Movies in General
- Thread starter bladerunner
- Start date
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
I saw it. It was entertaining. I like how they actually had an introduction to the members of the Magnificent Seven and getting to the action. These days its very abbreviated like in the first Captain America movie. They have to get this place and the next scene they're there. No buildup. Some nitpicking minor leaps in realism. I won't say much but it has to do with how realistically a certain weapon works and how effective it would be given how it's played out in the movie.
Equation
Lieutenant General
The Free State of Jones is on Blue Ray or DVD and I'm planning on seeing that later on.
Ultra
Junior Member
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Because some US congressman called for an inquiry of Chinese influence on Hollywood, there's been some articles written about China and Hollywood. Of course there's going to be charges of censorship and rewriting history... Now comes word that Disney is going to make a live action Mulan with a white male lead. Before there was worry that a white actress was going to be cast as Mulan. Now Disney has committed the next worse offense. Rewriting history much? They're worried China would always be portrayed positively with Chinese influence in Hollywood? Well Europeans weren't the good guys in China.
Disney has had too many incidents to be called innocent. Time for China to play games with them.
Wow, I hope Disney is not about to turn one of its least racist and least sexist stories into one of the most racist and most sexist.
Unfortunately with what we have seen of "The Great Wall" as an example, Chinese production companies do not appear to either recognize or fight racism against their own heritage.
solarz
Brigadier
I would strongly disagree with the implication that The Great Wall is in any way racist.
The film is obviously fantasy, so why would it be racist to have characters from other races (than asian) to be included? This is not a historical film, so what "heritage" is being offended?
China has produced a number of movies combining Chinese and American (often white) stars. Forgotten Kingdom, the New Karate Kid, Dragon Blade, to name but a few. This is done to provide American audiences with a sense of familiarity. I don't think there's anything wrong with such an approach.
- All fiction is fantasy.
- It is not racist to have characters from other races.
- While having a character of the same race as the target audience for increased empathy may have the intended effect it is also condescending towards the target audience and would not be necessarily needed in a genuinely relatable story. This is also a variation of the "cater to the market" excuse to rationalize prejudice.
- A film does not need to be historical to be racist or offend a heritage.
None of the above is mutually exclusive with my point.
When any element of reality is used in fiction, especially the setting, that opens up the implication that other elements of that fiction are also reflective of reality or the reality-based elements regardless of whether that is true or intended.
There is also the context of a history and a pattern of racist "whitewashed" stories where white characters are the heroes saving the hapless people of other races, sometimes women when sexism is also thrown in, from themselves, their culture, their country, their men when sexism is also thrown in, or their enemies.
"The Great Wall" obviously uses China, Chinese people, and a Chinese landmark as setting. If the story fits into the above "whitewashed" story template then it is a racist movie which offends Chinese heritage.
That said, I have only seen the trailers for "The Great Wall" and the movie is not even out yet so I should reserve comment regarding whether it is racist until I have seen the movie. However the trailers don't bode well.
solarz
Brigadier
The trailer shown above focuses on Damon's character, ostensibly because it is directed toward American audiences, Zhang Yimou himself has said that Damon is but one of a cast of heroes.
What the story will be, and whether Damon's character "saves the day", we don't know yet. However, I suspect that will be pretty unlikely as Zhang Yimou doesn't tend to make movies with happy endings.
It bothers me that people jump to conclusions and make accusations based on their experience with typical Hollywood movies, when this is clearly a Chinese movie, directed by a famed Chinese director.
Equation
Lieutenant General
IT bothers many because we don't have a voice in Hollywood to represent us in the so called diversity and fair society of America. That's why the upcoming Mulan is a white washed one. Who care's about history and culture and you can just make up any movie to so called appease to the masses. If that's true than Hollywood should be more smart about it if they want to sell movies in the large Chinese market.