Matt Damon’s white savior film The Great Wall is out today. These are some premiere photos from this week which I didn’t get around to posting earlier. The Great Wall was filmed in China, with a primarily Chinese cast and crew, and it was financed by Chinese backers. It could have been interesting from a this-is-how-the-sausage-gets-made perspective, because Hollywood is eager to sell to China and everyone wants more East-West cooperation and financing in filmmaking. Unfortunately, The Great Wall is facing some difficulties here in America because oh right, it’s another film about a white guy saving non-white people. Matt Damon is the lead of a film in which he “saves” China from monsters. He saves China by building a wall.
Constance Wu had a lot to say about this last year, and whenever Matt has been asked about the white-savior issue in interviews, he sounds utterly tone-deaf. He purposefully conflated the “white savior” issue with the conversation about “whitewashing,” and called both “fake news clickbait.” Because I guess he loves Trumpisms. New York Mag actually did a compilation of all the times Matty D completely bungled the larger conversation about white-saviorism – go here to read. So is it any wonder that Asian Twitter – it’s like Black Twitter, only Asian – decided to create their own hashtag to “thank” Matt Damon for saving them? Asian Twitter went IN. It was glorious.
Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson are my favorite Asian couple. #ThankYouMattDamon
— Andrew Nguyen (@andrewnguyening) February 16, 2017
Forget Mulan, Matt Damon is the only one who could save China #thankyoumattdamon
— Lily Luo (@LilyLuo930) February 16, 2017
Matt Damon taught me how to use chopsticks. #thankyoumattdamon
— Jenny Yang 👲👲👲 (@jennyyangtv) February 16, 2017
Casting choices were tough but we've found our star for the Frederick Douglas Biopic #ThankYouMattDamon
— Victor Steele (@BlackHannibal) February 16, 2017
Diversity is what the charming white guy tells you it is. #ThankYouMattDamon
— Shawn Taylor (@reallovepunk) February 16, 2017
I'm glad everyone has caught on to this ludicrous film where a white guy saves all of China. Oh yeah, and builds a wall 💁 #ThankYouMattDamon
— Candace Howze (@CandaceHowze) February 17, 2017
Putting the Asian in Caucasian #ThankYouMattDamon
— Paul Tanner (@Paul_Tanner_) February 17, 2017
You've saved us so many times. #ThankYouMattDamon pic.twitter.com/3Jo1ZBSGAV
— SJPaul (@JeakPaul) February 16, 2017
#thankyoumattdamon for explaining what diversity is in hollywood pic.twitter.com/wTb7znyYV4
— bushy brows (@Pantoran) February 16, 2017
#ThankYouMattDamon for having the courage to play a controversial white guy rescuing Asians in their own land. Love, Tom Cruise pic.twitter.com/U0X2FziKGd
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) February 16, 2017
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
He he he. Those tweets were awesome. 🙂
“Putting the Asian in Caucasian” Epic!
Completely off topic and superficial but not liking that drown/camel looking dress. Is that lady his wife? The dress gives off a weird look around her chest area.
They should start a hashtag #Asianfilmssowhite
They are wonderful. thank you Asian Twitter 🙂
Those tweets are amazing. This movie looks like offensive garbage. But guess what, it’s not racism. It’s greed. The studios are stuck in the past and dont believe that the 72.4% white majority in the States will go to a movie without a white man in the lead. Prove. Them. Wrong. The best thing to do is boycott this crap and support movies with appropriate casting. Send the message through the $$$$. It’s the only language they understand.
Eh, you’re describing institutional racism, which perpetuates racism for the sake of greed (among other selfish motives). So it’s both. But yes, that’s definitely the best way to combat it: refuse to participate in a system that reinforces this behavior.
they will make you believe hidden dragon,crouching tiger never happened…
The film looks ridiculous.
Most of the tweets were hilarious and it’s hard to understand why Damon would make a career mistake like this, but the money backing this film is Chinese, and I’m sure the backers had a lot to say about the casting.
