Ok, so I watched the new Ghost in the Shell 2017 movie. A film by Rupert Stiltskin. And surprise! It didn't completely suck... Well it wasn't good either, which is worse in my opinion: a train-wreck is always memorable.
What was the main problem?... Well, the script...
Whatever: the movie is so dull is not even worth to talk about it. What is really interesting - at least to me - is the whole whitewashing controversy the casting of Scarlet Johansson created.
Yeah, for the leading role -who supposedly should be Asian- they cast a White Caucasian.
Now. Why did they Whitewash the movie?
Well, the number one market for Hollywood has always been the States; and the American society (you need to hear this) is racist as fuck. The country is great and all, it has some great institutions (backed up by even greater people), it is the land of the free (all that shit is real),
But I'm not making like a great sociological discovery here when saying they have racial issues. You see it on the news every fucking day, they voted for Trump for God'sake, the man who's main proposal was to build a wall to keep those rapist Mexicans out
(Well... they voted for Obama too, true)
The second market in interest is what they call "the world", it basically represents all of us, the rest (the scrapyards of society... like a Battle Angel Alita thing)...
Yeah in the mind of a racist that makes perfect sense, you know, to generalize all of us, different countries and cultures, even different colors under one term: World. You don't care what you feed to the World a.k.a. the pigs, cause pigs are filthy animals, and so they would eat whatever shit you feed them... That is the mentality.
You only need to be careful with your own audience, the main market, composed by White Supremacists in potency... I'm being too harsh here... I'm joking, they're not really white supremacist!!! (not all of them) but yeah they won't buy a ticket for a movie with an Asian lady in the lead (or Latino or a Black guy, or God prevents, an Arab!)
So it becomes like a... How do you call it? A self-fulfilling prophecy? (not sure that's the right term here, like it's close... m hmm)
They're afraid that if they lead with non-white people, the movie would flop, so the only roles non-whites get to lead are usually in B movies (let's call them not A Movies) or indies... and those movies are bad or they could be good, excellent, whatever, but not massive at the box office (cause they don't have the budget for the production itself, distribution, theaters, advertising, etc.)... Also, the people are not used having non-whites in the lead, so every 10 years or so when a studio or a producer are perhaps feeling a little adventurous and they take a chance with their protagonist, the movie of course doesn't do well.
And then I imagine the suits looking at the numbers and saying "Hey, I told you we shouldn't hire that fucking N..."
We'll never get to see a AAA lead by other than Ryan Gosling or Jennifer Cuntlawrence.
The best roles, the best scripts, and the greatest budgets are
reserved for beautiful people. People like THEM... sad but true: truth hurts.
But their logic is all wrong. Because you already have like a real fucking weird movie in your hands, right?
It is based on a freaking manga/anime: you can't get more weird than that! Mainstream audiences won't watch this unless is good (and receive good reviews) and even then, just maybe...
They worry about not scaring their Whitey-Mainstries, when they should REALLY worry about not pissing off these guys:
And these guys are sensitive (you can tell! Specially the one who's giving a drink to the pillow)
You know what I find funny? Like Rupert Stiltskin, Film auteur Rupert Stiltskin mind me; whom we know from classics like The Huntsman and Snow white or something, talking about Scarlet Johansson and saying:
"There are very few actresses with 20 years' experience who have the cyberpunk ethic already baked in. You know, she comes from such edgy films from Lost in Translation to Under the Skin
she’s got an incredible body of work and the attitude and toughness of her really is to me The Major. I stand by my decision—she's the best actress of her generation."
Who da fuck cares what you stand for?!!! You're not Martin Scorsese!, you are not Michael Mann, You are not even at Michael Bay levels, You are Rupert Stiltskin motherfucker! Learn your place!
The only reason we know you is because you were fucking Kirsten Stewardess.
Also, What is cyberpunk ethic? I think he was trying to say 'aesthetic' (I mean he's British. I'm not: I have that as an excuse for my misuse of the language), but in any case why in Hell Johansson has the Cyberpunk Aesthetic baked in?
She's blonde, white, green eyes, perfect teeth, 5 ft 3, thin beautiful body, perfect breast and ass. Did he even read like a Cyberpunk novel? or a comic book? Watch a Cyberpunk movie?
What in the name of Tetsuo's butt hole he meant by that?!!!
[Prediction: they'gonna adapt Akira and Leonardo DiCaprio (or similar) it's gonna play Kanedaaaaa!]
I miss the good old days of Hollywood with their open racism thing. At least there were honesty there: We are racist, yes! and fuck you if you don't like it.
At least Mickey Rooney didn't know better, he was raised a racist, and when he fucking made all his Jap guy imitations among his alcoholic bar pals, they though he was da shit funny. He didn't do it out of malice or absolute dumbness, just plain old ignorance. And he asked for forgiveness: yes, 40 years later but still...
Today the motherfuckers don't even admit they are being racist. You know, What...?... ah fuck what's her name?, I keep confounding her with Charlize Theron... Scarlett Johansson that's it, you know what that dumb bitch said? (yeah I'm a misogynist):
"I would never attempt to play a person of a different race, obviously" (in a promoting interview for Ghost in the Shell)
But you did!
She can't be that dumb! Her character in the movie is Asian, she lives in Hong Kong or something, she has an Asian mother! She likes Asian tea, She has an Asian name, Her fucking boss speaks to her in Japanese or Korean!
So in my opinion, what dear Scarlett Johansson meant by that is
'I would never use prosthetic s in my teeth, elongate my eyes or dye my skin yellow the way Mickey Rooney did cause that would be considered racist... But I have no issues in playing a character that used to be Asian (because she was yellow and had weird eyes) but now is in fact just a brain, which has no race, Dah!, inside a robotic body. Obviously!"
And call me whatever, but when a grown up woman tells you things like this, you can only roll your eyes and conclude that she's just a shallow dumb bitch!
You are full of shit lady. Fuck you, Fuck all of you. You all Whitewashed the film and you knew it.
Her performance is fine... But she's so White, right? And to hear the original name of the character: Motoko Kusanagi, paired with all that whiteness, Would be fucking distracting, right?
So, what was their solution? They re-name her
Mira Killian, an Irish surname (which was super fucking distracting to me, cause I kind of like the original anime film, so I know all of this) so I get the vibe of a fan service? M. K. you get it? YOU GET IT!!!! But, yeah, we all hate it.
But the worst part is that all this is just pointless, because for the majority of the movie all the characters in this world just call her "The Major", so they don't even use her fancy Irish name that much.
But in any case that is also really distracting, cause all the time I'm thinking... If the "accident" occurred just one year ago, How come she's already a Major?
And then you got the "twist"?... Can you call it a twist when you spot it from a mile?
It turns out that Major's real name it is in fact Motoko Kusanagi, that she is in fact Asian (with an Asian mother)
That the evil corporation took her brain out and put it inside a robotic body. And that body, superior in every way to normal bodies just happens to be a Western body (and previously they did the same with some Asian guy named Hideki or something and turned him into Michael Pitt? Another Westerner?) that means that THEY, the Handa corporation or something, are the nasty racist
Whitewashers and not the honest people of Hollywood's movie-making industry.
Well in this sense the twist end up to be really something, because it becomes so meta, right?
(by pelida77)
