I wonder if their reaction would have been different if Jamie Chung or maybe even Kiersey Clemons was cast as the Major.
THR articles here
www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat…
www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat…
THR articles here
www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat…
www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat…
Comments8
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
I read of a growing trend among Asians where many young people do cosmetic surgery to have not "White features." This includes pointy nose, big eyes, tall body. I believe this is another reason why the Japanese don't seem to mind the casting.
I loved the movie.
I've only seen the trailers but at least visually she looks the role.
Also the ethnicity of her cyborg body in the anime has never been specified and since she's a full body cyborg she could look like Boris Yeltzin if she chose to, so I don't see a problem with the casting of Johannsen.
Also the ethnicity of her cyborg body in the anime has never been specified and since she's a full body cyborg she could look like Boris Yeltzin if she chose to, so I don't see a problem with the casting of Johannsen.
Yeah like... Japanese people think of this stuff a lot differently from how Americans do.
First of all, yes, it is a big deal to Japanese people for non-Asian people to say Japanese/Chinese/Koreans are all the same. It's probably an even bigger deal to Koreans, considering that Korea's been like... the victim 9 times out of 10 when stuff's gone down in that region. But generally speaking, they don't get along.
So, yes, from a Japanese or Korean perspective (probably Chinese, too), saying that they're more similar to each other than they are to non-Asian foreigners is more offensive than not.
On the topic of whether or not Japanese people see white people as "above" themselves... this is a concept that a lot of people don't... really... get? outside of Japan, but like... it's sort of, Japanese people in general see pop music and movies as something borrowed from the West. So that's why there's so much English in Japanese pop music (usually the title of the song). Also... it's funny how Americans assume that Japanese people just automatically have the same dynamics as Americans do about these things. Once, when I was studying in Japan, there was a presentation for American students about the history of Japanese pop music, and it included videos of Japanese groups in the '70's and '80's doing Motown covers, and music in that style, and the American students got offended and automatically assumed that they were looking *down* on black musicians and looking *up* to white musicians, when really, they were looking up to all of them - when trying to do Western-style music, and looking *up* *equally* to earlier Japanese artists when trying to do Japanese style music (e.g. enka), same with any other art form.
So like... it's not really about *up* or *down*... as hard as that is for Americans to grasp. And there are media that are completely Japanese that don't include that element of imitation/fusion. But, for example, the creator of Naruto has said that if they made a live-action Naruto, Naruto should be played by some blond American kid. It's not that he thinks Japanese people can't star in a movie. It's that he made the character trying to imitate *that cool foreign thing*.
Americans don't really have a *that cool foreign thing* concept. Or maybe they do. Maybe a good analogy would be Latin music, or British TV. Or you could even say, like, "urban"/black pop culture things, even though that's not really foreign.
But it's the attitude of, "we want to watch a lot of movies about this, and listen to music from there... but we don't actually want it to move in next to us. We want to take a vacation there, and stay in the touristy areas, but we don't want to live there." That's how Japanese people are about white people in movies, sort of. It's not as respectful as people assume.
I guess, the Americans concerned with racism and stuff can't really comprehend the idea of white people being seen that way. They can't really comprehend any dynamic other than the ones in America... but it is. Japan is 99% Japanese. Japanese people are a majority in Japan. This should go without saying but like... yeah.
And 90% of the people who get all worked up, if they actually went to Japan, they would react like that blog post that the "Girls" girl did that got everyone angry at her. You know, if everyone went and bought one Japanese-made movie on DVD for every comment they posted online about these issues, that would actually do something.
Also, for the record, L in Netflix's Death Note is black.
First of all, yes, it is a big deal to Japanese people for non-Asian people to say Japanese/Chinese/Koreans are all the same. It's probably an even bigger deal to Koreans, considering that Korea's been like... the victim 9 times out of 10 when stuff's gone down in that region. But generally speaking, they don't get along.
So, yes, from a Japanese or Korean perspective (probably Chinese, too), saying that they're more similar to each other than they are to non-Asian foreigners is more offensive than not.
On the topic of whether or not Japanese people see white people as "above" themselves... this is a concept that a lot of people don't... really... get? outside of Japan, but like... it's sort of, Japanese people in general see pop music and movies as something borrowed from the West. So that's why there's so much English in Japanese pop music (usually the title of the song). Also... it's funny how Americans assume that Japanese people just automatically have the same dynamics as Americans do about these things. Once, when I was studying in Japan, there was a presentation for American students about the history of Japanese pop music, and it included videos of Japanese groups in the '70's and '80's doing Motown covers, and music in that style, and the American students got offended and automatically assumed that they were looking *down* on black musicians and looking *up* to white musicians, when really, they were looking up to all of them - when trying to do Western-style music, and looking *up* *equally* to earlier Japanese artists when trying to do Japanese style music (e.g. enka), same with any other art form.
So like... it's not really about *up* or *down*... as hard as that is for Americans to grasp. And there are media that are completely Japanese that don't include that element of imitation/fusion. But, for example, the creator of Naruto has said that if they made a live-action Naruto, Naruto should be played by some blond American kid. It's not that he thinks Japanese people can't star in a movie. It's that he made the character trying to imitate *that cool foreign thing*.
Americans don't really have a *that cool foreign thing* concept. Or maybe they do. Maybe a good analogy would be Latin music, or British TV. Or you could even say, like, "urban"/black pop culture things, even though that's not really foreign.
But it's the attitude of, "we want to watch a lot of movies about this, and listen to music from there... but we don't actually want it to move in next to us. We want to take a vacation there, and stay in the touristy areas, but we don't want to live there." That's how Japanese people are about white people in movies, sort of. It's not as respectful as people assume.
I guess, the Americans concerned with racism and stuff can't really comprehend the idea of white people being seen that way. They can't really comprehend any dynamic other than the ones in America... but it is. Japan is 99% Japanese. Japanese people are a majority in Japan. This should go without saying but like... yeah.
And 90% of the people who get all worked up, if they actually went to Japan, they would react like that blog post that the "Girls" girl did that got everyone angry at her. You know, if everyone went and bought one Japanese-made movie on DVD for every comment they posted online about these issues, that would actually do something.
Also, for the record, L in Netflix's Death Note is black.
Interesting comment. Gives another perspective.
Its because Japan is like, 99% Japanese population. They don't deal with racism personally and probably dish it out more than ever receive it.
You may find people outside of Japan who may find it white washing, for example. Because their surroundings is that they're not the norm, and experience racism.
You may find people outside of Japan who may find it white washing, for example. Because their surroundings is that they're not the norm, and experience racism.
As a casual observer, I've noticed that a lot of these screeches of "That's racist!" are by people who aren't of the ethnicity that is "supposed to be" offended by a particular thing.