"The Forbidden Kingdom" couldn't be made today

[Iron_Leopard]

I'm rewatching this right now and just realized in todays era of wokeness a movie about a white man being the savior of the Chinese is definitely a one way ticket to Hell.

Even though in behind the scenes interview with Jet Li he said white guys are mostly the ones who are into old school Martial Arts movies like the main character in this movie. So it would be more believable that he be a...white guy obviously. 

Same for "The Last Samurai" I suppose. 

2008 doesn't seem that long ago to me although I guess it is. I just miss when Entertainment was just that. Entertainment. Not a list of checkmarks. 

 

[SamSeed]

To be honest I'm glad it couldn't be made today. Chan/Li fight aside, it was awful.

Also 'wokeness' really isn't the insult people seem to think it is. Woke literally means 'alert to injustice and racism'. Since when is that a bad thing?

Edited April 18, 2021 by SamSeed

[Iron_Leopard]

32 minutes ago, SamSeed said:

To be honest I'm glad it couldn't be made today. Chan/Li fight aside, it was awful.

Also 'wokeness' really isn't the insult people seem to think it is. Woke literally means 'alert to injustice and racism'. Since when is that a bad thing?

I guess I meant wokeness in the sense that white men cant be cast as the lead anymore. 

I watched Warrior Nun and Cursed on Netflix recently. Was astonished that every white male in both shows were either villains or morons who needed saving by a woman. 

I guess if this movie was made today they would just change the main lead to a black guy like they did with Aurther in Cursed.

[massa_yoda]

Yes, I do recall Jet (maybe Jackie too) saying it should be a white kid and the script (originally a Chinese kid) was changed.  Though I do remember even back in 2008 there were some raised eyebrows about this random white kid in a fantasy world of ancient China, there would indeed be more outcry today.  Though, personally I’m glad the movie got made. I enjoy it.

[Qing Long]

7 hours ago, SamSeed said:

"Also 'wokeness' really isn't the insult people seem to think it is. Woke literally means 'alert to injustice and racism'. Since when is that a bad thing?"

Just because the initial definition and intention are good, doesn't mean it hasn't degenerated into hate-mongering, art-limiting, joy-stifling non-sense. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Qing Long

[lilmanjs]

14 hours ago, Iron_Leopard said:

Same for "The Last Samurai" I suppose.

Since you mentioned this, it still could be made today that one. It is based on a true story, and who the heck else would play the actual real life American solider? A Japanese guy? A Chinese guy?

[DragonClaws]

On 4/18/2021 at 1:33 PM, Iron_Leopard said:

I watched Warrior Nun and Cursed on Netflix recently. Was astonished that every white male in both shows were either villains or morons who needed saving by a woman. 

 

Still plenty of white male actors getting cast in leading roles. Nice to hear the above shows tried to be a little different.