AMERICAN CINEMA/JAPANESE STEREOTYPES

bill's cold chillin' in a b-boy stance

Finally - someone has finally pointed out what has been %()#in obvious - Hollywood still can't figure out how to treat Japan as anything but a well of Orientalist stereotypes that are as tired as Tomogachi keychains. "Hollywood's Land of the Rising Cliche" by Motoko Rich looks at recent, lauded films like Kill Bill, Lost in Translation and The Last Samurai. I said this before in an old blog but in regards to Lost in Translation, superior cinematography and quality Bill Murray performances still can't save this from its own pretensions of white middle-class angst set in a colonial backdrop. And let's not even start up on The Last Samurai, aka Dances With Shoguns. Is this 2004 or 1984? Or 1884? Feel me? (thanks to Hua for putting me up on this piece)