Slanted Screen

Adachi, J. (Producer/Writer/Director). (2006). The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film and Television [Motion picture]. United States: Asian American Media Mafia Productions.

Why watch this film

When you turn on the television or check out a film, why don’t you see as many Asian Americans on the screen as you see when you walk down the street of any major city in the United States? Slanted Screen interviews male Asian American actors and directors to explore the history of this problem and show how Asian Americans in Hollywood are challenging the status quo.

Summary

Jeff Adachi divides Slanted Screen, his analysis of portrayals of Asian American men in film and television in the United States, into three sections. The first reviews the few significant accomplishments allowed Asian American actors from the beginning of the film industry, when Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa was a popular leading man in silent films, through the Bruce Lee period in the 1970s. The second section points out that these successes were the exception, and that most portrayals of Asian American men pandered to mainstream stereotypes of evil and/or de-sexualized male Asian American characters. In the earlier days white actors in yellow face often played these roles, as in the Fu Man Chu movies, but even as recently as Romeo Must Die (2000), the male Asian lead (Jet Li) did not get to kiss the heroine at the end, even though the movie was a take-off on Romeo and Juliet. The Asian American actors and directors who Adachi interviews in this section connect the de-sexualization of Asian American males to other historical efforts to marginalize Asian Americans socially, politically, and economically.

In the third section of the documentary, Adachi looks at efforts that transcend traditional stereotyping in films and television. First he notes films like Dante’s Peak (1997) and Torque21 Jump Street where Asian Americans actors played Asian Americans characters as they are in real life, without centralizing their ethnicity. Second, Adachi and the people he interviews focus on the importance of Asian Americans in the production and distribution of films that transcend existing stereotypes. Here Slanted Screen identifies Wayne Wang’s Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989), Chi Muoi Lo’s Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), and Gene Cajayon’s The Debut (2000) as examples of the kind of filmmaking that can change how both Asian Americans and other Americans think about Asian Americans in American society.

Critical evaluation

A major strength of Slanted Screen is the way in which Adachi relies almost exclusively on a large number of Asian American actors and directors to tell the story. Ranging from Mako, who was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor in Sand Pebbles (1966), to contemporary film and television star Will Yun Lee, we hear from their own experiences what it is like to work in Hollywood and how they feel about Hollywood’s portrayal of Asian American males. Slanted Screen also features numerous film clips to illustrate the interviewee’s points.

The section on stereotyping is especially well developed. Adachi has Darrell Hamamoto, a professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California-Davis, define stereotypes: “Stereotype is any kind of image that constricts or confines, or in some cases marginalizes a group of people. It’s a generalization that unfairly is used to characterize a certain group.” Other interviewees explain how stereotypes of evil and/or de-sexualized Asian American males connect to traditional fears that Asians will take over the country if they are not constrained. The actors and directors also talk about the dilemmas that Asian American actors face when the only work they can get reinforces the stereotypes rather than combats them.

The focus in the third section on transcending stereotypes is essential to the success of Slanted Screen. The examples of films and television series that present Asian Americans in non-stereotypical roles and the expanding role of Asian Americans in the production and distribution of films gives hope that the historical situation will not prevail indefinitely.

About the director/writer/producer

Jeff Adachi was born in Sacramento, California, in 1959. His parents and grandparents were interned in camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. Since 2002 Adachi has been the elected public defender for the city of San Francisco, overseeing an office of 90 lawyers and a budget of $17 million. Slanted Screen is his only film (Jeff Adachi, 2009).

Genre: Film, Asian American, Crossover

Curriculum ties

Slanted Screen is a good resource for literature or social studies classes that are studying the history of stereotypes, the role of the media in creating and perpetuating stereotypes, their effects on people, or strategies for challenging them.

Film-talking ideas

• Showing a clip of Sessue Hayakawa as a romantic lead who gets the (white) woman in the silent film era might pique students’ interest in why we don’t see Asian Americans as top male film stars today.

• Showing segments featuring Bruce Lee will attract the attention of fans of action movies.

• Showing segments featuring Will Yun Lee will attract the attention of those who have watched his recent television series.

Reading level/interest age

In terms of language and content the film is accessible to both middle school and high school students, especially Asian Americans, who would probably be happy to see a film that reflects their experience. The talking heads are balanced with clips from films, and the concept of stereotypes and how to resist them are topics that both middle school and high school students can easily relate to. It’s unfortunate that the film focuses only on males, but both genders are likely to find it interesting, even if in different ways.

Challenge issues

Although gender issues are central to the film, it includes only one bedroom scene, and it’s not particularly revealing. There is one violent sequence from a fight movie, and the f-word is used once. Race is also central to the film, of course, but it isn’t racist in its presentation of the issues. I don’t see anything in the film that would provoke a challenge (although I realize I’m not the best judge of such things).

Responses

• Remind the challenger of the policy (in the case of the San Francisco Public Library) to present “all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

Why I chose to watch this film

A high school teacher I work with asked me to find a film that deals with stereotypes about Asian American men, and this is what I found.

References

Jeff Adachi. (2009, August 8). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Adachi

The Slanted Screen. (2008). Retrieved November 10, 2009, from http://www.slantedscreen.com/