Forum - View topicNEWS: Hiro Mizushima to Star in Live-Action Black Butler Film
Goto page Previous 1, 2 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
Author | Message | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CrowLia
Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
|
|||||
These were my exact thoughts after reading it would br 130 years after the main story. I really have no idea of what the plot could be about. I wish they'd rather animate the Circus, Murder Mistery and Campania/Zombies arcs, rather than make some weird live action with a setting that automatically rules out half of the cast -though arguably, all the Shinigamis including spoiler[Undertaker] would still be around |
||||||
crosswithyou
Posts: 2892 Location: California |
|
|||||
Well I suppose if they made it a continuation of how Kuroshitsuji II ended then maaaaaaybe Ciel would be around. |
||||||
CrowLia
Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
|
|||||
Good point, I hadn't considered that. Kuro II was so bad I blocked most of it from my memory, I really wish they'd go to the manga for ideas
|
||||||
enurtsol
Posts: 14779 |
|
|||||
Not nearly as much as minorities in America, but there's enough in Japan, both white and black. I've met some, mainly in the commercial ad industry. Enough to support a few --not many but a few-- projects at a time. The world is becoming smaller, and Japan too is becoming more metropolitan, particularly in big cities. Their industry is just not trying enough, same as how Hollywood is sometimes lazy with minorities. |
||||||
mdo7
Posts: 6268 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
|
|||||
If the production knew the casts of Black Butler is non-Asian, then why don't they team up with a western studio like Hollywood or work with a English studio to make the film instead of doing yellowashing. I've seen Japan did it with G-Saviour despite Gundam not popular in NA. Also I seen Japan-western doing collaboration like Toho's Latitude Zero had both western and Japanese actor working together: The Green Slime was another JPN-Hollywood collaboration I could say the same for The Manster, another Japanese-Hollywood collaboration. You see, they didn't have to do yellowashing, they could've worked with a western studio to pull this off. That was the problem with the live-action Negima, Negi should've been played by a western child actor, I could say the same for Asuna.
That is true, I forgot to mention when somebody talked about Thermae Romae casting Japanese actors as Roman, he also said the live-action had also many non-Asian actors as Roman, so I assume these non-Asian actors in the live-action Thermae Romae may have some fluency in Japanese, so why didn't they cast them as the leading characters, would've been better then Yellowashing. Also we had a caucasian actor in Godzilla: Final wars (Don Frye) and I remember several non-Asian actors that can speak Japanese in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, it's not that hard to cast white actors in Japan as Roman. If they can't speak Japanese, then dub them over at least it'll look convincing (watching the American dude in Godzilla Final Wars talking to a Japanese person in English, then the Japanese person that he talking to spoke back to him in Japanese makes me cringe and facepalm and is the reason why I watch Godzilla Final Wars in English dub then Japanese), it work for Invasion of Astro Monster aka Godzilla vs Monster Zero when Nick Adam's characters is interacting with Japanese characters when Nick himself doesn't speak a lick of Japanese. Yes, in the Japanese language version that wasn't his voice when his character spoke Japanese, he was dubbed over. Nick Adam also appear in Frankenstein vs Baragon aka Frankenstein conquer the world and he got dubbed over for the Japanese language version. Casting a white actor in Black Butler and dubbing over them if they can't speak a lick of Japanese would've been better then casting a Asian as a British butler. |
||||||
ScrambleBuster
Posts: 15 Location: Japan |
|
|||||
This isn't the first time Mizushima Hiro's played a butler. Live-Action Mei's Butler (Mei no Shitsuji) anyone? http://asianwiki.com/Mei's_Butler
Going to get flamed for this probably, but Hollywood has a huge history of yellowfacing and stereotyping us Asians as 'foreign' (even if we are American-Born, they still do that to us), not to mention despite that there are plenty of us that they could hire for movies, they choose not to. They believe that we are not 'marketable' to them at all, yet they only hire us Asian women to fill in the roles, but not the guys. Since I don't know too much about how Japan works (unless I am working in said entertainment industry), I assume it's the same reason the US always puts their white actors in the spotlight always, and POC in the background and call it 'diverse.' Also, I wonder why do people think it's weird for Asians to have English names? There are a lot of us born in western countries that have them. Not all of us run around with Asian names, ya know. |
||||||
EmbraceMe
Posts: 2015 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
|
|||||
Ah, the "Perpetual Foreigner" syndrome. . . I hate to sound bitter and appear pro-Asian but what you say is quite true. There's a lack of Asian[-American] male icons in the movie industry in the U.S. and the ones we have causes a lot of stereotypes; with Jackie Chan and Jet Li as the prominent figures, I often -- and many of my male Asian friends/kin -- get remarks about whether we know martial arts or not. When I answer no, I get replies such as "Oh, but Jackie Chan/Jet Li/Bruce LI know martial arts. Surely you do, too." It's frustrating but I manage to ignore those comments. There are other negative Asian/Asian-American stereotypes in Western movies such as the "Fu Manchu" and for women, the biggest are the "Dragon Lady" and "China Doll (Lotus Blossom)". Lucy Liu plays many Dragon Lady roles and the Asian community are unsure as to whether her role is blessing or a curse; there's a lack of Asian figures in the Western movie industry but Lucy Liu's roles are questionable. ____ Anyways, I haven't seen any roles of Hiro Mizushima besides his Kamen Rider Kabuto role so this is interesting news to me. I absolutely loved his role as Tendou Souji and I found his acting to be superb in it. I may watch this Black Butler movie sometime but I wasn't interested in the anime so it'll depend on my mood and craving for live action films. |
||||||
Snomaster1
Subscriber
Posts: 2813 |
|
|||||
I've got a good idea for this. Why don't the Japanese go into production with the Brits? It's a good idea. The Japanese can work behind the scenes while the British actors do their thing. I also think that David Tennant would make a good Sebastian Michaels. A Japanese-UK co-production of "Black Butler" would be a fine idea. I think it could work.
