Anthony Phommavongsasy

FLM 1070 511

Research Paper

Asian Americans in film were merely supporting roles or just extras for background,

often in film it was a non-Asian actor who would put on “yellowface” play as an Asian character.

Even when someone of Asian descent would audition for and Asian lead role, they would instead

be given a supporting role, and a non-Asian would receive the leading role. Even as Asian-

Americans began to appear in more films they were practically ignored, just like other groups

back then, they would be more in the background, were the villain, or even often killed off early

in the film. The treatment Asian-Americans received in the film industry and how they were

portrayed, especially after World War II where they were demonized, eventually pushed Asian

American actors and directors to produce more film casting more Asians and having better

representation.

Asian American representation in the film industry have progressed a lot, with directors

like Ang Lee, Wayne Wang, Justin Lin, Boon Joon-Ho, Jon M. Chu, and actors like Bruce Lee,

Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and so many more who have made their way up in the film industry, really

helped with the progression. Although there has been more representation of Asians in the film

industry, there is still more progress to be made. Even Jon M. Chu, with his recent success of

Crazy Rich Asians, he did not want it to just be a landmark in film history with all the main

actors being from Asian descent, he wanted to start a movement for greater Asian American

representation in Hollywood (Tseng). This is recent, for him to say that it just means there is

much more work to do. There just are not many films that actually portray Asian American lives,

rather there are more about the culture (Benshoff and Griffin).
 For this paper, I decided to watch the Rush Hour movies, I think it is one of the most

popular movies starring an Asian lead (Jackie Chan), and had many other Asians casted in it was

well. I wanted to talk about these films because of the Asian representations, even though they

are quite recent, there are still the original representations of Asians and how they are treated, in

the textbook it talks about how although Asian actors were on the rise, they were never the only

lead role, and in this case, it was both Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker who shared the lead roles, it

follows the “black and white buddy” system, except an Asian not white person. What I have

learned as well is that when “black and white buddy” is used it is sometimes used to try to divert

people’s attention from the racism and stereotypes shown; comedy was used as well to make the

racial remarks less offensive throughout the film as well.

What I noticed that there were some blaxploitation in the film, they made Inspector Lee

(Jackie Chan), for example in the first film, he was able to infiltrate a building that the FBI were

trying to use Carter (Chris Tucker) to keep him from reaching their building, but yet he still

manages to get there, infiltrate it, and beat up a bunch of FBI agents with ease, all with having

one hand handcuffed to a disconnected steering wheel. Another scene in that movie is when they

thought they located one of the villains in a building, but Inspector Lee tried to warn them that

it’s a trap, but they didn’t listen and the team that went inside the building ended up getting

caught in an explosion. These scenes defeat the whole “white patriarchal capitalism,” it makes

the white FBI agents look inferior, but it also makes sense that this was the case because of the

stereotype they have of Asians, especially a Charlie Chan Character, in film which is that they

have superior intellect and with blaxploitation has the audience empathize with Lee, who was

called to go over and help because of his position and relationship with the father and little girl.

Inspector Lee (Jackie) is not American born -which was also mentioned in the textbook

where it never showed someone from America- so you don’t get to see that Asian American life,
which is what is still lacking in the film industry, but what you do see is their culture especially

in the second film where they are in Hong Kong, which seems to be what people are more

interested in.

Originally, I had picked this movie because of the Asian leads and the appearance of

many Asians in it as well, thinking that it would have better Asian American representation,

don’t get me wrong I loved and enjoyed the movie, the action and comedy were great, but after

learning everything in this class and re-watching the movies, I can see that there is still that lack

of and misrepresentation in the film industry. Films like Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Parasite

(2019) -technically a South Korean Film, but still relevant to the cause- both being very recent

and successful films with better representation of Asians and Asian Americans, will hopefully

start the movement to produce more films with Asian Americans, that don’t revolve around kung

fu, a Charlie Chan or Fu Manchu characters, there needs to be more films that don’t portray and

focus more on the Asian culture and should focus more on the life and story of that Asian.
 Resources

Tseng, Ada. “The Complex History of Asian Americans in Movies, from the Silent Era to 'Crazy

Rich Asians'.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Aug. 2018,

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/the-complex-history-of-asian-americans-in-

movies-from-the-silent-era-to-crazy-rich-asians/2018/08/08/77bc4176-9666-11e8-810c-

5fa705927d54_story.html.

Benshoff, Harry M., and Sean Griffin. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and

Sexuality at the Movies. Wiley Blackwell, 2020.