Lol at the tweets! And I agree this whitewashing is becoming out of date… like 60 years out of date…
Except the article itself says “The Great Wall was filmed in China, with a primarily Chinese cast and crew.” So if one white man is in it, it’s whitewashing?
If he’s the big hero who saves China, then yes. Why not have a Chinese hero?
Most people in China probably think a story about a white person saving Chinese people isn’t a big deal, because they don’t live as minorities in a country where the majority may treat them as props / take away their job opportunities. They are neither commonly racially stereotyped by others in their country nor undervalued in certain industries because of their race. To them, it’s just another movie, and to Chinese movie studios, it will bring in the dough by breaking into the U.S. audience. Since this movie is being released in the U.S. as well as China though, Chinese Americans are affected by this narrative and do think it’s a big deal. We are Americans pointing out a problem that affects us in America.
He he he.
That’s all.
“Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson are my favorite Asian couple.”
😂😂😂
Oh you’ve got to laugh or you’d cry.
That was my favourite one. 😀
That one was the best.
Well at least The Great Wall is expected to bomb everywhere except China which is ironic I know but they pushed that film soooo much over there. But I have hope that folks are over this kind of crap. Next up is The Ghost In The Shell bombing as well.
Mulan is my favorite movie of all time so the Mulan tweet had me laughing!!
I know, right? I started cackling at it.
Lol, glorious!
Mansplaining Matty needs to go away for a while….a looooong while.
he can take affleck bros with him…with their faux intellectual pseudo progressism full of racism misogynoir an misogyny
It’s not a white saviour movie at all. It’s a Chinese film with a Chinese cast, directed by a Chinese director. They casted Matt Damon because they want to appeal to the American market and none of the Chinese actors are famous in the US. It really is as simple as that. The outrage has no place here. Matt Damon is just ONE white guy in a movie with a majority of Chinese people. I very much doubt China would make a white saviour movie.
Well that means that people are simply over this kind of movie format, whoever the producers are or where they are from. I didn’t hear anyone here (in uk) saying they are interested to see this movie, Matt Damon or not…..
1950 called and they loved your comment.
I’ll be watching hidden dragon, crouching tiger again this weekend.
Lol @ “they loved your comment”
It’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. You had the wrong way.
Well if that was their plan then it’s certainly backfired because The Great Wall is expected to bomb in the states. Maybe now folks will see that this idea of casting someone based on name doesn’t work anymore.
So if it’s very much a Chinese film? Will the movie be in Chinese with English subtitles? Cause it probably wouldn’t do very well here regardless of its white savior problems since the majority of American movie goers hate reading subtitles.
Ummmm well from the synopsis that’s exactly the kind of movie they made. The trailers seem to suggest the same thing.
I get that they want to appeal to Western audiences but news flash many of us are over “white guy saves ‘insert minority here’ because apparently minorities cannot be their own heroes” stories.
Even hidden Figures, a movie I LOVED, inserted a few FALSE white savior bits that annoyed me.
I don’t know why people are complaining about this, the producers are chinese and they decided to cast Matt Damon. Also I’m pretty sure all the people who are complaining are the first ones that never watch foreign movies.
You’re assuming only Americans are commenting. American movies are “foreign” to me. So … no.
Exactly. All the outrage coming from people who probably never watch subtitled movies. It’s really funny.
@littlemissnaughty Well I’m colombian so I’m used to watch everything with subs, and I believe the main reason Hollywood makes so many remakes is because most americans doesn’t like to watch films with subtitles. I’ve seen endless tirades about Ghost in the Shell because they casted Scarlett, but if it was 100% Japanese no one would care. The film adaptation of Attack on Titan was made with a complete japanese cast and nobody is talking about it.
I think that if we want to watch more non white actors cast as main characters in films, first we need to support not english movies. Also says a lot that the main example on this thread about an asian movie is Crouching tiger Hidden dragon that was made almost 17 years ago. The Handmaiden from Park Chan Wook was released last year, a recent example of an amazing korean film that nobody is watching.
(Sorry if this is weird, english is not my first language)
“Also I’m pretty sure all the people who are complaining are the first ones that never watch foreign movies.”
Based on what? What a ridiculous statement.
