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Asian Images in Film Introduction
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In a continuing series of festivals that look at
Hollywood portrayals of minorities, TCM contemplates
the treatment of Asians in the movies. Previous
festivals have looked at African-American
and gay/lesbian images.
The current fest explores the variety of Asian
characters depicted in American films, ranging
from negative stereotypes and Caucasian actors
made up to look Asian to the emergence of martial
arts films that created their own Asian superstars,
and the more sensitive and sophisticated
vehicles of such dedicated actors as Sessue
Hayakawa, Miyoshi Umeki and Pat Morita. Peter
Feng, an expert on the subject matter from the
University of Delaware, will serve as a
consultant in partnership with
host Robert Osborne to provide
context and commentary
to the festival.
An early example of a
Caucasian actor in Hollywood
“yellowface” came
in Broken Blossoms (1919),
in which D.W. Griffith cast
Richard Barthelmess as a kindly
young Chinese aristocrat who shelters
an abused girl (Lillian Gish). Demonic (and, many
would say, racist) portrayals of a classic Chinese
villain were delivered by a heavily made-up Boris
Karloff in the 1930s in The Mask of Fu Manchu
(1932) and Christopher Lee in the ’60s
in The Castle of Fu Manchu (1968). Although
such cross-racial casting has
since fallen into disrepute,
German-born Luise Rainer
won an Oscar® for her impersonation
of a Chinese peasant in
The Good Earth (1937), and
Marlon Brando received favorable
contemporary reviews for playing a
cheeky Okinawan interpreter in The
Teahouse of the August Moon (1956).
One stereotype that was very prominent in the '30s and '40s was that of the Chinese
detective, most famously Charlie Chan. TCM will be premiering two Charlie Chan films made by
Fox - Charlie Chan at the Circus (1937) in which Swedish actor Warner Oland plays the
iconic detective, and Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1939) where Kansas-born Sidney Toler
takes over the lead role after Oland's death.
The first Asian-American leading man to crack
the Hollywood star system was James Shigeta,
who was born in Hawaii of Japanese ancestry and
enjoyed romantic leads in several films including
Bridge to the Sun (1916). Mioshi Umeki, cast
alongside fellow Japanese actress Miiko Taka as
the romantic leads of Sayonara (1957), became
the first Asian performer to win an Oscar®. The
second was Cambodian native Haing S. Ngor,
a physician who was held captive by the Khmer
Rouge during the civil war in his country
before being cast as photographer Dith Pran
in The Killing Fields (1984).
The festival includes several TCM
premieres, among them Anna May Wong-Frosted Yellow
Willows: Her Life, Times and Legend (2008), a documentary about
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-
American actress to achieve stardom;
and Rush Hour 2 (2001), a
buddy comedy and vehicle for Hong
Kong–born action idol Jackie Chan.
by Roger Fristoe
 
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31 Days of Oscar Highlights for Feb. 16
Join us for Billy Wilder's outrageous comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), nominated for 6 Oscars® plus The Odd Couple (1968), Grand Hotel (1932), Key Largo (1948) and 9 more Academy Award honorees.
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