tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30487573.post772961765184373324..comments2024-03-28T16:47:27.333-05:00Comments on Acidemic - Film: Skeeved by an Asian: THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN, SHANGHAI EXPRESS, BROKEN BLOSSOMS, DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON, FU MANCHU, etc.Erich Kuerstenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02850572368098319317noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30487573.post-5937929379636498552012-12-11T13:56:40.295-05:002012-12-11T13:56:40.295-05:00Thanks Samuel - it's true, and back in the day...Thanks Samuel - it's true, and back in the day of pulps and pre-codes 'the Orient' seemed a lot farther away, while meanwhile Chinatowns were right there in all the major cities, full of Tong wars, opium dens, evil Chinese masterminds bent on world domination, and the mix of graceful sadomasochistic women and Tong thugs that a figure like the Shadow could freely blast to ribbons with his twin .45s... never worrying he was offing someone who might be missed: "In the East, where life is cheap." - As Oland's general puts it in Shanghai Express - "you are in China now, sir, where time and life have no value." Erich Kuerstenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02850572368098319317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30487573.post-87461605925324130232012-12-10T12:30:41.834-05:002012-12-10T12:30:41.834-05:00Agree on everything here, Erich. The strangest, or...Agree on everything here, Erich. The strangest, or simply dumbest riff on these themes I've seen recently is <i>Son of the Gods</i> which exploits memories of <i>Broken Blossoms</i> by casting Barthelmess -- without makeup for the eventually revealed reason (ugh!) that he's an adopted white boy -- as someone ostracized by society because he's a "Chinaman," even though he looks utterly un-Asian. But I suppose a film like that does the most to highlight the absurdity of race prejudice. I've been reading a lot of pulp and magazine fiction from the 30s lately and that obsession with China is all over the place -- oddly more so that you might expect now with the Chinese supposedly poised to dominate the world. But it's as you say: despite some propaganda the Chinese of 2012 are less "Other" and obviously less forbidden than the Chinese of 80 years earlier, and it's a less exotic world overall when the Asian phenomenon of the moment is Gangnam Style!Samuel Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00934870299522899944noreply@blogger.com