@WingKingdom Based on this thread alone is pretty obvious.
A little experiment. Did you watch any international film in another language that is not English in the last year? If you answer yes, then ask yourself, this movie was released in the last 2-3 years? If the answer is also Yes, great, you are making the difference. If the answer is no, don’t complain that they put Matt Damon in a movie about the Great wall of China. Like I said in another comment if this film was with a Chinese lead nobody would care.
@Catherine, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the horror films Japan and South Korea put out. Admittedly, I struggle with subtitles (only because I often have a hard time reading them against the backdrop of moving figures) but if someone is a true lover of film you figure it out. Plus, American movies are sooooooooo stale lately to the point everything is a rip off of something else (usually in the horror genre, and usually ripping off a Japanese or Korean film).
Some of us actually do follow international media. I’ve watched The Handmaiden and my friends watch dramas from various countries.
I still have a problem with this casting. But I’m not their audience so.
OMG. I mostly watch foreign FILMS, being foreign and all, and practically all the Asian films I watch have Asian actors, directors, producers, are made in mandarin/japanese/korean/etc. languages, etc… Stop projecting your bigotries, please.
I think the white savior motif is undeniably there and it’s unfortunate, but it’s not as if having a Chinese lead would have saved it from being an epic failure of a movie. Aliens at the Great Wall is just… never going to work. Matt Damon is an idiot to take part for more than one reason.
Incidentally I am a huge fan of “international” films, and try to stay abreast of Chinese, Korean and Japanese film within my genre interests (and if I hear something is outstanding/different/interesting, outside of them too). Since it’s a thread about Chinese film I won’t go into the many other countries that aren’t predominantly english speaking and produce incredible films, but I’d like to!
I noticed someone upthread mentioning J- and K-Horror – do yourself a favour and investigate Norwegian and French horror if you haven’t already. Lots of amazing, psychological stuff with striking imagery.
well, i’m someone who complained and i’m someone who watches foreign films. Last year, I probably saw over twenty foreign films, including the handmaiden. you really can’t compare the handmaiden to The Great Wall though. Was the handmaiden even a wide release? I don’t recall seeing a commercial for it on tv at all and I’ve seen the commercial for the great wall plenty of times.
It was a passion project by a white guy, written and produced by several white guys which originally had a white director attached (the same guy who made last samurai)- only after he left they hired a Chinese director, maybe because people were already criticising them for “white guys make movie about Great Wall”. Read this article and tell me if it still sounds like a Chinese movie….
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Edward-Zwick-Longer-Build-Great-Wall-33127.html
Thank you. I was about to say the same thing. People keep trying to pretend that the Chinese producers had full control of this project. Like you said, it was co-produced by an American company, written by an American screenwriter, and was originally supposed to be directed by an American director. The movie was made to appeal to a western audience. Yet some folks want to make it sound like this was solely a Chinese creation and Americans have no right to be offended by it.
Well, there you have it. Chinese film, Chinese director, set in China. But needs a white dude to appeal to Americans? Which Americans??? I think filmmakers and studios are just lazy and don’t know their audience. They haven’t tried to sell a movie without the obligatory white lead.
I saw the trailer for Gost in the Shell last night and frankly, it’s unsettling to see Scarlett Johansson play that character. She looks so out of place, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. ALL I could think was “Girl, you’re white. What are you doing?”
So if Tony Leung or Huang Xiaoming were the leads do you think people would care about this movie? China has released a bunch of blockbusters in the same line of The Great Wall and they are always ignored in the US. The Mermaid from Stephen Chow was a huge hit and was released only in 40 theaters in the US. Why? Because the audience isnt there, nobody cared about a fantasy movie about a mermaid with foreing actors. So what they had to do to appeal americans? Hired someone like Matt Damon to cause buzz because if wasn’t like that I would be ignored like always.
@ Catherine I agree with you 100%.
i actually saw the mermaid and thought it was hilarious
Let alone in other countries besides the USA.
I live in other country and the cinemas here in my medium size city , most of the time only show American movies, then some of our national movies.
