io9.com: It's official: Cloud Atlas is a flop. At least in the United States. Made for a reported $100 million, the book adaptation barely scratched $10 million in its opening weekend — but some observers say the film could make a tidy profit overseas, where most of its funding came from. Still, it's hard not to ask: Did the film's controversial use of "Yellowface" — white actors wearing clumsy makeup to make them Asian — alienate its natural audience Stateside?
3 comments:
So first I had no idea of Cloud Atlas until about 3 weeks ago. I went to summer blockbuster movies and do not remember seeing any preview for this movie, maybe that is why it flopped in the theatres because of poor advertising.
There was some pretty harsh comments made about stereotypes used within this movie. The tone some of the comments in the article made is that the Korean sterotypes that were used were excessive and were not needed in the movie. Personally I have not seen the movie so I can not give an opinion, and when I do see the movie this article will be in the back of my mind.
To me there are much bigger questions to get into. Seems there are many lines being drawn in the sand by some of the commentators in the article. How to approach racial stereotypes with in a movie? Can racial stereotypes be used in the world of media, outside of Family guy and South Park ? Can a actor of a certain race portray a actor of a different race? I do understand that I personally do not and will never fully understand racial stereotypes and the power that can go with them, since I was born a white male. So I do not know the answers to these questions but I do know that when I start accusing people of different thing it is often I that is having the problem, for it is so easy to see the plank in your brothers eye and completely ignore the speck in your own eye.
I still wonder though if they had moved it to Neo-Las Angels and it would have been all blonde blue-eyed white women cloned would a the same comment be made by someone some where.
So I say lets see the color and appreciate it.
Alright, I went as saw this movie last night. Personally, I loved it, but I'll get back to that in a second. The reasons that I can think of why it might have failed at the box office is that A)what Adam said in that it really did have seemingly poor advertising and B)Its a lot to handle for three hours and kind of difficult to follow. I think that blaming it on the 'yellowface' is ridiculous, even more so if its true. The movie is truly beautiful, set dressing, costume, and the makeup. From where I sat I saw it not as yellowface, but as the movie trying to prove that all races are interconnected and since the movie is mostly quadruple cast trying to show the reincarnation of the characters in different times. That being said, I go into movies with the mindset that I will let movies get away with certain things in order to see the bigger picture.
It irritates me when people get so offended so easily by a movie. I am not saying that stereotypes are good or that they dont exist but for goodness sakes its a movie! The critic that says, '...Korea sequence is especially problematic because it portrays many real Asian women as servile all-look-same clones' it is a dystopian society, not that it is portraying something they want to promote. Also the fact that 'only white men have depth' in the movie is just looking for things to be angry with the movie about. Because one of those servile look a like clones is a huge fleshed out part of the movie (Asian woman) and Halle Barry uncovers a terrible cover up as a kick-ass female journalist in the 60s-70s.
All of that being said, youre never going to be able to make ANYTHING ever, that is going to please everyone. So you might as well make what you want to and are passionate about, and some will love it and others wont.
I saw Cloud Atlas last night and it was easily one of the best films I've ever seen. Rather than use this comment as a vehicle to talk about how fantastic it was, I'm just going to respond to the arguments this article poses:
1. One of the complaints listed here is that the world of Neo-Seoul is reminiscent of the western world's (mis)understanding of Asian culture - simplifying all women to be clones (in the case of Cloud Atlas - literal clones) of one another. The film, Cloud Atlas, is based off of a novel written in 2004. Therefore, the filmakers are not completely to blame for these supposed racist undertones.
2. A. Another complaint is that Cloud Atlas should've cast Korean actors to play the Korean roles. True - that could've been a good strategy. However, that would've conflicted with one of the most crucial parts of the film: that multiple actors plays multiple parts.
2. B. Let's consider that Doona Bae (a bonafide Korean) played multiple roles - including a Mexican woman and a white woman.
3. The first article discounts that the film could be trying to make a statement that "race, gender, etc are simply a thin surface layer over our universal and eternal souls." Rather than discount that angle, I prefer to believe that the Wachovski siblings and Tywker really were trying to make that statement - even if it involved delving into some risky cross-racial territory.
Post a Comment