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Culture
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Monday, 13 August 2007 |
 Back in the mid-1980s Jackie Chan was coasting on a career high in Hong Kong, performing, producing and directing hit films. Hollywood caught the glint, came looking and made an offer. How about playing a villain? A drug-dealing, kung fu fighting oriental? Jackie said no, holding out for good-guy roles to please his fans.
In the early 90s, China's child prodigy and wushu champion - Jet Li – was a rising star with his ground-breaking Once Upon A Time in China movies winning worldwide attention. Knock, knock - Hollywood calling. Would you like to play a sinister, kung fu fighting, hard-nosed oriental villain? Jet, less established than Chan, said yes. And stole Lethal Weapon 4 from under Mel Gibson's nose.
Fast forward to 2007, and film icon Chow Yun Fat dons a scar and a long coat in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 as Sao Feng, scary pirate-lord of the seas. And in Die Hard 4.0, Vietnamese-Hawaiian actress and Hong Kong star Maggie Q kicks Bruce Willis’s ass as an evil Asian henchwoman.
Fat, Li and Q make good baddies. Fat’s a brilliant actor in any role; Li fights with a killer’s intensity; and Maggie Q – model-turned-actress – is wisely getting as much exposure as she can. So is the tendency to cast Asians as villains, which Jackie and Jet encountered, still a cause for concern? Not as much as some may think.
For a start, Jackie finally cracked it as a hero in America in Rush Hour. Jet too gets to fight himself as both hero and villain in The One. Yun Fat earned respect as the King of Siam opposite Jodie Foster. Even new girl Maggie Q got to be on Tom Cruise’s team in Mission Impossible: 3.
Jackie may have hated the idea of playing a bad guy, but he’s regularly included Chinese friends as villains in his western movies. Has he sold out? No. Jackie took the brunt of American ignorance and now he’s doing what he’s always done – east or west – bringing Chinese talent into mainstream roles.
In his day, there was little appreciation of Chinese artists’ skills. “Do you know karate? Can you break boards with your hands?”. This, in 1980, from US interviewers to Hong Kong’s most promising stuntman, star and director. Now, he ensures Chinese colleagues get to showcase their abilities, even as villains, in a less alien environment.
Look at superstar Karen Mok enjoying herself as the knife-throwing villainess in Jackie cartoonish Around the World in 80 Days. Zhang Ziyi got her first western break as the high-kicking bad girl in Rush Hour 2, paving the way for her more substantial role in Memoirs of a Geisha. And Donnie Yen unleashes his awesome moves to defeat Jackie in Shanghai Knights.
It was perhaps inevitable that physical performers with limited English should be offered villainous roles, where actions speak louder than words. But both Jackie and Jet Li were offered non-villainous parts in western movies as their English improved. And cross-over Asian hits – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Infernal Affairs, Hero – and cross-over Chinese directing talent (Yuen Woo Ping, John Woo, Zhang Yimou) have all created a more appreciative climate in the West for aspiring Asian performers.
So, while we may wince at Bruce Willis dismissing Maggie Q’s villainess as an ‘Asian bitch’ in Die Hard 4.0, it says more about Die Hard’s John McLane than it does about Asians in Hollywood. For young Chinese stars - like Nicholas Tse – who’ve yet to make a journey to the West, the future’s brighter than ever.
Glenn Watson
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