Besides those, there is like a week a year where they show french movies and very , very few, rarely actually, movies in other languages.
We do have a film festival, but it is only one or two weeks out of the year and many working people cannot watch everything tightly packed in so short the time.
I recently saw a light romance movie in my language that had a “white” savior, for calling it a name. It was a movie about immigrants in the USA, and the movie was filmed in a bilingual format.
If this is true, then why isn’t he explaining it in this fashion?
The best points on this were made by Greenieweenie and a few others on a post back in August:
http://www.celebitchy.com/497352/constance_wu_is_really_mad_that_matt_damon_is_the_star_of_the_great_wall/
I’d suggest reading the entire thread for expansive discussion of the points.
The understanding I took from this was that the film is not whitewashed from a Chinese perspective and since it’s a Chinese film, that’s fine and it’s not a whitewashed film. However, from the ethnocentric American perspective, it appears to be whitewashed and may be received less well because of it.
Conclusions? The Chinese industry might want to rethink the best way to get a chunk of the US market cos accidentally reproducing whitewashing tropes probably ain’t it. The American public might like to consider that how it is stateside isn’t how it is everywhere and try not to judge everything by ethnocentric standards.
This is it basically. The Chinese film industry wants to start being a bigger presence internationally and awkward as this looks to us, this is how they’ve chosen to go about it. Read a whole article about this a month or so ago, in the New York Times I think.
I remember reading an article about how uptight they were in China that no one there had come up with the first Kung Fu Panda film themselves. Either NY Times or Washington Post covered it at the time. It piqued the Chinese government/film industry that the west did such a well made and successful film using their culture, etc. But then the article pointed out that the reason they didn’t come up with such an idea for a film is BECAUSE of the way the government meddles in everything and censors everything.
Reposting my comment here because while I love celebitchy for its feminism, there isn’t a lot of clear discussion of race:
Most people in China probably think a story about a white person saving Chinese people isn’t a big deal, because they don’t live as minorities in a country where the majority may treat them as props / take away their job opportunities. They are neither commonly racially stereotyped by others in their country nor undervalued in certain industries because of their race. To them, it’s just another movie, and to Chinese movie studios, it will bring in the dough by breaking into the U.S. audience. Since this movie is being released in the U.S. as well as China though, Chinese Americans are affected by this narrative and do think it’s a big deal. We are Americans pointing out a problem that affects us in America.
Matt damon has really gone down in my estimation. If he’s not being oblivious to diversty issues? he’s too busy kissing clooney & pitt’s ass a little too much. These last couple of years have shown these rich white actors that i liked have shown their true colours & my respect for them has all but gone.
YEEESSS FLAME BROIL HIS ASS LIKE ITS BURGER KING PATTIES!!! YES GODS YES!!!
This happens every year. Every year a big name actor or actress gets attached to a white washed film that flops horribly because people are sick of white washing *cough* gods of egypt* cough* and they get rightfully dragged for it. So why do they keep taking this roles? No one is handing out Oscars for The Great Wall. This isnt some meaty role that will define your career in a positive way, so why take it knowing that people will boycott the movie and probably you. Its baffling.
Right? Why do they still think a white dude will guarantee a box office success? It’s obviously not working.
Everything is so overdone. Remakes, sequels etc. When you put a POC or a woman as the lead (although I am not a huge fan of all women remakes, it feels like pandering) it comes off as refreshing and different and it stands out. Hidden Figures and Loving are examples of these beautiful rarely told stories that people want to hear about and pull us out of these movie ruts. Even Arrival felt fresh and different among all the sci-fi movies lately. I think when they put a genuine effort into doing something different, its successful. So the argument that only white men sell is flawed.
It is amazing that they keep trying, despite so much backlash. The Christian Bale Moses one was the same thing. These studios are clinging to 1950s era ideas about what audiences will go see, despite growing evidence to the contrary.
Got mad when I saw the headline but changed my mind when i read the post.
Finally asian people!
I applaud the asian twitters for their nice and polite tweets as I know that it would have been different if the twitters were black cause we got over the white man looong time ago.
