I don't understand why people are complaining about Scarlett Johanson's casting.
Well even if you don't take into account the racial controversy a lot of people, including myself, are on a sort of ScarJo fatigue. She's popping up everywhere, which is great for her and she's probably in the prime of her popularity! But there IS a such thing as "too much" of a good thing.
As for her as the Major, I get that she raised the awareness of the production to another level since she's an A-lister, but I honestly would've liked to have seen someone less popular in the role. How cool would it have been to see the likes of Summer Glau, Aubrey Plaza or Jena Malone tackle the role? ScarJo as the Major feels like such obvious and vanilla casting (no pun intended) that it's hard to get excited about the prospect of her playing any kick ass women, because we know pretty much what we're gonna get.
If you look at Asian movies ( Hong Kong movies, China movies, Taiwan movies, Singapore movies and etc.....), they never cast any other races except their very own.
And even if they did, the minorities appearing in Asian movies had very small roles, little dialogues and usually play the villains.
There are a lot of Caucasians living in Asia, yet you hardly sees them appearing in Asian movies.
When is the last time that you watch a Singapore movie, Hong Kong movie that prominently features a Caucasian character or African character? Never.
Asian cultures are vastly different than our own, that's why. America is a melting pot of people from EVERYWHERE...Europe, Mediterranean, African, South America and of course...Asia. America has had more than 2 centuries of mixing and sharing differing cultures. It's without doubt the most diverse country on the planet and it wasn't until the last 2 or 3 decades that Hollywood movies started to reflect how ethnically diverse our country is and they can still do better.
On the other hand, East Asia has yet to galvonize the flood of cultures the way United States has and even taking into consideration the more racially diverse areas in East Asia they don't have centuries of shared culture like America does. The US is sort of the ultimate mutt of the world while East Asia is still pretty darn Asian. The ratio for Whites to Asians in East Asia is certainly smaller than the ratio of Asians to Whites in America. So since Asians are the obsolute majority over there, and will be for the foreseeable future, there's no real desire from the public to see a White person as a starring character in their movies. Sure they tried to force Matt Damon into a starring role, but that didn't come from the people. That decision came from the money, the studios.
It's basic supply and demand. There's no demand in East Asia to see a White actor in their movies so therefor no supply....and if they want that fix they can just get it from Hollywood movies. God knows we're not in short supply...we're actually pretty damn saturated right now.
And before anyone says "then why don't Asian Americans just goto East Asian films for their Asian fix". Well, first...we do. Second, it's not the same and why that is will be explained later.
You can bet that if Asian countries remake Hollywood movies, they will cast their own race too and would hardly feature any Caucasian characters at all.
America has been doing that for decades (Magnificent Seven, A Fistfull of Dollars, The Departed, The Ring, The Grudge, My Sassy Girl, Oldboy) so why is it an issue if Asia does the reverse?
Why should Hollywood pander to Asian people?
Well first, they shouldn't be pandering. Pandering is when you give someone what they want in exchange for something of theirs, usually money or a vote, which is the same in most circumstances and in this case it would also mean silence from dissenters. Rather Hollywood should be ACCOMMODATING...welcoming with open arms, embracing, and celebrating. But why?
Because representation matters in America. Black Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, Asian Lives Matter...and so do the lives of people in each and every race. Because America should be progressive in almost everything it does, including art and entertainment. I mean, without Asian culture America wouldn't be able to enjoy anime, manga, martial arts films, Eastern philosophy, Eastern aesthetics, Asian food or Ken Jeong.
America, as well as Hollywood, should be all inclusive, not exclusive. Hollywood shouldn't pander...but it should accommodate......because Hollywood should be a reflection and inspiration of America.
I'll leave you with this very insightful comment from Chris Stuckman's review of Ghost in the Shell...
Dana Zhang said:
"The reason why Americans have beef about ScarJo and Japanese people don't is that Japanese people are used to seeing themselves represented in television. All of Japanese movies and television shows star Japanese people, so of course they don't give two ****s and actually like it that a white person is starring as the main character in an anime adaptation.
It is the unique situation in America where Asian Americans feel like growing up, the television shows labeled 'American' fail to represent the not insignificant population of Asian Americans in the United States today. To not have an AMERICAN movie represent these generations of people feels as though it renders them invisible, refusing to acknowledge their existence or their history. It doesn't give this group of people validation. While Japanese people have seen their homegrown movies validate them, OUR homegrown movies rarely show that."
Nailed It.
