Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

While I enjoyed the first part of this documentary and thought that for the most part it gave a fair view, I must speak up about what was happening during WWII - both in the west AND the East, as well as one of the people who for some very bizarre reason is even featured to give a 'better understanding' of either history, or worldview; someone by the name of Joseph McBride, who I'll speak Ankur towards the end.

What Ms Yang Wen says - and the makers of this documentary - gives a very one-sided view.

The simplest question is why is there time devoted to anything but the portrayal and presentation of Asians in media?

During the entire part of this informative film, we're told about the campus Asians were sent to during the war and their representation in - admittedly propogandistic cartoons.

I'm not excusing the actions of the American government, but - when speaking about a war, it's VERY important that BOTH sides of the conflict are explained and shown.

That doesn't happen here.

Prior to the militarisation of Japan, it was a very Western-influenced society, but, afterwards, there were propaganda films made - which can by easily seen by anyone, nowadays. In one film, the Western-acting (Japanese) are ridiculed - viciously (both men AND women are scorned).

This is supposedly a documentary about the history of how the Asians have been portrayed, and it suddenly veers into a very myopic view of the treatment of Japanese - and only Japanese - during WWII.

Before anyone reading tries to label me as something I'm not, it's important to understand that what had so far up to this point been - as is clearly and repeatedly said, Hollywood's portrayal of Asians and other Pacific islanders, wrongly becomes a blistering attack on how the American government (mis)treated (just the) Japanese.

Without context things which were meant for a specific, and no longer current use - are misunderstood.

Such is the case with the cartoon she refers to - Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips.

This was one of several cartoons which weren't made for general audiences, but were, instead made for military troops.

This was not solely Warner Bros idea; it was commissioned by the War office, and there were other cartoons from Warner's as well as Disney and other studios.

They only ended up in general circulation long after the war, when they were packaged for TV syndication.

She incorrectly describes the soldier in the animated short as being 'portrayed with really big feet', and 'animalistic', (even as we, the viewer can clearly see that's not accurate), and goes on to say that it's thereby 'easy to portray an entire race as animals in order to... justify... killing them'.

This WAS during a war, and this cartoon, was, as I've already said, NOT made for general audiences, and - yes, I also remember seeing it during my local TV station's Bugs Bunny show, there's a couple of things to point out; kids view the works differently, in fact, as one grows up, their a person's worldview constantly changes.

Additionally, while I find censorship abhorrent, I think that cartoons, such as this one - should be shown in either context, or with examples from the opposite perspective.

There IS a flip-side; just as this cartoon might be categorised as being 'racist'it's important to remember that Japan - as well as other nations (on both sides) made propoganda materials, and I wish that in terms of this terrible war, both sides were held accountable, and not just one.

It's also very important to note that the atrocities committed by the Japanese military - both against westerners (the terrible treatment of captured soldiers is well-documented) AND their infamous horrifying treatment of the Chinese - esp during the rape of Nanjing (and the barbaric actions of unit 731 had no equals. Even Nazi Germany was horrified.

There is another voice in this film - that of a gentleman named Joseph McBride, who's IMdB page calls him a 'writer and actor', but - I'll give him a taste of his rules - appears as a cliché of a typical professorial-type.

As I didn't read this initially - and went just by appearance, and thought he WAS some sort of a scholar, It's misleading, then, to hear him spouting such things as how America's 'imperialistic', and then further on - in the aforementioned WWII-part, gives ANOTHER slap against America, when he describes how America was beginning to 'demonising the Russians' because the cold war was starting - and as everyone knows it was all the 'evil imperialistic' US' fault - as the Soviet Union was a peace-loving nation ... excluding their crushing of the 'spring'of Czechoslovakia, the millions killed under Stalin, attempts to put nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kruschev telling the west, 'we will bury you' (I guess he meant at the Olympics), and, they're just misunderstood.

Right?

(I almost had to laugh - at his utter non-scholarly-ness, when he says, 'the prevailing theory today is we dropped the atomic bombs on Japan because we were trying to intimidate Russia'. There's NOTHING cited to back this up. Nothing. His comments sounds as ridiculous to me as the old commercials, one of which had a man say, 'I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV', and those old cigarette ads, in which doctors - yes, supposedly real doctors - 'recommend' smoking a specific brand of cigarette because of its filter and cool taste.