Anyways thanks for a good laugh 🙂
Love these tweets!
Ditto!
They’re not funny and i’m pretty sure no here would go and see this movie if it was a fully asian cast, how many people here saw the handmaiden?
“They’re not funny and i’m pretty sure no here would go and see this movie if it was a fully asian cast,”
Well it’s not a full Asian cast and I’m still not going to see it. As for Handmaiden was it a wide release in America? Was it released in just about every US theater like The Martian was?Was it promoted by Hollywood like they do with films such as The Martian? If the answer is no, then there’s your answer right there.
I did. I’ve been watching and loving movies from other cultures since I was knee high. My local tv station used to feature kung-fu movies all the time on Saturday afternoons. They were badly dubbed but didn’t stop me or a bunch of other people I know from enjoying them. I’m also one of those people who don’t have a problem reading subtitles.
Curse of the Golden Flower is one of my favourite movies of all time.
“My local tv station used to feature kung-fu movies all the time on Saturday afternoons. They were badly dubbed but didn’t stop me or a bunch of other people I know from enjoying them.”
I used to love watching those movies. That’s how I discovered Jet Li`
Okay? Me too. In the weird hours of the day on the weekend our local station would play foreign movies or ones that were heavily ethnocentric. Many of them subtitled. Not all of us lived under rocks.
“The Handmaiden” is not a comparable movie. It is Rated R, which is definitely going to reach a smaller audience in the first place than a PG-13 blockbuster. Kids can’t see the movie. Parents won’t bring their kids. It is a lesbian erotic thriller. That’s going to slice even your R-going audience in half, if not slash it down to 1/4 of normal audience. Third, “The Handmaiden” was not a big-budget movie. It was not marketed for a wide audience. And, finally, there is a giant problem with American movie-going culture, in that audiences don’t like to read, for some strange reason. The general American movie-goer cannot deal with subtitles. So there’s your reasons for why it doesn’t work as comparison.
There are a few points on this thread about how this film needed a recognizable white dude to sell in Western countries (e.g. North American markets + Europe + probably Latin America). This may be valid in some cases, but actually it was not in this case. In fact, there are enough movies that break this tradition and SUCCEED that make it an odd thing to continue to try to use this argument. What the rest of us are trying to say is, let’s break away from this oppressive pattern of casting a white person or inserting an illogical white character to sell a movie. It’s not necessary. Let me give you a few examples.
1) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
This is the most successful foreign film of all time, beating even well-known foreign films like “Amelie” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” It grossed over twice what the next biggest foreign film (“Life is Beautiful”) made. Still. It came out in 2000. Seventeen years ago. It grossed $128 million in North America in 2000, which, after inflation, means it grossed almost $181 million if calculated according to today’s dollar. That’s really f***ing impressive numbers, by anyone’s standards. Now, that’s just domestically. It grosses nearly $86 million worldwide, bringing the total box office gross to $214 million on a budget of $17 million. And that was before China’s market exploded in the last decade. This movie was completely in Chinese, Chinese cast, Chinese crew, relatively low-budget. And yet it did incredibly well. As I mentioned before, American audiences generally tend to dislike reading subtitles. Yet, seventeen years ago, they proved they would and could for the right movie. “The Great Wall” is clearly not a great movie. So we should do better. CTHD proves that you don’t need a well-known cast to sell a movie in the States. Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chow Yun-Fat were all unknown in the U.S. prior to this release. But they became stars as a result of this movie.
2) Memoirs of a Geisha
Though a Hollywood production based on a book by a white guy, this cast was all Asian. There was some (legitimate) controversy over casting a bunch of Chinese actors in Japanese roles, but it was still all-Asian. This came out in 2005. and grosses a total of $163 million on a budget of $85 million. While not a smash hit, it still did well. Surprisingly well. It was sold on the face of an Asian actor (Zhang Ziyi). So, again, no white dude necessary.
3) Hero (2004)
4) Kung Fu Hustle (2005)
The fact that these movies came out years ago shows that Hollywood has been turning away from diverse movies. It’s a saddening trend.
