Alyanna Padilla on the Steady Rise of Asian-American Voices in Cinema

February 3, 2024 5:00 AM

“Representation Matters” feels like such an overused statement these days. Discussions about diverse films on press tours and in the media almost always include the question: “What does it mean for you to be an *insert member of underrepresented, marginalized community here* in the industry? It is such a loaded, cloying question and many artists feel pressured to represent every member of their community, simply by doing their job.

This post started with curiosity about what people are saying about Crazy Rich Asians these days, but I was really taken by Padilla's comments. The other things I read en route were more closely tied to the film. Here's Kevin Kwan in Vogue Australia four months before the film's release. Anna Luo in 2022 on "Why 'Crazy Rich Asians' Matters Now More Than Ever". Lydia Fraser last month on "The (Asian) American Dream: Neoliberal Feminism, Orientalism, and Ambivalence in Crazy Rich Asians."

posted by cupcakeninja (4 comments total)

I have seen many complaints about Crazy Rich Asians from white liberals who do not like that the film is primarily centered on rich people. I think it would be cool if we could avoid, at least initially, "rich people are shitty and films about them are shitty"-type comments about this remarkable film and the broader dynamic (Asian Americans in Hollywood).
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:06 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

Discussions about diverse films on press tours and in the media almost always include the question: “What does it mean for you to be an *insert member of underrepresented, marginalized community here* in the industry? It is such a loaded, cloying question and many artists feel pressured to represent every member of their community, simply by doing their job.

Andrew Scott had a similar comment during one of those multi-actor roundtables you see during awards season; he was in a joint interview along with Colman Domingo (and Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright), and the moderator pointed out that he and Colman were two openly gay actors playing openly gay characters, and how did that feel.

Scott countered that y'know, the only people who seem to use the term "Openly gay" are the media, and he made a bid to retire that term ....(I think I've linked to the exact point here.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:32 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Randall Park’s recent movie Shortcomings (his first feature film as director) opens with the two main characters arguing about Crazy Rich Asians. Justin Min’s character, a Korean-American aspiring indie filmmaker, bristles at being told he should be grateful that the commercial success of the movie (actually, a thinly-disguised fictional version of it) means that it will be easier for projects like his to get funding and attention.

Park’s previous film Always Be My Maybe came out just one year after Crazy Rich Asians, and Constance Wu played his TV wife on Fresh Off the Boat, so it’s not hard to see how this is a personal subject for him.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:59 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Visual representation matters, but IMHO^[*] what matters even more is who gets to direct and write the narrative that the actors are playing.

Sometimes (often) the two things are extremely different. For example, here is what the Orange Is The New Black writers look like, as opposed to what the actors look like.

_{[*] I am Asian American for the record}
posted by splitpeasoup at 11:38 AM on February 3 [2 favorites]