Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Featured Films is a 2007 American
documentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
directed by Academy Award-nominated director
Arthur DongArthur Dong is an Academy Award-nominated American documentary filmmaker. His work combines the art of the visual medium with an investigation of social issues, examining topics such as Asian American history and identity, and gay oppression...
.
From early films like the 1900's
Beheading the Chinese PrisonerBeheading the Chinese Prisoner, also known as Beheading a Chinese Prisoner, was a 1900 silent film produced by Siegmund Lubin. The 42-second-long film, which was inspired by news reports of the Boxer Rebellion, was produced on the roof of the Lubin Studios building in Philadelphia.It is considered...
to Ang Lee's triumphant
Brokeback MountainBrokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
in 2005, Dong utilizes clips of more than 100 films and interviews of prominent Chinese Americans to create a thorough overview on the depiction of Chinese in mainstream Hollywood films. He hits many major points such as white performers who portray Asians in both
The Good EarthThe Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, it was an influential factor in Buck winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938...
and
Fu ManchuDr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
series,
Nancy KwanNancy "Ka Shen" Kwan is a Eurasian-American actress, who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian descent in major Hollywood film roles...
's roles in
The World of Suzie WongThe World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British-American romantic drama film directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn, which was based on the novel of the same title by Richard Mason...
,
Bruce LeeBruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
and the emergence of
martial artsMartial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
films and
Justin LinJustin Lin is a Taiwanese American film director, best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious franchise and the television show, Community.-Life and career:...
's take on his film
Better Luck TomorrowBetter Luck Tomorrow is a 2002 crime-drama film directed by Justin Lin. The movie is about Asian American overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime and material excess...
. People interviewed include Christopher Lee, Wayne Wang,
James HongJames Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...
, Nancy Kwan,
Luise RainerLuise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
,
Amy TanAmy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...
and B. D. Wong. Dong also spends time talking about his discovery of two reels of the 1916-17 silent film
The Curse of Quon GwonThe Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles with the West is a 1916-1917 black-and-white silent film. It was apparently never released and long thought lost. It was restored in 2006 by the Academy Film Archive from the two reels helped preserved by filmmaker Arthur Dong. As of 2007, it is the...
, which is considered to be the first feature film made by an Asian American.
The documentary was also broadcast on
PBSThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
on May 27, 2009.
Reviews
The film currently holds 100% on the tomatometer on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, but is listed as "No consensus yet" since there is only a small number of reviews.
Awards and honors
- 2007 Golden Horse Film Awards: Best Documentary
- Henry Hampton Awards winner
- Official selection, Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
- Special presentation, AFI Fest, Los Angeles
External links