This is matter of cowardice vs. bravery. It is not strictly numbers and “just business” because numerous movies disprove those theories. The studios need to respond to this accordingly.
I am Korean-American. Simply seeing the explosion in popularity of Korean dramas, Taiwanese dramas, Japanese dramas, Chinese dramas proves to me the audience is there. They will go see faces that are different than their own. In Latin America, in the Middle East, in Europe, in the States. It doesn’t need to be a big-budget blockbuster. It just need to be the right movie. We just want fairer representation.
Though it didn’t make a huge amount of money I enjoyed “The Joy Luck Club”. It was called one of the best films of 1993.
I love all the movies you mentioned AND Life is Beautiful is one of my favorite movies overall (and i sob every time I watch it)
Netflix is doing a superb job in this regard, they really are pushing for diversity in all types of their offerings, it’s amazing and long overdue for mainsteam media.
Personally I love Terrace House :’D and I’ve got so many of the Asian cooking programs and dramas on my list to watch.
Suzanne, girl, please tell us you are being paid to shill this film. It is ok, we won’t tell anyone…
I did and lol, curious why you’re using that particular movie as an example. I’m sure that there are dozens of people who posted here who would, will and do watch films with entirely Chinese (or Thai, or Korean or Japanese ect) casts. Not every person from predominantly english-speaking countries is allergic to subtitles and languages other than english.
I saw the Handmaiden. Good arthouse movie. a bit gratuitous but much more interesting than most American films I’ve seen.
This is hilarious! Made my morning *claps* 😂
i really thought that after the 70’s that movie studios WOULD KNOW dont do black, brown, bronze, yellow, red face….. and also take over their stories… then Matt damon, scarjo and the like come splashing out like WE TAKING THIS ISH TO 2017 and beyond….jeez ugh
The reality of life in capitalism is that white actors bring the money…only a few black actors that you can count with one hand bring money. If latinos and asians will bring the big bucks we would have that. But is us as a society who are guilty of such… if there isnt a big name we dont go. How many people have gone to see 13? ??? It is all a numbers game and we all should be looking at ourselves in the mirror for such a low display of different HUMAN BEINGS in the movies
This was a Chinese movie made with Chinese money, for Chinese people in China. Chinese people in China see Chinese actors in Chinese films all the time. I imagine for them, seeing an international star like Damon in one of their films is big. What I find patronizing is Americans are telling Chinese people how they are supposed to feel about their own film industry.
Really? I doubt the Chinese people are supportive of this. They don’t get a choice in picking the actors. The only choice they have is to not go see it. You really think they would choose to have a white American actor play the hero and sweep in to save China. Right. Now that it is the epitome of patronizing.
I do not speak Chinese, but I’ve read that Tom Cruise is still a star over there, so… Maybe a survey would do tell us for real.
Here is an article from and an actor who is China-based.
http://www.dailyactor.com/acting-advice-columns/acting-in-china/
Have you ever talked to someone that lives in China? No only they are supportive but they love white actors, they love Hollywood and guess what, they like diversity!
Please, the reason why Chinese Americans/Asian Americans trended #thankyoumattdamon is because this movie uses an old narrative that has constantly been used to deny Asian Americans cinematic jobs in their own country since the days of Anna May Wong and The Good Earth. (Studios said she was too Chinese to play the Chinese female lead part, and instead offered her the part of the villain.) Historically in the U.S., leading roles simply don’t cast for Asian Americans, because studios don’t believe the choice would resonate with their audiences. Furthermore, because there are so few Asian Americans as part of the writing/directing team, a lot of stories that get filmed end up treating the Asian characters as props. For Chinese Americans / Asian Americans, who do get treated as props by their peers (see minorities in any country), this is a problem. The Great Wall is seeing an American release no matter which country funded / created it. We are part of the consumer base. We have a right to criticize it.
