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November 14 2001 |
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November 14 2001
Before I go into this rant, I must clarify last week's discussion. It may have seemed from my post that Sue was being insensitive when she made her remarks about Asian girls being inordinately cute. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Sue often says things to make me laugh. In this case, she saw me convulsing on the floor and decided to see how long she could keep my rolling on the floor. I thought I would share the joke with you all, but I bet it was much funnier in real life than on the screen. So don't think for a second that Sue thinks Asian girls are small and cute.
Today's strip touches on the belief that Asians can only star in a film if they are martial arts experts of some kind. The only other times you may see Asians on the silver screen is if they are serving food, working a laundry, mispronouncing "r's," squinting and/or bowing, or running around with a sword. In fact, the only Asian in a starring role in an American film who did not kick or "waaasaaaaaa" his way through the thing is George Takei as Sulu in the Star Trek movies. And even then, he was a bit part (though he did get to captain the Excelsior). Well, that's not true. Chow Yun Fat just killed a lot of people in his American film debut, but for the most part, the only way an Asian can be the lead in a movie is if he's kicking some ass. Admittedly, this isn't such a bad stereotype. I want people to know that I can kick their ass just because I'm little, yellow, and different. But I do wish that we could expand a little. How bout Jackie Chan in a dramatic role as a laundry mat worker who speaks broken English and falls in love with a tall white super model. Naw, that'd probably piss me off too.
So now that I've resigned myself to the fact that America sees us as asskicking ninja people, let me get into why I've brought up The One yet again. As if my review of the movie weren't bad enough, my brother posted on the message board about the two distinct styles of martial arts that Jet Li used in the film. It is upon this fact that my family demonstrated its adherence to the martial art stereotype. It's true, It's true, we all are martial artists. I really couldn't help it. I have all the Bruce Lee movies on DVD and video tape and I've seen them all about a hundred or more times. I know all of his lines. I know all the fight scenes. I love Bruce Lee. So it was my early goal in life to be just like him. This included years of martial arts training.
Anyway, back to the Jet Li thing. Mat liked the fact that the good Jet Li used a fluid, more internal style while the evil Jet Li used a more linear, bare bones fighting style. My mom saw the post and started talking to some of her students at the NIH where she works as a lab cheif. My dad said something about the soft style being Pa Gua and the hard style being Wing Chun. This was later confirmed by my mom who had a conversation with one of her post docs. He said that the fluid, internal style was called Pa Gua and was in the same family as Tai Chi. The hard style was called Hsing - I and has some connection to the I-Ching or the eight trigrams. He was impressed because neither style is filmed too often on the big screen and it was refreshing to see them showcased so well.
Much like geeks drool over the newest processor that comes out, my family geeks out when the newest chop socky films comes out. We go and see the movie and we sit there and analyze every fight scene. Boy, it was horrible when Steven Segal was making films. All the great throws he did were on the same stunt double. You know that throw, that hard clothes line that ins't really Aikido but is because he says it is.
So there you have it. I'm a sucker for Kung Fu flicks. I love em. I don't care how bad they are. I just love em. Now go and see Zato Ichi. Yes, that's a random thing to say, but it's a damn good series of films. NOW GO!
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