|
||||||
oblivious247
Posts: 242 |
|
|||||
I've seen a handful of Mizushima's dramas and the man is certainly a good actor. It's nice to see him make a return. Unfortunately I can't stand Black Butler.
|
||||||
mdo7
Posts: 6268 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
|
|||||
Yes, I'm aware of those, seeing Katharine Hepburn playing a Chinese person in Dragon Seed looks somewhat strange and she doesn't look 1//4 Asian when she appear on film (Dragon Seed is one of the few film I would love to see China/HK could remake since Asia has been remaking American films for the last few years). It's sad but it has changed thanks to people watching Asian films and starting to accept Asian American actors on film, I know some still exist but not as much. Also as I mention, Japan casting Asian as non-Asian character is not that new, beside Black Butler, they did this for Thermae Romae.
That's what I said on my post, Japan had done collaboration with other countries and I don't understand why they didn't team up with UK to make this, Japan team up with Canada and US to make G-Saviour despite Gundam not super-popular in NA. |
||||||
TarsTarkas
Posts: 5842 Location: Virginia, United States |
|
|||||
Think it could be safely said, that Japan does the same thing as Hollywood for much the same reasons.
In the end the only deciding factor is money. If Hollywood thought they could make more money using Asian-American actors they would. And if Japan thought they could make more money using British actors they would. We can complain all we want but the final calculus is profit. The best hope to change thinking like this is the Indies, where profit is still important, but the producers and creators have a bit more freedom in what they put out. Personally, I don't think it is Hollywood that has to change, but rather the audience. If the audience thought this is an important issue, then there would be a corresponding paradigm shift in what actually makes more money. As to Asian actors playing roles considered stereotypical. Actors have to make a living too, and just like other industries, sometimes you have to do jobs you don't like. |
||||||
mdo7
Posts: 6268 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
|
|||||
Exactly, that's how I like to put it. Also my only complaint is hypocrisy, people attack Hollywood for whitewash and not casting Asian American actors, but not complaint when other countries does something similar like Japan did it for Black Butler and Thermae Romae, nobody in US that bash Hollywood for whitewash has ever attack Japan for doing something similar, Japan has done this before. After reading this, now I laugh at the people that called casting white people in Akira whitewash have not went after this. |
||||||
DomonX2
Posts: 232 Location: Neo Toronto, Neo Canada |
|
|||||
You're actually half right you know. It's just as bad as Heimdall being a black man in Thor, despite being the "whitest of all Gods" which is an obvious contradiction. Then again, Heimdall isn't exactly a human, so anyone with competency in acting can do him well. Same with Goku from DB, even though Goku lacks a specific ethnic origin and it doesn't actually matter if Goku is white, as long as the actor who played him could act worth a darn. It's too bad Chatwin did not know how to do that. Also, you have to keep in mind Japan is 98%+ ethnically homogeneous. When I was a child in Japan, I never saw a black person, white person or Arab once. Not ONCE. You'd be lucky to see visible minorities like Chinese and Koreans, if you're in many parts of Japan. I don't really care about how Asian-Americans are treated by Hollywood or America general, since I'm not an Asian-American, but a lot claiming Hollywood is "racist" because of things like DBE, even though Goku's not even a human and that movie with Mr. Yunioshi is pretty stupid. Americans of Asian descent need to stop being so sensitive. Even though American stereotypes of Asians isn't particularly praised in Japan, they didn't whine over Mr. Yunioshi did they? It's not offensive, but it's funny and is NOT meant to be quote unquote offensive. Maybe I feel like this, because I wasn't born in the USA or even the west and was raised by my parents not to be so sensitive and be hardy, but goddamn it, I was still raised in the West and you don't see me crying over it. Why do most Asians of Western Nationality get so upset, when people mock Asians, even for a joke? This is why political correctness is wrong! |
||||||
mdo7
Posts: 6268 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
|
|||||
I agreed with you, I also don't like political correctness (only in some certain situation, political correctness is acceptable). But my only concern is hypocrisy, I don't see people that bash Hollywood for white wash go after Japan for doing something similar. This is just like how people in US bash Hollywood for remaking Asian films, but yet don't go after Asia for remaking American films, that's the power of hypocrisy and pro-Asian bias and agenda. |
||||||
poonk
Posts: 1490 Location: In the Library with Philip |
|
|||||
|
||||||
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
||
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group