In these films, the actors serve as what Chinese derogatorily call “flower vases.” ‘Drive My Car’: In this quiet Japanese masterpiece, a widower travels to Hiroshima to direct an experimental version of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”Īs Stephen Colbert pointed out in a 2015 “Late Show” segment called the “ Pander Express,” pandering can mean accommodating the Chinese government by altering story lines to ensure that references to China are positive.īut it can also refer to efforts to cater to Chinese audiences by dropping Asian actors into roles not meaningful to the plot - a form of “reverse whitewashing,” if you will.‘Passing’: Set in the 1920s, the movie centers on two African American women, friends from childhood, who can and do present as white.‘Spencer’: Kristen Stewart stars as an anguished, rebellious Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s answer to “The Crown.”.‘Summer of Soul’: Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples and others shine in Questlove’s documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival. Scott and Manohla Dargis, selected their favorite movies of the year. Looking back, “The Great Wall” highlights the challenges that films face as they navigate the increasingly complex web of racial sensitivities. What few may have realized - and what American viewers may not know when the film is released in the United States next month - is that “ The Great Wall” was actually conceived as an effort to avoid another diversity issue: pandering. She added, “His character, a mercenary soldier who stumbles into an elite corps fighting mythical beasts, spends the course of the film being humbled, outsmarted and re-educated in Chinese virtues of bravery, selflessness, discipline and invention.” “Those who ranted against the project as another case of Hollywood ‘whitewashing’ in which Matt Damon saves China from dragons may have to bite their tongue,” wrote Maggie Lee, chief Asia film critic for Variety. BEIJING - When the trailer for “The Great Wall,” a high-profile China-Hollywood coproduction, was released last year, critics pounced: The scenes of Matt Damon leading a Chinese army into battle seemed like yet another instance of Hollywood’s “white savior” complex and its repeated whitewashing, the practice of casting white actors in roles originally conceived as Asian (or nonwhite).įast-forward to December and vindication of sorts for this Legendary Entertainment picture: Reviewers largely dismissed the accusation, while lukewarm in their assessments of the adventure flick.
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