Wonton soup???? Are you serious? All that plot for wonton soup? Not only is that just stupid... it implies that Chinese people only really care about food! It shows us as greedy gluttons who desire only to keep our precious wonton soup recipes to ourselves! Disgusting!
One of the most racist portrayals I have seen so far is from a children's movie. Horrifying.
The big fight scene between the nannies and Hnup Wan's henchmen is awful as well. It shows little old nannies beating up kung fu masters. Painful! But that's not all! The "masters"aren't even doing kung fu, or any martial art I know of. They're jumping in the air, doing a pirouette, then landing with a high kick and a hair-raising "HOOOAAAAAAAIIIEE!" Cue karate chop hands. Dear me. Two years after Enter the Dragon and you can't even hire proper martial artists? Shameful.
Not cute at all. Listen to that soundtrack. It's got a stupid little xylophone. And the stupid little flutes and zithers and CRAP? It's racist! It sounds like the Mr. Yunioshi theme, only... mysterious. Gross. Makes me wanna cry. This stuff makes Flower Drum Song sound good.
If you wish to view this atrocity...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this movie is not available as a Region 1 (North America) DVD, but is available in the UK.
Ebay should have some more VHS versions floating around...
It's not racist for fucks sake. It's a children's comedy. The equivalent would be if we took any random chinese children's film in which they depict white people and started getting grumpy about how inconsistent they are, but we don't. Grow up!
ReplyDeleteThis is a 40 year old film that pokes fun at everyone in it. The British people in the film appear as ridiculous to me as the Asians do to you, but thats hardly the point of the film is it. Your angry rant at it just makes your serious point look less serious.
ReplyDeleteIts a childrens film made in 1975! Things were different back then and to be honest, it shows the English as bumbling idiots, the Scots as drunks. I loved it as a child and never thought about it as being racist. Its just meant to be a light hearted farce. You really are making too much out of an old film. Is this really all that offends you in this world?
ReplyDeleteYou didn't watch the film vary carefully. The whole story was about industrial espionage and Lotus X. To make a fun twist at the end - and to keep within a story plot designed for children - it turns out that the secret film and Lotus X was just a recipe for wonton soup. If you didn't understand the film, or don't like plots designed for children, then that's ok, but don't get on your soap box calling it racist. You sound like a person LOOKING for insults when they don't exist. You must be a nightmare to live with!
ReplyDeleteHow pitiful that a lighthearted romp such as this film should be dissected and analysed negatively as some kind of statement about society and race. The story is a comedy, the characters are splendidly ridiculous parodies! Did you actually imagine the film is some kind of historically correct drama making socio-political statements? I can't wait to read what amazing deductions will be drawn when Mary Poppins or Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang come under the same bizarre scrutiny!
ReplyDeleteWow, look at all the ANONYMOUS people defending this racist film! So brave.
ReplyDelete~Sigh~ it IS racist, there's no getting past it. Being a kids film doesn't excuse it, it makes it worse by teaching kids that stereotyping=funny. Hardly harmless stuff. And it's racism for very very lazy comedy returns. Drunk Scots? Lazy racism too. There is the bare bones of a workable story here (industrial espionage with dinosaur hijinks, why not?) but whoever wrote this knocked it out in a week - and it's not just the racism: ignore that and you've still got a slow dull film with nothing to look forward to but the dinosaur theft, which takes forever to get too. I'm amazed this shoddy racist script ever got in front of Disney's cameras.
Definitely racist, like the "yellow peril" works of fiction it's clearly spoofing (Fu Manchu seemingly being an inspiration, and I think a fair amount of the exoticism is in the vein of the Mikado), but arguably distinct from the "red menace" plot of the source book, I gather.
DeleteThat being said, I think some of the more specific criticisms of racism listed here might be overly cynical:
I'd assume (and I stand open to correction on this) that Elstree studios in the mid 70s didn't have access to a particularly wide array of big-name asian actors to play the lead villain in a Disney movie.
I'm not excusing the practice of white actors portraying other ethnicities, to be clear, just that it's reasonable to assume it was done for sake of convenience rather than to deliberately denigrate a race.
Having the villains be bumbling is generally an essential part of a light comedy knock-about romp; and it is not like the British protagonists are portrayed as anything other than bumbling stiff-upper-lip stereotypes themselves.
The criticism that the plot revolves around Wonton Soup is simply dishonest: The chinese antagonists don't know the microfilm is a recipe for soup, and indeed it is preserving *a grandmother's secret family recipe* out of familial duty that is the motivating factor.
Which might be equally racist, if someone were to argue instead that the tropes it plays up are that oriental cultures are overly concerned with preserving family honour / traditions and respecting their elders.
I think every single stock comic character teaches children that "stereotyping is funny", if they are put into jokes that actually work. The fact that /racial/ stereotyping is problematic at best and often harmful doesn't necessarily preclude it from being funny either - humour is a function of how well a joke is setup and executed, rather than of a moral consideration.
Does this film teach kids a dangerous message that being east-asian means you conform to the tropes in this film? Possibly? Although, I think that it being set in the 20s alone puts a clear barrier between the audience (in the 70s as well as modern) and what is happening on screen. The elements of farce(old ladies defeating a group of henchmen) are likewise meant to be read as absurd, rather than "even old ladies can beat up these asians".
I think it might also be worth considering that in the finale of the film (IIRC), Southermere and Hnup bond over the fact that they both were brought up by the same nanny, and are somewhat alike in that moment; and that their differences (what they've been competing over) is ultimately trivial.
These anonymous people aren't so much defending the film as pointing out the intolerance of the person who cannot tolerate a sense of humour not matching their own. The British poke fun at every nation, including our own, and no intolerant little shit is going to stop us.
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