FILM POLL (NOVEMBER 2004) - Top APA Films and Directors (along with Dance & Theater)

Within our monthly "FILM POLL" (see below) - it is our hope to locate visionary films from creative directors with great scripts from the Asian/Asian Pacific American communities. Every month, fifteen (15) films will be listed for your consideration and support.

One of our other goals is to help build a fast-growing legion of informed artists and media advocates that will carry the appropriate weight to create effective changes. Without knowledge of our own historic past, our trail-blazing entertainment pioneers from the early 20th century, working knowledge of how the entertainment industry functions, etc. - the words written in the media and words spoken with various Asian Pacific American advocates will not carry the appropriate weight or response.

Mercury News' Marian Liu reports that "For Asian-Americans, the move toward entertainment careers has been a recent one, stretching the past 40 years, starting with such stereotypical films as the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song."

(Editor's Note: This "stereotypical film" was based on the first Chinese American novel to be published by an established publishing house, the first Chinese American novel to be on the best-seller list, the first Broadway/major movie studio production to feature, star and about Asian Americans, the female stars of the Broadway show -- Pat Suzuki and Miyoshi Umeki -- became the first Asian Americans to be on the cover of Time and Newsweek and the film that launched the careers of Miyoshi Umeki, Jack Soo, James Shigeta, and Nancy Kwan.)

ANY PROGRESS FOR ASIAN AMERICAN FEMALES IN THE MEDIA - Have Asian American women progressed in American consciousness so much so that they erases the persisting negative stereotypes? Some argue that the presence of Asian American women, such as Connie Chung (television news anchor), Lucy Liu (television/movie star), and Tia Carrere (movie star) in the media is indicative of mainstream America's acceptance of Asian American women.
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DEFINITION OF A DRAGON LADY - Another stereotype of Asian Women that is perpetuated through the media is that of the Dragon Lady. A Dragon Lady is an evil, deceitful, and domineering woman. This derogatory term was originally the name of a villainous Asian women in Milton Caniff's popular cartoon strip Terry and the Pirates (1934-1973), which ran in many newspapers.
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REDEFINING ASIAN AMERICAN MALE MASCULINITY - American popular culture is notoriously male-centered. For Asian Americans, however, the situation appears to be reversed, which may be yet another reflection of the power of the dominant culture. Novelist Amy Tan is more widely read than novelist Shawn Wong; comedian/actor Margaret Cho got a shot at a network television series, while Russell Wong had to settle for starring in the syndicated Vanishing Son; and Asian American women anchor local news broadcasts across the country, while Asian American men occupy less visible positions as field reporters.
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ASIAN AMERICAN MALE BASHING IN THE AMERICAN MEDIA - I think the dating imbalance, i.e. more Caucasian males with Asian Females versus Asian males with Caucasian females, is caused by a racist media in America that portrays Asian male as undesirable, asexual, nerdy, and so on, and Asian female as the ready toy for any white guy, no matter how dorky, as Wayne's World or Star Trek amply illustrate for us. For instance, there are eight hundred Asian female anchors, one for each major metropolitan area in the United States. But there is only one Asian male news anchor in the entire United states.
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10. David Carradine in KUNG FU (1972-75) - David Carradine's Amerasian Shaolin monk, Kwai-Chang Caine, roaming the Wild West on the TV show Kung Fu survives as one of the least objectionable.

9. Larry Blyden in FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958) - the pivotal role of nightclub owner Sammy Fong on Broadway went to Larry Blyden, a Jewish actor from Texas.

8. Joel Gray in REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS (1985) - Transforming the very Caucasoid thespian Joel Gray into Chiun, the title character's (Fred Ward) Korean martial-arts instructor was extremely realistic.

7. Warner Oland - The Swedish-born, American-raised actor Warner Oland made virtually an entire career out of playing Asian characters — from "Oriental" villains in Pearl White serials to Fu Manchu to Charlie Chan. Oland's busy and lucrative life- work stands as a disturbing reminder that a Caucasian actor could make a career for himself in Hollywood by specializing in Asian roles

6. Sean Connery in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) - the secret agent emerges looked like a droopy-eyed hakujin who's had too much to drink.

5. Alex Borstein as Ms. Swan on MAD TV (1997-2002) - Mad TV must have known that they were treading on volatile ground when they unveiled their slant-eyed, gibberish-speaking, bowl-haired manicurist called Ms. Kwan, played by non-Asian actress Alex Borstein, in 1997.

INDIE SUCCESS STORY

Steve Anderson's first indie film 'The Big Empty' (after local actors and friends turn down the roles) acquires a first class cast that includes Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammer, Joey Lauren Adams, Sean Bean, Rachel Leigh Cook, Daryl Hannah, Jon Gries, Adam Beach, Bud Cort, Brent Briscoe, Melora Walters and Gary Farmer.