While utterly ridiculous, there's many people who are now dead and or dying because they believed those 'doctors'.

Anything said but this McBride individual is dangerously tainted by a very myopic, and even less educated education about world history. It's very important to understand amongst this gentleman's' prestigious' career, there's little - ZERO - in terms of having ANY background in education, collegiate or otherwise, but he did act as an extra in Cannonball.

NOT someone who should be given ANY screen time about historical events.

On the whole, I agree with what's said - about Asians and film, but feel that an updated version which would include corrections, and give equal time to the acts committed during war by both sides be added should be released.

Nothing is more satisfying to a child than to correct an error by the one who says, "Brush your teeth" or "Finish your spinach," by pointing out that the capital of Illinois is Springfield, not Chicago. Now that we live in "a national household," it is time for left-liberals to point out that the USA did not live up to its founding principles for everyone at all times. They cannot say that the differences between peoples are so negligible that Orson Welles as Othello or Gale Sondergaard as Mrs. Hammond or Akim Tamiroff as Gen. Yang is as inoffensive as the characterization of Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi is odious, so much so that both the actor and director apologized. To throw another log on the fire, we are reminded of the unjust incarceration of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor, irrelevant to a film about the occasional casting of European-American actors in Asian roles. Hopefully, a day will come when left-liberals can recognize our many similarities rather than harp on our petty differences.

I am not Asian but I have read too many books backing up what the movies claims. I have also seen too many Asian interviews recounting the same things. Although the focus is on Hollywood and America, other countries have had their faults as well when in comes to racism but that is no excuse for denying the truth and the reasons for what happened.

If there is a fault with the documentary with less than an hour it was rushed. More details could have been added about the injustices that took place during the 1920s to 1930 to the point where even killing someone from China or Japan who was not a citizen could be ignored. Did I fail to mention how hard it would be to even become a citizen?

World War 2 only made things much worst. Watch the documentary, simple as that.

I would love to read the opinions of our Asian-American contributors.

Too much reliance on the same three talking heads but generous use of film clips and historical footage somewhat alleviates the problem. GGive it a B minus.

Always knew about Rooney and Brando (to mention nothing of Muni And Rainer) resorting to the noxious title practice. But it was embarrassing to see one of the five greatest female actors of American film and a supposed champion of liberal, values, Katherine Hepburn, stooping so low. And that Scarlett Johansson was still doing it as of 2017 and is unrepentant about it is downright disgusting. Let's boycott her films. Whadya say?

PS...And as long as I'm making suggestions I will gladly donate my backyard as the venue for a beer and/or sake summit between Joseph McBride and previous reviewer UNOhwen. Sounds like they have much to discuss.

Its heart is in the right place, but as a documentary, this is simply awful. The research into this important subject by the filmmakers was incredibly shallow, and what's presented is completely unfocused. I think there was more time spent on high school level history summaries and the shameful Japanese-American internment during WWII than a critical examination of Hollywood's treatment of Asians. There are so many films and actors not covered here that it was frankly irritating, and for the ones that are, the analysis provided by Nancy Wang Yuen and Joseph McBride is cursory at best, inaccurate at worst. A broader set of experts was needed, as well as critical thinking from directors Clara and Julia Kuperberg about what to include and what to challenge.

Even the timeline is badly spliced together, e.g. Going back to a Pre-Code picture (The Bitter Tea of General Yen) after talking sloppily about what Production Code enforcement meant, or going back to the 50's for a couple of Sam Fuller pictures after the stock footage of Vietnam war protests in the 60's. It jumps forward and closes with Alan Parker's Come See the Paradise (1990) seemingly because of the interview with Tamlyn Tomita, and the then-unreleased Crazy Rich Asians, in what seemed like excessive attention for both.

The movie footage that we occasionally see appeared to consist entirely from trailers, making me wonder if the filmmakers simply didn't have the rights to more. Regardless, this is as messy as a poorly executed student project, one that was thrown together and incomplete when it was due, as much as it pains me to say that. It's a subject a care deeply about, so this was very disappointing. Anyway, there are far better films and books about this subject, and I would look around instead of spending the time here.