Yikes.

The %’s you bring up are a good point - as are the differences between journalism and entertainment, as you put it, “selling out.” I guess my response, then, would be that there are always compromises to everything yet if a group of people don’t truly feel “fairly” represented based on fact (especially if a movie chooses to base itself upon true events) why would we default, then, to the make-up of the surrounding demo in which these true events occurred? Rights of the individual, per se. I think we might make that even more cause to tell the true story because “despite all odds” here is a group of people of certain descent who went through this, who accomlished that.

But yeah, I’ve said this already - and of course it comes down to the lowest commen denominator. It’s just easier to go with what’s most marketable. Safer, even. We can understand it, but doesn’t mean we have to agree with it. Just like the script would’ve been harder to write if it were truer to events racially, case-in-point, are you going to have a love story between a hot shot male big player and a smart (or simply beautiful) woman woven into the plot?

the movie and e* don’t even mention the other “race”: the females. the gurls allowed the team to stay under the radar for so long b/c the casinos weren’t suspicious; they assumed females were not “smart” enough or “good at math” to count cards.

there will always be artistic license. if you want to tell a good story, you adjust to your audience (sell out?) and your goal is to entertain as many as possible. if you want to make money with your story, you sell out even more. if you want to be ojbective and report the facts, then you’re not making a movie or writing a historical fiction, you’re a journalist.
each medium is different and deserves to be judged by their own criteria.

given that asians are still only 4% of the population, and blacks are only 12% of the nation….how do you market to that and how do you responsibily represent that cross-section? what is fair?

with a card team of 5 ppl, having 0.2 of them be asian would fairly rep the nation. (maybe a really small midget asian?)

MIT’s asian pop is about 20%. so having 1 out of the 5 is a good rep of the school’s demographics. i don’t remember if the book mentioned the exact breakdown.

all in all, i agree. less selling-out to the white kids, being more true as an artist to the story. and more roles for Tim Chiou. but growing up in SoCal, i take race relations for granted. remember…there are white kids in Kansas. a Kansas that voted Republican in 2004.

Guess what I meant was, the “Asian American” experience is still an American experience - but people tend not to think so just because from our appearances. People (in general, and I’d go as far as to say mostly in middle America) tend to have the knee-jerk reaction that we’re directly from Asia. The idea is lost that a lot of us have been here our entire lives. And thus, they don’t think that Asians are ever actually American. That’s just the assumption that, from my observation, has been tied our look. It’s unique because - to contrast - people don’t assume Mexicans or Latinos are fresh from Mexico or Latin America and African Americans have their tortured history *in* America. Hope that clarifies things.

For example, Roycifer was walking in Old Town Pasadena once, recently (I’m sure you’re aware of the sample demo there). He heard someone in the passenger seat of a car turning the corner say, “It’s like we’re in China.” The comment IMHO is laden with the sentiment that Asians - doesn’t matter where from, what generation we are - don’t belong, and can’t be native to America. A parallel could be drawn about blacks “belonging” in the south parts of metro American cities, or what-have-you with Latinos in miscellaneous other metropolitan parts. In general, this phenomenon can be chalked up to the fact that we are mostly the last race to emigrate from our native parts. Obviously, exceptions to this would be Chinese railroad workers and Japanese farmers in early American history.

@Lexybeast: Thanks for sharing about your mom. Interesting to note that Americanisation is applied across the board … including war movies. At the same time, I’d challenge the assumption that Asian American-isation is still an American phenomenon, just that people tend not to think so just because it’s not a white experience?

@soulst0p: Well, that’s depressing about the demo. True, but depressing. (Indeed, Justin Lin is very talented - hopefully he’ll take “us” far.)

@codemunky: I’m interested in the documentary. And yeah, my assumption is that the Hollywood movie would aim for the entertainment value over historical accuracy … case-in-point, this post.

@owbert: I tend to disagree. First, you gotta agree on the movie you want to see, or leave it completely to happenstance that you want to see the same one. Then you gotta find a time it’s showing, and either meet there, and wait for them … or pick them up or have them pick you up. This sometimes tends to make you late if you resolve to go there together. I like to go early or stay late to peruse Amoeba Records next door (I usually see my movies at the Arclight at Sunset/Cahuenga). Anyhoo, I am a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to movies and a few other things because I choose to be. Maybe I will bump into you there!

someone like me :”)

Funny enough, it’s Justin Lin who’ll be the first to tell you that Asian Americans don’t have any buying power in Hollywood. There’s not even an Asian demographic for marketing. Asians are counted as white, when it comes to money.

So long as that’s the case, there will never be a need to produce Hollywood movies with AA stories and AA people.

Out of curiosity, are there any Hollywood movies you consider ‘good’ for Asian/Asian-American portrayals? Or independent/non-Hollywood?