Sage advice: "The aesthetic of independent film casting has shifted as the business has become interdependent on the world marketplace. We are all very conscious of how a film is going to pre-sell in foreign and ancillary markets now and that means everybody is covetous of the same actors now. It can be creatively stifling but that also propels you to find better products."

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4. Boris Karloff in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) - Boris Karloff in heavy facial prosthetics — perhaps more than any other film — works to demonize Asian racial features as inherently evil.

3. Mickey Rooney in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1962) - Donning false buck teeth and eye make-up, Mickey Rooney portrays the Japanese character of Mr. Yunioshi as a funny-looking buffoon whose speech is garbled and actions inept.

2. Harold Huber and June Duprez in LITTLE TOKYO, U.S.A. (1942) - Takimura (played in yellowface by Harold Huber) is shown to represent that even Japanese Americans who are born in the U.S. can't be trusted. In retrospect, knowing that not a single charge of espionage was ever brought against a Japanese American during wartime, this sensationalistic story reeks of racist propaganda.

1. Jonathan Pryce in MISS SAIGON (1991) - Miss Saigon exemplified the mainstream's insensitivity to the entertainment industry's discrimination against its Asian American talent.

EVERYONE'S STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESS

But it's not easy to get a break and survive in Hollywood — to get that crucial foot in the door in one of the most cloistered businesses in the world. You've got to e-mail resumés, fax resumés, compose cover letters that don't get ignored, shell out close to a hundred bucks to buy the Hollywood Creative Directory so you know whom to call and where, but your phone just isn't ringing. You're calling, writing, interviewing, sending thank-you notes, following up on any lead you can find, yet you're watching reruns of "Mannix" on Tivo at 3 in the afternoon instead of working on a movie set.

You must be aggressive and tenacious, but how much is too much? What is calling too many times? How can you consistently keep your name on the desks of agents and executives without their telling their underlings, "Oh, no. Not her again. Tell her tell her I'm in Guam. Tell her I'm dead. Just get rid of her!" Barring insanity, where is the fine line between persistence and harassment?

Manager-producer J.C. Spink advises learning the interests of a person you're targeting, then sending a gift. "There's a famous story," he relates, of someone "who kept calling film producer Brian Grazer and finally sending him a surfboard because he knew Brian was an avid surfer. And Brian took a meeting with him." But Spink advises against pushiness. "The worst thing you can do is call every day. Just because you're suddenly on someone's radar doesn't mean that you start harassing them."

Interesting Facts: A studio will often insert a provision in a director's contract requiring the filmmaker to pay over-budget penalties. This is particularly true when a director has two of Hollywood's most coveted perks: the creative control of final-cut authority and a share in what is called "dollar-one gross" — that is, the film's profit before the studio recovers its costs.

That's why director Warrington Hudlin, who co-founded the Black Filmmakers Foundation, counsels that group's members not to bitch and moan, but rather to constructively engage Hollywood, convincing execs that hiring minority talent is simply smart business.

"It's a matter of whining not being effective," he says. "If you're going to make a difference, that's not the way to go... The people who are making the decisions are operating in their own self- interest."

One way to define the term "stereotype" is as a "loaded image," in other words, and image that is associated with a set of meanings and generalities. Thus, a racial stereotype is an image imposed on a racial group that defines that racial group according to a generality or a set of generalities become associated with an image and become stereotype? It occurs through repetition.

	BANNED BECAUSE OF STEREOTYPES
	Some shows and movies that have been pulled because of ethnic stereotyping include:
	*"Amos and Andy." The TV show, which was supposed to be set in Harlem, aired for two seasons in the 1950s. The reruns eventually were pulled after complaints that the characters--usually seen bumbling around or talking with an accent--unfairly portrayed African Americans.
	*"Speedy Gonzales." The Cartoon Network yanked the "fastest mouse in all of Mexico" off the air last year because of concerns over the portrayal of Speedy's friends, who were always taking siestas and often smoked and stole things. The cartoons were put back on when Latinos protested that they wanted them back.
	*"Song of the South." The 1946 Disney film was never released on home video in the United States because of concerns that the film made slavery look pleasant.
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The advertising medium is designed to persuade consumers to buy, and to do so it must elicit particular emotions and ideas from within the consumer to influence him or her to buy. Stereotype can be used to elicit such emotions and ideas, whether or not the stereotypes have any logical connection to the product or service being advertised (in this case, depictions seen in the media such as film, television, advertising, etc.).