I agree that most people in China probably think a story about a white person saving Chinese people isn’t a big deal, because they don’t live as minorities in a country where the majority may treat them as props / take away their job opportunities. They are neither commonly racially stereotyped by others in their country nor undervalued in certain industries because of their race. To them, it’s just another movie, and to Chinese movie studios, it will bring in the dough by breaking into the U.S. audience. To be sure, China has faced its own problems with imperialism. But institutional racism isn’t something that Chinese people deal with in China. That’s why it’s not Chinese people critiquing this movie; it’s us, Americans who are telling other Americans how we feel.
Ugh as soon as I saw the trailer with Matt Damon in it I rolled my eyes. Not only does the premise sound stupid, never mind the cast being mostly all Asian (I doubt I would see it with Matt’s role being recast with an Asian actor) but Matt just looked so historically out of place. Yes I know Westerners did go to China back in the day but the whole idea for the movie is just silly. But from trailers it just does look like another white savior movie which I’m not interested in seeing.
I don’t rate the controversy with The Last Samurai anywhere close to this. For me TLS was not about Tom Cruise ‘saving’ anybody, he only served as an effective voice on behalf of the marginalized groups because of the upcoming trade/military advancement between Japan and the US so he has the advantage of being a foreigner and harder to attack. The ‘Last Samurai’ is not meant to be him specifically but the last remaining of that group of skilled and honorable fighters, yes he fights alongside them but it isn’t about him, it’s about the esteemed (by all sides) leader of the Samurai at that time and how TC learns, heals and grows as a person from knowing more about their life and culture. He doesn’t teach them anything (that I remember), he is the student.
I do love this movie, if you couldn’t guess. I think overall it is very respectful and impactful, the marketing puts him front & center but that’s to be expected since they think it’ll do better with a white guy on the poster, that’s the only alignment with this Matt Damon film for me.
I’m glad someone actually watched The Last Samurai!
The Last Samurai does not refer to Tom Cruise’s character but to Ken Watanabe’s character.
Remember that epic movie John Cusack and Adrian Brody did with Jackie Chan, Dragon Blade? That did well in China. Not a white savior flick by any means but it left a bad taste in our mouth. I understand Cusack and Brody taking the jobs as their role offers are drying up but Matt Damon? A certified blockbuster A-lister. I understand Nic Cage going for it but Matt?
I found this:
http://www.businessinsider.com/american-actors-who-are-huge-stars-overseas-2015-3
Sometimes people get a love in weird places. Something clicks with the audience, who knows?
I am no expert, but I have read that the way many Asian people think, it is not the same way as what Asian-Americans do. Maybe part of the controversy relates to that?
You know, I understand the whole white savior thing bothering people but this movie was made for the chinese market, by mostly chinese producers and guess what. People in China (and Japan) don’t necessarily share the views of americans about it. They wanted a white actor. They like the integration. This movie is a huge example of how americans (and by that I also mean immigrants/children of immigrants raised in the US) believe that their issues and ideas are shared by the world. I feel like everyone complaining and giving opinions in social media have never set foot in one of those countries.
I don’t hate Matt Damon, but he’s so smug. He deserves this twitter dragging so very much.
Hilarious tweets! My god…that made my day!
Matt Damon has become a bigger a-hole through the years. His wife is a meanie and a big time social climber.
Being a social climber = marrying a successful actor when you had a modest job?
How is she a social climber and how is that a bad thing? I understand that being a gold digger doing what Seinfeld’s wife did is awful, and but Damon and his wife seem OK to me. He has a lot of flaws, but his wife is low-key-ish.
I am Latin and I have read ugly comments regarding Luciana Barroso saying that she is ugly, in contrast to comments in English-speaking sites, where many commend her relatable beauty. Maybe it is a sign of colorist , her being Argentinian (I think) and not looking “European”, she has even being called AWFUL names. That, to me is coming from a place of jealousy.
(I’m not the same Ana as above) She’s not a social climber, she’s pretty lovely and they seem to have a very nice marriage. I’ve never seen her giving tons of interviews and trying to piggy back on his husband’s fame. I agree with Ennie.
Y’all, watch Train to Busan instead. It’s not Chinese but no white savior and it’s excellent.
I don’t tend to watch Chinese produced or collaborated movies or shows because if human right issues. Although I did buckle for Wallace Huo….and it was worth it! ;P