Sinead Healy Introduction to Film 28 April 2021 Better Luck Tomorrow and Moonlight Moonlight and Better Luck Tomorrow have themes of masculinity and how masculinity relates to culture. They differ in that Moonlight focuses on gay masculinity and how that fits into black culture, whereas Better Luck Tomorrow tells the story of Asian American men who follow mainstream masculinity. Both seek to represent underrepresented minority groups, but they take different approaches. Asian American Cinema experiences many problems when it comes to representation. Asian Americans constitute 4.5% of the U.S. population, but Asian Americans are cast in less than 3% of film, television, and commercial roles, and Asian Americans make up only 1.7% of the entertainment …show more content…
Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow works to reject these stereotypes by being overtly Hollywood. Hillenbrand argues that “only a brash willingness to speak the language of Hollywood will get male identities out of the art house and past the multiplex gate; if mainstream and Asian America are to meet, it must—superficially at least—be on the former’s terms” (Hillenbrand, pg. 1). 51. The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid afores Better Luck Tomorrow rejects Asian American stereotypes, often present in film, by appealing to the mainstream. It attempts to present Asian males as more masculine by following Hollywood’s ideas of masculinity. The Asian men in the movie are just as masculine as white male leads in most Hollywood movies. In the movie, Ben, Vergil, Daric, and Han are high-achieving high school students. They have great grades and take part in many clubs in order to add to their college apps. They are the “model minority.” Camera pans are utilized when the characters’ high school is shown, in order to “draw out its long grid-like lines, through close-ups of barred gates, and through tracking shots that move down deadly uniform streets” (Hillenbrand,
INTRODUCTION Throughout American history, Asian American men have been emasculated, with its effects most prominent in media. Asian men haven’t had enough or the best representation in the medium of film. For example, during the silent era of film, there was a lack of Asian male leads in films other than Sessue Hayakawa. In the 1930’s, Fu-Manchu films enforced Asian xenophobia along with the Yellow Peril and the Anti-Asian sentiment at the time. Being initially excluded from Hollywood films to then being portrayed
Masculinity and Race Historically, masculinity in the United States has been constructed as being White Protestant Anglo-Saxon, furthermore heterosexual and in charge of all matters, and this definition sets standards against which other men are measured an evaluated. Michael Kimmel provides a good definition: […], Young, married, white, urban heterosexual, Protestant father of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight and height and a recent record in sports(271).
Ellen Naruse WRIT-016-303 Midterm Portfolio First Draft The standard role of Asian Americans within popular culture has historically been limited to stereotypes. However, a group of young Asian Americans have broken through this “bamboo ceiling” and achieved incredible success in a variety of media. In film, Kal Penn and John Cho star as second-generation Asian Americans in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. YouTube made the success stories of Kevin Wu and Michelle Phan possible, allowing their
him enter to the U.S. movie market, but also his inspiration from and working with Bruce Lee, who helped bring Hong Kong Cinema to the United States. However, there is a significant difference in fighting styles between the two famous actors. All films Bruce Lee starred promoted violence and unrealistic fighting sequences, while Jackie Chan fights incorporates realistic yet comedic and artistic characteristics in his movies. Overall, what makes Chan stand out than the rest of the martial artists
of Asian people, what comes to mind? Chopsticks or a strong belief in cultural heritage? How about American families? Based on many different facets, you probably feel as though you know what ideologies your culture believes. If we look at the media through time, it has evolved through a dependency on the growth of technology. As technology advances, old forms fade while content shifts with the culture. The most popular form of entertainment, that provides an escape from the real world, film has
been a number of themes in the history of Asian American cinema, in a plethora of films. To start, The Mask of Fu Manchu, an adventure film made in 1932, played heavily on the theme of “Yellow Peril,” or “Yellow Terror.” The “Yellow Peril” was a metaphor for Asian Americans in the early twentieth century, and portrayed East Asians as vicious, coldly calculating, and utterly bent on annihilating western society. However, Better Luck Tomorrow, a crime-drama film made in 2002, parodied almost the exact
Asian Americans only make up a small percent of the American population. Even more significant is that this percentage live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii; leaving the rest of the American population to most likely get their exposures to Asians through television and movies. However the exposure they have receive throughout the history of cinematography has been hardly flattering. Throughout the course of history Asians in film have been portrayed as evil
neighborhood in Michigan. An ideology of multiculturalism is promoted as Walt, a heterosexual white man, moves past his prejudices and forms a relationship with his Hmong neighbors. It promotes this ideology, however, without challenging hegemonic white masculinity and has an underlying theme of natural white superiority, as Walt takes on the role of a white savior for this cultural Other.. When Walt Kowalski sees the Lors, a Hmong family moving in next door, he says, “what the hell did these Chinks have to
Media has portrayed Asians as the model minority, the yellow face, and the ones with the “slanted, small eyes.” However, that isn’t the only thing the media has stereotyped; Asians, especially Asian men, are seen as emasculate. They are the race of the weak, the feeble, and the feminine. This collection of images, depicts how Asians have become the underdogs of false representation within Western media. This is overtly evident in the entertainment industry; the role of an Asian individual is either
Hyper-masculinity is often exaggerated and distorted and has been studied by psychologists since the 1920s. “Hyper-masculinity is a trait associated with the assertion of power and dominance often through physically and/or sexually aggressive behaviors” (Mosher & Sirkin, 1984). Expressing hyper-masculinity is a social phenomenon that is seen in many racialized circles. It gives these males the opportunity to vent frustration that black men face in a racist society. By expressing hyper-masculinity
Adapted from a New York Times bestseller written by an American male novelist, manipulated by American male directors and producers, the film Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) reifies the Western fantasies towards Asian women, their beauty, their sexual appeals and their exotic and erotic mystery, with the narratives constructed through both the Orientalist and patriarchal filters. Asian women and Asian culture are commoditized in the film (Akita, 2009), created by and for the pleasures of its Western spectators
In the film “Gran Torino” violence and the use of revenge is needed to help protect those who can not do it themselves. Walt does not really want to help at first but will change with time as he knows his time is short. In the film Walt has to reconcile his guilt for his past experiences in war and life. Walt is trying to establish tranquility and safety in his neighborhood that is suffer from gang violence and is falling apart. He does this by his actions of eventually helping those in the neighborhood
formulaic films produced in the 1950s film culture outperformed in questioning social stereotypes than TV. Though NAACP protested against the negative representation of African Americans in Hollywood since 1930s, the films in the following decade dealt with class conflict and effects of economic scarcity. The subpoenas of the Hollywood Ten in 1947 was a clear indication that the power of film images worried both HUAC and the compilers of the industry blacklist Red Channels. But the films dealing
While the Chinese government is keen to grow and expand its cultural industries, mainly through the film sector, it is hampered by its suspicion towards foreign influence, especially from Western culture. Ironically, China’s filmmakers require Hollywood connections and film-making skills and expertise to perform well internationally (Marchetti, Kam & Feng, 2009). 3.4 Influence of Hollywood on Chinese Cinema As a result of the current high levels of transnationalism, China’s way of viewing cultural
team is in the process of creating a film, they have one goal in mind and that is to create a masterpiece. A masterpiece worthy of being talked about, a masterpiece worth remembering , a film worthy of recognition and nomination for awards. The topic I am going to explore is about one of the biggest controversies in the media world and that is the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars and the assumption that they're racially biased against African American films. A few of the questions that I will